Gender Role-Set, Family Orientations, and Women’s Fertility Intentions in Switzerland
Abstract
This paper investigates women’s attitudes towards paid employment and family in relation to their share of paid and domestic work when they are in couple and in relation to their intention to have a child. We used longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel in which both partners were questioned separately on family and work values, fertility intentions, and gender division of workload. Our multilevel estimations confirm the important role of the woman’s subjective evaluations of the couple’s role-set. Being satisfied with the couple’s role-set favors fertility intentions for women who are already mothers. For childless women, however, being employed and having aspirations to be economically independent have independent and negative effects on fertility intentions.
Keywords
- family formation
- attitudes towards children
- gender roles
- couple’s fertility
Authors
Links
Publication information
Institutions:
Editors:
Christian Suter, Pascale Gazareth
Publisher:
Seismo Verlag, Swiss Journal of Sociology Vol. 39, Issue 1, March 2013, pp. 9-31
Languages:
English
City:
Zurich and Geneva
Year:
2013
Themes:
Disciplines:
Research labels:
Couple – relationship – marriage – partnership
Family – parenthood – kinship
Subjects:
Demography, Sociology
Genres:
Article