The first choices people make at a young age have a major impact on their life course. Once a path is set, it is difficult to deviate from it. Gender stereotypical views and norms among young adults influence their choices regarding working, caring and learning. These (stereotypical) choices greatly influence later outcomes, such as the sector in which a person works and working hours.
The first choices people make at a young age have a major impact on their life course. Once a path is set, it is difficult to deviate from it. Gender stereotypical views and norms among young adults influence their choices regarding working, caring and learning. These (stereotypical) choices greatly influence later outcomes, such as the sector in which a person works and working hours.
This is according to research by Atria, which investigated what factors influence young adult men and women's choices regarding working, caring and learning. The results of the report are based on a survey of over 1,300 young adults aged between 25 and 35 in the Netherlands, and two group interviews with young parents.
Dutch young adults still think in stereotypes
Dutch young adults still have stereotypical conceptions of masculinity and femininity.
Dealing characteristics (such as ambition, decisiveness and aggression) are more often attributed to men, and community-minded characteristics (such as compassionate, sensitive and emotional) more often to women.
Both young adult men and women have stronger stereotypes about their own gender.
Young adult men are more likely than women to think that gender determines one's character and is immutable.
But few Dutch young adults think that a mother should be mainly responsible for the children.
Especially among young men, gender stereotypes carry over into study, occupational sector and working hours
Young adults who have more stereotypical views about gender show more gender-stereotypical behaviour. However, gender stereotypical views are not equally strong in everyone. They influence young men's and women's choices to different degrees.
Young adult men are more guided by gender stereotypes and gender role attitudes than women when it comes to working, caring and learning.
For men, stereotypes about masculinity are linked to a greater likelihood of having received technical or economic training, putting them on a path towards a profession in these sectors and full-time work.
For women, their own perceptions have no impact on the field of study and working hours.
Young adult women do work in part-time jobs more often than men, but this is mainly related to the sector in which they work and the field of study that preceded it.
The division of labour in the household: women need to balance
The stronger the gender roles of young adult men, the smaller their share of household tasks.
Young women invariably do more in the household. They are more likely to shoulder responsibility for caring tasks than men, regardless of their views and whether or not they have a paid job.
Women with traditional ideas about motherhood do more in housework and childcare than women with more egalitarian views. But this effect is also stronger among men. Men still do much less in the home if they have strong maternity ideology.
Young mothers with a traditional ideology of motherhood thus seem to balance the most, between paid work, childcare responsibilities and expectations about motherhood.
Large impact of earlier choices on life course
The first choices people make at a young age have a major impact on the life course. Once a path is set, it is difficult to deviate from it:
The choice of study strongly determines the occupational sector, creating barriers and opportunities later in life.
The sector in which a person works is strongly related to whether a person works full-time or part-time. In sectors where many women work, part-time work is the norm, in sectors where many men work, full-time work is the norm.
Even if men do like to work part-time, it depends on the sector whether that is an option.
Schemes offered by employers may perpetuate inequality
The schemes instituted from the government and employers to counter inequality in the labour market and in the household seem in practice to conform to existing social norms and thus perpetuate inequality.
Arrangements put in place to better combine work and care do not encourage young women in our study to (continue to) work more or share care tasks equally(more).
Men who make use of work-home schemes, which are meant to make it easier to combine work and care, do not take on more care tasks. On the contrary, they are more likely to work full-time.
Men who use childcare arrangements do have a larger share in the household, regardless of their views. This is especially true for men in the technical and economic sectors. They generally do the least in the household and work full-time most often.
Policy recommendations
The findings in this study call for policies specifically aimed at countering stereotypes at an early age - especially among young men. Employers should also put in place schemes that include incentives for men to share caring responsibilities at home fairly. This increases the latitude for both men and women to walk their own life path, one that is not bounded by gender stereotypes and gender-specific expectations.
