Compromise and Constraint: Gender, Religion, and Work–Family Planning Among Young Adults

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 17: Family, Relationships and Household Dynamics

Abstract

Despite contemporary changes in societal gender norms and roles, traditional gender roles remain culturally prescribed. Especially in a culturally conservative context, traditional gender norms often shape expectations for both men and women, positioning women primarily as homemakers and men as breadwinners. In this study, we examine how young adults imagine strategies, aspirations, and expectations surrounding work-family configurations. This study examines how young adults in Utah—where the cultural influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints remains strong—understand and respond to gendered expectations surrounding work and family. Drawing on 51 qualitative interviews, we explore how class, gender, and family of origin shape the work-family strategies, aspirations, and expectations of young women and men. We found that young men and women predominantly stick to most aspects of traditional gender scripts in regard to work-family set ups. We also found that women and men both indicate flexibility with their work-family setups, but men learn toward more flexibly traditional and women lean to being flexibly progressive and that men’s desire for traditionalism and women’s desire for egalitarianism are both constrained. Finally, we found that alternative examples present opportunities for men and women, but especially women, to imagine the possibility and potentially push for more egalitarian work-family set ups. This study furthers our understanding of how young adults plan for future work-family configurations and how they rely on or push back on existing cultural norms and scripts to create and support their own aspirations.

Authors

• Greta L Asay, Brigham Young University-Provo

• Melissa Alcaraz, Brigham Young University-Provo