Attitudes Towards Gender Roles and Gender Role Behaviour Among Urban, Rural, and Farm Populations in Slovenia

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to still existing discussion about the origins of the unequal gender roles in society. Albeit significant changes in redefinition of the gender roles under the impact of economic and cultural globalisation the unequal position of women in private and public spheres still persists even in societies with the most developed economies and welfare systems. The basic argument followed in the study is that working arrangements women choose are not simply in accordance with their preferences and attitudes, but a result of complex interplay of attitudes and practical constrains embodied in contextual factors. The result of the study based on the Second European Comparative Survey on the Acceptance of Population-related Policies (PPA2) for Slovenia support that argument by showing that certain contexts (type of place of residence and the way of making a living - like farming) still significantly delineate women lives. In spite of common national specifics (long tradition of high women’s employment, favourable gender equality legislation and availability of institutions and services for working mothers) and relatively similar attitudes towards gender roles among the population, farm women in Slovenia considerably diverge in their daily life patterns (e.g. taking care of children) and preferences to combine family and working life from urban and even rural women and in general from men as well. Based on such results, reflected by ample gender rural studies’ evidences, it can be argued, that not simply natural predispositions affect farm women’s occupational choices, but