Young Women’s Attitudes toward Future Work

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 06. Work and Family

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between mothers’ employment and education and their teenage daughters’ perceptions of future work. Over the last four decades, maternal education has increased substantially, especially the rise of mothers with college degrees. Maternal employment has increased during the same period. We use data from the Monitoring the Future survey, 1976 – 2012 (N=38,500) to assess whether the relationships between maternal education and employment and daughters’ perceived future work centrality and preference for segmented work boundaries is significant, and if so if these relationships have changed over time. We find young women’s work centrality has declined over time while their preference for segmented work boundaries has generally increased. Maternal education and maternal employment are important predictors of daughters’ work attitudes, although the effect of maternal employment is diminishing overtime.

Authors

• Joan M. Hermsen, University of Missouri

• Don Edward Willis, University of Missouri