Sex Differences in Work-Family Ideology: Implications for the Opt-Out Debate Results “My mother’s always told me you can’t be the best career woman and the best mother at the same time. You always have to choose one over the other.” * * Story, Louise “Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood.” New York Times, September 20. Conclusions Women’s attitudes concerning work and family life are more liberal than those of men African American youth are more supportive of maternal employment than are Whites. However, the two groups do not differ in their support of an egalitarian division of labor Contrary to claims in the media, women whose mothers worked do not possess more traditional attitudes than those who grew up with stay-at-home moms. Rather, these women are more optimistic about women’s ability to juggle work and family, especially those whose mothers worked full-time Maternal employment liberalizes the attitudes of sons as well, and the liberalizing impact of maternal employment is greater for men than for women In contrast to media assertions, no evidence was found that youth with highly educated, employed mothers maintain more conservative work-family ideology It does not appear that women opt out because they adhere to conservative work-family ideology at the cusp of adulthood. Rather, their views may change once they are in the labor force and/or form families, due to structural constraints. Future Directions Explore the impact of maternal work-family attitudes and employment history on the attitudes of their children, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and Children of the NLSY79. Differences in the process by gender and race/ethnicity will be identified Inspect change in the opt-out rate over time using data from the Current Population Surveys (CPS) Use the CPS data to determine which women are more likely to opt out, and whether this has changed across time Conduct in-person semi-structured interviews at two points in time to investigate how women think about opting out. Comparisons will be made between women who opt out and those that continually work Jamie Lewis 1 and Sharon Sassler 2 1 Carolina Population Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2 Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University Introduction A number of recent newspaper and magazine stories suggest that women are increasingly opting out of the labor force to remain at home with young children These stories suggest that women perceive paid employment as detrimental to children, to their ability to be good mothers, and to their marriages, and that young women today are planning their lives in accordance with these views Though a number of studies have explored changes in female labor force participation, there has been little evaluation of the hypothesis that young women have learned from their working mother’s experiences that you can’t ‘have it all,’ and have consequently embraced conventional gender ideology The role of men in the opt-out phenomenon has received little attention The aim of this research is to test whether young men and women react conservatively to maternal employment, as well as whether this reaction is heightened when employed mothers are highly educated Methods Data come from the 2002 Monitoring the Future 12 th -Grade Survey The sample consists of Black and White high school seniors who responded to the questions on work-family ideology (N=1,574) The outcome variables consist of level of agreement with the following statements: 1) It is usually better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home, and the woman takes care of the home and family; 2) A preschool child is likely to suffer if the mother works; and 3) A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work. Variables were scaled so that higher scores indicate more liberal views Sex-differentiated models are analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression Note: * p<0.001 Significant difference between women and menNote: * p<0.001 Significant difference between Black and White respondents Impact of Maternal Employment on Level of Egalitarianism Coefficient Notes: + p<0.10, * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001 Reference group is Not Employed Models include controls for household composition, number of siblings, whether sibling is present in household, maternal education, race, school ability, and educational plans WomenMen Contact Jamie Lewis The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carolina Population Center CB# 8120, University Square 123 West Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC