Abstract
Scholars have assumed that as gender revolutions are completed and societies achieve advanced levels of gender egalitarianism, married persons become happier, and marriages become stable. This study investigates how the norms about gender roles are associated with marital instability. The analysis is based on two propositions: (1) marital dissolution is an outcome of two rather distinct processes, deterioration of marital quality and formation of a decision to leave a marriage, and (2) the antithesis of advanced gender egalitarianism is a set of lingering male breadwinner norms, not gender inequality often manifested by working women performing second shifts. The data are from 68 national surveys conducted in 2002 and 2012 through ISSP coordination, and the sample of person-level analysis is restricted to ages 30–49, supposedly in the life cycle stages of family formation and expansion. The norms of gender roles are classified into four types: traditional norm, prescribing gendered division of labor; lingering male breadwinner norm, emphasizing men as the primary breadwinners while allowing flexibility of women’s roles; super woman norm, prescribing women to perform double roles; and egalitarian norm, emphasizing equal sharing of roles. At the country level, aggregate variables were constructed by calculating the percentage of adults who held each type of norm. The results strongly support the prediction that the male breadwinner norm at the societal level is detrimental to marital quality, while persons holding the egalitarian norm are most satisfied with their family lives.
Highlights
While poor marital quality is routinely considered the underlying cause of marital breakups (Rogers and Amato 2000; Schwartz and Han 2014; Teachman 2010), the literature on marital dissolution tends to focus on the process of dissolving per se, often exploring who initiates the process (Kalmijn and Poortman 2006; Sayer et al 2011)
This study examines the effects of gender role norms on each of the two components of marital instability
It appears that attitudinal transitions are being made in the direction from traditional to male breadwinner norms, while the superwoman norm is being transformed into the egalitarian norm
Summary
While poor marital quality is routinely considered the underlying cause of marital breakups (Rogers and Amato 2000; Schwartz and Han 2014; Teachman 2010), the literature on marital dissolution tends to focus on the process of dissolving per se (i.e., the decision to leave a marriage), often exploring who initiates the process (Kalmijn and Poortman 2006; Sayer et al 2011). In families where the wives are employed outside their homes, the gains provided by marriage are smaller for both spouses but for women This model contrasts with families where work and family roles are divided by gender, and the spouses benefit from each other’s production (Becker 1991; Oppenheimer 1997). The modernization theory postulates that rising individualism, accompanied with material affluence in a society, motivates people to pursue their needs of self-actualization and helps liberate them from the institutional constraints of marriage According to this theory, marital instability will be higher in societies where individualism is highly valued and among people with higher education (Lesthaeghe 1995; Thornton and Young-DeMarco 2001; van de Kaa 2002). Marital quality is not an integral part of the marital dissolution process; rather, it is treated as an external factor that requires its own theories and explanations
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