Role of Basic Values and Education in Shaping Women’s Work and Family Preferences across Europe

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Defining Family and Family Values

Abstract

This paper theoretically and empirically links the preference theory of Catherine Hakim (Hakim 2002) to the basic values theory of Shalom Schwartz (Schwartz 1992, 1994) in order to answer the question of the degree in which women's preferences towards employment and careers are supported by their value orientations. We also analyze the extent to which higher education helps women overcome social barriers, such as prevailing conservative values and low labor market flexibility, in implementing their choices between work (career) and family (household). We carry out a comparative analysis of 25 European countries using the data of the second round of the European Social Survey (ESS2) collected in 2004. The results of multilevel modelling reveal that education not only significantly reduces the tendency towards conservative values and strengthens openness to change – more significantly with women than with men – but simultaneously helps women overcome social barriers in the formation of their work-career preferences, particularly in countries with stronger barriers.

Authors

• Petr Mateju, Institute for Social and Economic Analyses

• Michael Lee Smith, Institute for Social and Economic Analyses

• Simona Weidnerova, Institute for Social and Economic Analyses