At-Home-Father Families in the U.S.: The Role of Gender Role Attitudes, Human Capital, and Unemployment

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Emerging Forms of Fatherhood

Abstract

We suggest that the rising population of stay-at-home father families is driven by changing gender role attitudes, relative human capital of the spouses, and economic conditions. We make a distinction between unable-to-work and caregiving stay-at-home father families. When unemployment rates increase male spouses lose their employment and female spouses become the sole earners in unable-to-work stay-at-home father families. The proportion of caregiving stay-at-home father families is unrelated to the unemployment rate but increases over time due to changing gender role attitudes at the societal level. In addition, the growing gender education gap in favor of women makes human capital differences within couples a crucial factor in decision-making about dividing responsibilities for paid-work and caregiving. We test these propositions using the Current Population Survey and the General Social Survey data from 1972-2012. Using logistic and multinomial logistic regressions we find that changing gender role attitudes have a strong effect on the probability of families choosing a caregiving stay-at-home father work and care arrangement and a weak effect on families choosing an unable-to-work stay-at-home father work and care arrangement. Unemployment rates are associated with a growing proportion of unable-to-work stay-at-home fathers but not caregiving stay-at-home fathers. Educational gap within couples is associated with a greater probability of a household becoming both caregiving and unable-to-work stay-at-home father household.

Authors

• Karen Z. Kramer, University of Illinois

• Amit Kramer, University of Illinois