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Changing attitudes about the impact of women's employment on families: The COVID-19 pandemic effect
Vandecasteele,Leen Ivanova,Katya Sieben,Inge Reeskens,Tim
Vandecasteele,Leen
Ivanova,Katya
Sieben,Inge
Reeskens,Tim
Abstract
We use representative longitudinal panel data from the Dutch European Values Survey (EVS) to study whether the COVID-19 pandemic shifted opinions about how a woman's full-time employment impacts family life. The data was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2017 and in May 2020. The analysis focuses on groups whose unpaid and paid work situation changed abruptly with the COVID-19 pandemic: parents with coresident children, and those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role expectations, namely women whose workload increased and men whose workload decreased or who stopped working. We found that groups that faced an abrupt change in their paid and unpaid work routines that clashed with their previously held gender attitude changed their gender attitude in alignment with the new paid or unpaid work situation. For women in couple households with children, this meant that they saw a halt in their progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. For those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role norms, it meant stronger progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. The results are interpreted on the basis of cognitive dissonance theory and exposure theory and placed in the context of previous findings.
Description
This work was supported by the Nederlandse Organisation voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO): grant number 440.20.005. This work was also supported as a part of NCCR LIVES, a National Centre of Competence in Research, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number 51NF40-185901
Date
2022
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Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, DYNAMICS, EGALITARIANISM, GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDES, IDEOLOGY, MEN, MOTHERHOOD, REVOLUTION, SUPPORT, female employment, gender attitudes, SDG 5 - Gender Equality, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
Citation
Vandecasteele, L, Ivanova, K, Sieben, I & Reeskens, T 2022, 'Changing attitudes about the impact of women's employment on families : The COVID-19 pandemic effect', Gender, Work and Organization , vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 2012-2033. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12874
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess