Samenvatting
This PhD study is framed against the backdrop of a persistent gendered labour
pattern in the Netherlands. Given that the majority of Dutch women work less
than three days per week whereas most men work full-time, the gender gap in
work-hours in the Netherlands is larger than anywhere else in the developed
world. Its flipside is that men carry out far less housework and kin-care than
women. This gendered pattern in paid and unpaid labour leads to substantial
gender inequalities in terms of income, and institutional, political, and corporate
representation. Given women’s increased access to higher education, newly
drawn legal barriers against sex-discrimination, and the decreased birth rate in
the past decades, the adage of ‘education, occupation, and family-formation’ is
insufficient to explain the persistence of gendered labour patterns. This is why
the present study explores intergenerational transfers as a complementary
explanation for gender differences in paid and unpaid labour to the
conventionally studied individual, couple, and household characteristics. We
address three kinds of intergenerational transfers: behavioural role modelling,
resource transfers, and upward and downward transfers of instrumental support.
Based on data of the nationally representative Netherlands Kinship Panel Study,
the empirical findings of this study suggest that several intergenerational
transfers indeed contribute to explain men’s and women’s labour patterns.
Firstly, the findings suggest that men and women partly model their
contributions to housework in adulthood upon their same-sex parent’s
contributions to housework in childhood. The more fathers contributed to
housework, the more sons contribute to housework today, and we find the same
pattern among daughters and mothers. Secondly, the findings suggest that
women who were raised by working mothers work more hours compared to
women who were raised by homemaking mothers. We attribute this finding to
the role model and the various resources that working mothers transfer. Thirdly,
we find that mothers of young children participate more often on the labour
market and work more hours when they receive help with routine housework
from grandparents. Yet other intergenerational transfers of instrumental support
appear to be unrelated to women’s and men’s labour patterns. We find no
indication that practical help with childcare received from grandparents
stimulates the labour force participation or increases the work-hours of parents
of young children. Additionally, our results suggest that members of dual
worker couples in midlife do not scale back their work-hours when they provide
practical help to elderly parents, nor that they are less likely to provide such help
the more hours they work. This study closes off with a discussion of its research
contributions, policy implications, and suggestions for future research.
Originele taal-2 | Niet gedefinieerd |
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Kwalificatie | Doctor of Philosophy |
Toekennende instantie |
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Begeleider(s)/adviseur |
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Datum van toekenning | 26 jun. 2009 |
Plaats van publicatie | Amsterdam |
Uitgever | |
Gedrukte ISBN's | 978-90-6984-588-3 |
Status | Gepubliceerd - 2009 |