Family Gender Roles Research Articles

Stepparents and Parenting Stress: The Roles of Gender, Marital Quality, and Views about Gender Roles

Previous research suggests that stepparenting can be stressful, although the mechanisms that contribute to the experience of parenting stress in stepfamilies are less clear. This study examines gender, marital quality, and views about gendered family roles as correlates of parenting stress among 310 stepmothers, stepfathers, and biological mothers and fathers. Findings suggest that stepparents, and especially stepmothers, experience higher levels of parenting stress than biological parents. Findings also suggest that less traditional views about gendered family roles and higher dyadic adjustment are associated with lower parenting stress for stepparents, particularly in combination. Stepparents reporting both of these protective factors were indistinguishable in terms of parenting stress from biological parents. These findings indicate potential pathways to mitigate the stress associated with stepparenting.

Gender Role Attitudes of Female Students in Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools in Istanbul

This study examines the relationship between school type and gender role attitudes among 295 female high school seniors attending four high schools, two single-sex and two coeducational. The schools are located in Istanbul, Turkey, where a recent proposal to establish a system of girls’ schools has sparked a lively public debate about the advantages of single-sex schooling as a means of addressing the problem of lower female educational attainment. The main research question is whether the gender composition of schools has an impact on gender role attitudes, which we operationalize as attitudes toward gender roles in three domains: Family life, work life, and social life. Statistical analysis based on multiple regression show that, net of family background characteristics, students attending single-sex schools have more egalitarian attitudes toward family life roles than coeducational students, but school type does not matter for work and social life role attitudes. The socioeconomic composition of schools is also important, with students attending schools in the high socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhood having more egalitarian views on gender roles in family and social life.

Ambivalent sexism and perceptions of men and women who violate gendered family roles

This study draws on ambivalent sexism theory to explore the role of benevolent and hostile gender attitudes in determining perceptions of individuals who comply with traditional gender roles or violate them. Three hundred and eleven participants were presented with a description of a male or a female target who was either a primary breadwinner or a primary caregiver. As hypothesized, hostile sexism (HS) predicted more negative perceptions of a female breadwinner, whereas benevolent sexism (BS) predicted more positive perceptions of a female caregiver. Moreover, participants who endorsed hostile attitudes toward men reacted more positively to a nontraditional male caregiver, whereas those who endorsed benevolent attitudes toward men reacted more negatively to a male caregiver. Implications regarding the nature of ambivalent gender attitudes are discussed.

Tradycyjna rola w nietradycyjnej rodzinie. Transnarodowa migracja polskich żon i matek – studium przypadku

Family gender roles and family relationships influence the lives of Polish transnational families to a great extent. Traditionally adopted gender roles connected with being a mother and wife largely shape the experience and attitudes of Polish female migrants in Ireland: starting with the decision about the migration, through family relations during the separation period, and ending up at the point of reunion. Attempts to continue to perform the traditional role of a mother and wife in the face of the transnational migration is an effort to preserve Polish women’s sense of identity as well as provisional power within their families.

Susanne Dahlgren, Contesting Realities: The Public Sphere and Morality in Southern Yemen

Susanne Dahlgren has written a refreshing book about how family law and gender roles are understood and practiced in Aden, Yemen, from the British colonial period until 2001. Her main thesis is that actors use three different, yet interconnected normative frameworks (or ideologies, discourses) in order to understand and define themselves, and that they do so in an active and selective way, depending on the situation. These three normative frameworks are “custom”, “revolution” and “religion”. ...

대학생의 출산의도에 영향을 미치는 가족가치관 연구

There`s an opinion that it may be a combination of change of values and social economic factors that caused low fertility of Korean society. This study intends to analyze actual conditions of family children values and gender role centered on university students in a marriageable age so draw a policy implication for overcoming low fertility. Main findings of this study are like following. First, as for analysis of childbirth intention shows average score of presented sex distinction that men have a higher tendency to women. Second, in gender role attitudes, it shows that gender role related on women`s social activities(), traditional gender role in family() influence on childbirth intention (p) that son`s position in family (), relation between children and parents(), individual`s position in family() influence on childbirth intention(p

Factors impacting marital satisfaction among urban Mainland Chinese women: a qualitative study

This qualitative study explored the factors that contributed to the marital satisfaction of urban Mainland Chinese women. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of women in Shanghai (n = 24) and the data analysed by the grounded theory method. The three categories that emerged in this study are marital expectations, couple dynamics and systemic factors. Within these categories, the salient themes include freedom of choice, prioritizing of family members, gender roles, couple dynamics, family power, communication and conflict resolution; sexual intimacy and childhood trauma, in-law relationship and extramarital affairs. The authors advocate marriage education and couples therapy as a means to increase marital satisfaction and strengthen marriages in China.

The missing links of the European gender mainstreaming approach: Assessing work–family reconciliation policies in the Italian Mezzogiorno

This article examines how the EU gender mainstreaming approach has addressed work and family reconciliation across Southern Italian regions, to foster a more egalitarian and socially inclusive development. Drawing upon a survey of women of different socioeconomic backgrounds and in-depth interviewing of regional policy-makers, this article assesses what gender equality policies do and don’t do for work–family reconciliation within the Italian Mezzogiorno. Findings show that while poor women may be stigmatized as inadequate mothers, middle-class women are pushed to join men in employment and civic sphere at the expense of caring. As both public and private caring supply is underdeveloped and unevenly guaranteed between protected and unprotected workers, women may be constrained to reduce their participation in the labour market. Traditional gendered family roles and power relations within the household may further discourage women to work, form and maintain a family.

Breadwinning Moms, Caregiving Dads

This study explores the role of gender ideologies in moderating social judgments of gender norm violators. Three hundred and eleven participants evaluated a male or a female target who was either a primary breadwinner or a primary caregiver. Attributions of personal traits, moral emotions, and marital emotions were examined. Results showed that both traditional and egalitarian individuals applied a double standard when judging deviations from gendered family roles. However, and as predicted, traditional individuals evaluated the normative targets more favorably than the norm-violating targets, whereas egalitarians evaluated the norm-violating targets more favorably. These findings shed light on the important moderating role of gender ideologies and help account for the inconsistencies in previous findings regarding social judgments of gender norm violators.

Family Gender Role and Guilt in Spanish Dual-Earner Families

In dual-earner families the balance between work and family demands facilitates the development of guilt feelings when parents perceive a non-fulfillment of their responsibilities in childcare. Specifically, women who aspire to personal and professional development on the basis of more egalitarian gender role models must deal with the traditional stereotypes that maintain an intensive maternity mandate that prioritizes the family. On the other hand, for men the role change is primarily in the family setting with the development of a new father role more involved in the care of their children, which is not easily compatible with the more traditional breadwinner role. This study explored the feelings of guilt about parenting in 251 employed Spanish parents with children between 3 and 6 years of age, through the Scale of Guilt Feelings about Parenting, and its relationship with traditional stereotypes of maternal and family role. The scale addresses diverse situations pertaining to child rearing in which work requirements do not allow parents full availability for the care of their children. This availability is present in the model of intensive maternity and in the new father role model. Results indicate the presence of similar and high levels of guilt in fathers and mothers, although in men guilt is related to a non-traditional family role ideology, whereas in women guilt is related to a more traditional maternal role stereotype.

Universiteto studentų nuostatos į numatomąkarjeros ir šeimos konfliktą

Docentė socialinių mokslų daktarėVilniaus universitetoBendrosios psichologijos katedraUniversiteto g. 9/1, LTLT-01513 VilniusEl. paštas: birute.pociute@fsf.vu.ltMagistrantėVilniaus universitetoBendrosios psichologijos katedraUniversiteto g. 9/1, LTLT-01513 VilniusEl. paštas: erika.kranc@gmail.comKarjeros ir šeimos konfliktas – dilema, su kuria susiduria dauguma jaunų žmonių. Šiuolaikinė šeima turi skirti daug dėmesio ir pastangų suderinti neretai tarpusavyje konkuruojančius pasirinkimus: karjera ar šeima. Šio tyrimo tikslas buvo ištirti studentų nuostatas į numatomą karjeros ir šeimos konfliktą, sąsajas su profesiniais ir šeimos planais. Analizuojant tyrimo rezultatus, buvo išskirtos trys nuostatų į numatomą karjeros ir šeimos konfliktą rūšys: 1) prioritetas šeimai – orientacija į šeimą; 2) prioritetas karjerai – orientacija į karjerą; 3) prioritetas karjeros ir šeimos derinimui – orientacija į derinimą. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad nuostatų į numatomą karjeros ir šeimos konfliktą formavimuisi turi įtakos studentų lytis, studentų šeiminė padėtis, pasirinkta specialybė. Nuostatos į numatomą konfliktą veikia studentų ateities planus: rinktis šeimai palankų“ darbą, siekti karjeros perspektyvos ar derinti abu siekius.

Choice of study discipline and the postponement of motherhood in Europe: The impact of expected earnings, gender composition, and family attitudes

Theory suggests that the field of study may be at least as consequential for fertility behavior as the duration and level of education. Yet, this qualitative dimension of educational achievement has been largely neglected in demographic studies. This article analyzes the mechanisms relating the field of study with the postponement of motherhood by European college-graduate women aged 20-40. The second round of the European Social Survey is used to assess the impact of four features of study disciplines that are identified as key to reproductive decision making: the expected starting wage, the steepness of the earning profile, attitudes toward gendered family roles, and gender composition. The results indicate that the postponement of motherhood is relatively limited among graduates from study disciplines in which stereotypical attitudes about family roles prevail and in which a large share of the graduates are female. Both the level of the starting wage and the steepness of the earning profile are found to be associated with greater postponement. These results are robust to controlling for the partnership situation and the age at entry into the labor market.

Out and Aging: The MetLife Study of Lesbian and Gay Baby Boomers1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The baby boom generation has lived through a period of tremendous cultural change, including significant shifts in social attitudes toward, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues. As they plan for retirement and for their eventual long-term care and end-of-life needs, GLBT baby boomers share in the hopes and experiences that characterize the largest generation in American history. At the same time, however, they reflect certain unique family structures and gender role differences—and they confront distinct concerns about caregiving, social support networks, retirement and end-of-life planning. In February 2006, in partnership with the MetLife Mature Market Institute, the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network of the American Society on Aging undertook the first U.S. national survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baby boomers. A sample of 1,000 self-identified GLBT people ages 40 to 61 participated in an online survey conducted by Zogby International, a leading polling and public-opinion research firm.3 The snapshot of GLBT baby boomers that emerges from the survey raises important questions for the wide range of professionals who work with older adults, employers, policymakers, and everyone interested in ensuring dignity, independence and the highest possible quality of life for the boomer generation as it reaches midlife and old age. Caregiving and Social Support Networks • One in four respondents said that they had provided care for an adult friend or family member within the last six months. This high incidence of caregiving is particularly surprising, as previous studies of the U.S. population as a whole have found only one in five adults is a caregiver.4 • Strikingly, about the same proportions of gay and bisexual men and lesbian and bisexual women are serving as caregivers. In contrast, recent studies of the general population have found that only between 25% and 44% of caregivers are male.5 The relatively even percentages of male and female GLBT caregivers in this study suggest that gay and bisexual men may be providing care much more frequently than men in the overall U.S. population. • More than one-third (36%) of GLBT boomers who are caregivers are caring for parents, while about half as many (18%) are caring for their partners. An additional 14% are caring for friends and another 12% are caring for other nonrelatives. • Even though at least three-quarters of the respondents expect to become caregivers for someone else, almost one in five reported being unsure who will take care of them when the need arises. This was especially the case for those without partners or spouses, of whom more than one-third said they are not sure who would provide them with needed care. • In addition to close ties with their families of origin, more than three-quarters of the respondents have important connections with what researchers have called families of choice—close friends who are “like family” or “like a second or extended family.” Concerns about Aging and Retirement • Both lesbian and bisexual women as well as gay and bisexual men share a concern about their financial stability as they age into retirement. • For women, their greatest fear is outliving their income as they age. • For men, their great fear is becoming dependent upon others and becoming sick or disabled. • More than a quarter (27%) of GLBT boomers reported great concern about discrimination as they age, and less than half expressed strong confidence that healthcare professionals will treat them “with dignity and respect.” Fears of insensitive and discriminatory treatment by healthcare professionals are particularly strong among lesbians, of whom 12% said they have absolutely no confidence that they will be treated respectfully. • GLBT baby boomers clearly want to spend their final days in the comfort of their own homes. Nearly half (47%) said they would like their end-of-life care to take place in their current residence with the help of hospice care, followed at a distant second by 16 percent who would prefer to spend their final days in their current homes without hospice care. • Lesbian and bisexual women appear to be less financially prepared for the end of life. For instance, they are notably less likely than their male counterparts to have purchased long-term care insurance or to have written wills. • One half (51%) of GLBT baby boomers have yet to complete wills or living wills spelling out their long-term care and end-of-life wishes—yet such documents are particularly important for GLBT older adults given the current lack of legal protection for GLBT couples and families. • Almost 40 percent of respondents believe that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender has helped them prepare for aging in some way. They have developed positive character traits, greater resilience, or better support networks as a consequence of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Teaching Korean Culture with Advertisements: Change and Persistence in Family Values and Gender Roles

ABSTRACT This study explores how advertisements reflect the cultural values that underpin family or gender roles, and deals with change and persistence in such values and roles as well as with how such changes can be discussed in a foreign language class. Advertising messages tend to be brief and stereotypical and relate easily to the most common values in the society because audiences are meant to recognize the message immediately. The use of advertisements in classroom instruction can therefore facilitate the understanding of a culture, especially for advanced language learners. A themebased instruction course (from among three CBI models) is introduced and covers gender roles and family issues in Korea using TV commercials or print ads.

What Makes Russian Women (Un)Happy? A Closer Look at the Family

Two decades of economic transition revealed that Russian women are on average less happy than men. This paper addresses individual subjective well-being from the intra-family perspective and investigates whether the gender satisfaction gap could be caused, among all, by a mismatch between the socially imposed patriarchal family gender roles and the actually performed ones. I test for the presence of the following phenomena: (1) a “fair” share of income brought by each of the spouses into their household is judged according to the patriarchal model attributing the role of the breadwinner to men; (2) division of housework, with women, even if working, holding the main responsibility for housekeeping activities, is perceived as “fair”. Prime-age working adults living in partnership constitute the dataset which is a part of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 1994-2004. Life satisfaction is modeled with the help of the seemingly unrelated bivariate ordered probit model aiming at the adjustment for unobserved factors influencing happiness evaluation of both partners. For the period 1994-1998, the results show that women’s relative unhappiness is likely to be causes by their increasing earning powers with relative to men, and overload with hours spent on housekeeping in households with children. In the second period of economic growth, 2000 - 2004, I observe a change in women’s preferences over time-use and total income shares, suggesting a tendency towards their emancipation.

Rules, Responsibility and Commitment to Children: The New Language of Morality in Family Law

Part One of this Article explores the meaning of morality by briefly reviewing a variety of attempts to explore the meaning of moral conduct. This Section draws on a variety of contemporary moral philosophers who have built on the classical tradition to develop a broader definition of moral behavior. This discussion provides a context for the current debate about the meaning of morality in family law and moral discourse in the no-fault era. Part One also reviews the historical debate about how law should strike a balance between promoting communitarian values and respecting autonomy and individual rights. The Article argues that the conflict underlying this debate may be overstated. All laws have moral implications, and decisions about law, made by citizens, legislators and policymakers, necessarily involve choices that privilege some values over others. Regulating family members is a particularly value-laden task. A tension will always exist between protecting individual freedom and privacy of family members and state intervention to further the common good. However, this tension does not require a retreat from the concept of rights within the family; rather, rights can be conceived in a way that furthers the moral vision of family law by using rights as a tool to ensure the protection of vulnerable members of the family. Part One concludes by noting that the hierarchy of values embodied in the moral vision of family law has changed over time. Sexual morality has become less important over time while protecting children has become central to the moral framework of family law. Part Two of the Article examines the traditional, fault-based moral discourse in the law governing grounds for divorce, alimony and child custody that prevailed in this country until the 1970's. It concludes that this approach has several significant drawbacks. First, the fault-era's emphasis on sexual practices and traditional gendered family roles reinforced patriarchy and tended to hurt custodial parents-primarily women-and children. Additionally, the fault-era's reliance on broad discretionary standards resulted in inadequate financial awards and dual standards for men and women. Further, because moral discourse in family law has been primarily focused on issues of sexual conduct in marriage, the fault-era moral vision excluded families created outside of marriage. Litigating issues of fault also exacted significant financial and emotional costs on families. Finally, the emphasis on regulating sexual conduct in the fault-era did little to promote the evolving moral goal of family law-protecting children. Part Three of the Article explores the ways in which some laws that developed in the no-fault era express morality in family law. Examining current laws governing divorce, marital property, child support and custody, the Article identifies ways in which both the language surrounding the debates about such laws and the laws themselves express values of equality, commitment and responsibility for family members, particularly dependent members. The Article notes that for the first time, the language of morality has expanded into two areas that were largely unregulated in the “fault” era-access to marriage and family violence. The Article concludes that these developments over the last thirty years represent a healthy trend toward an overall family policy that strengthens families and protects each family's weakest members. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to achieve a family policy that protects children. Finally, the Article identifies additional measures, both in traditional domestic law and in the broader policy arena, that must be accomplished to truly strengthen families, and most importantly, to protect children.

Exploring the Communication of Evangelical Families: The Association Between Evangelical Gender Role Ideology and Family Communication Patterns

This study examines the relationship between the Evangelical gender role ideologies termed Complementarianism and Egalitarianism and conversation- and conformity-orientation communication patterns stemming from the general theory of family communication. A nonrandom group (N = 124) of Evangelical parents were surveyed using a cross-sectional, self-report survey design. Specific differences were discovered in the perceptions of communication in families for individuals holding conservative Complementarian and progressive Egalitarian gender role ideologies. Evangelical parents who endorsed a more Egalitarian family gender role ideology reported greater use of conversation-oriented communication patterns in their families whereas respondents holding a more Complementarian family gender role ideology reported more use of conformity-oriented communication patterns in their families.

Gender Roles in Immigrant Families: Parenting Views, Practices, and Child Development

Ecological and acculturation frameworks are especially central to understanding the experiences of immigrant populations and to date, current research has yielded new conceptual and methodological tools for documenting the cultural and developmental processes of children and their families. This special issue of 12 articles focuses on immigrant families and the importance of gender along various dimensions: parental roles, parent–child relationships, child outcomes. The collection of articles also represents various innovative methodologies used, including quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Conceptions of Good Parent–Adolescent Relationships among Cuban American Teenagers

This study was designed to explore Cuban American adolescents’ conceptions of good parent–adolescent relationships and the extent to which they reflect cultural values and gender roles. Focus group interviews were conducted with 23 U.S. Cuban American adolescents (mean age = 17.1 years; SD = .90) with at least one immigrant parent. A qualitative analysis of interview transcripts using the tools of grounded theory revealed gendered family roles and relationships across parent–child dyads. Mothers were extensively involved in their children’s daily lives, and mother–adolescent relationships were often close; in contrast, fathers were background figures who stepped in to make important decisions and dispense discipline. Boys and girls reported distinct relationships with each parent and linked family roles and relationships to Cuban culture.

Psychotherapy with Filipinas

SUMMARY This article focuses on therapeutic work with second-generation Filipino women (Filipinas). These clients are particularly vulnerable to errors resulting from the therapist's lack of cultural competence. These clients present to their therapists as having acculturated to the mainstream culture, which may contribute to the clinicians' assumptions of assimilation. When the roles of ethnicity, culture, and oppression are minimized, errors in therapeutic assessment may occur. Important areas to consider when working with Filipinas include family matters, gender roles, intergenerational conflict, acculturation, and ethnic identity. A composite case example illustrates these areas in a therapeutic relationship. Recommendations for therapeutic practice with similar clients are included.