The Role of Basic Values and Education in Women's Work and Family Preferences across Europe

• In Event: 078 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 14. Cultural Dimensions of Gender, Love, and Work

Abstract

Consistent with dual-process models of behaviour, Miles (2015) has shown that Schwartz’ basic values can provide a valuable framework for empirically analysing the role of values and cultural contexts in driving human behaviour. We contribute to this line of research by distinguishing individual values from macro-level values, as well as from other micro and macro conditions, in order to test whether individual values shape women’s work-family orientations in ways predicted by Hakim’s preference theory. We do this by carrying out a multilevel analysis of 25 European countries using data of the 2nd round of the European Social Survey collected in 2004. In line with the dual-process model and preference theory, we show that internalized values, particularly conservatism, shape work orientations much more than national social and cultural conditions; in addition, the effect of women’s education on work-value orientations is stronger in countries with more conservative national cultures, suggesting that education may help women overcome social barriers in the choice of their work preference.

Authors

• Petr Mateju, Institute for Social and Economic Analyses

• Michael Lee Smith, Economics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences

• Simona Weidnerova, Institute for Social and Economic Analyses

• Petra Anyzova, University of Finance and Administration