{"id":7131,"date":"2019-01-03T13:25:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=7131"},"modified":"2019-01-03T13:25:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:25:55","slug":"many-americans-still-resist-gender-equity-in-the-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2019\/01\/03\/many-americans-still-resist-gender-equity-in-the-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Americans Still Resist Gender Equity in the Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo of a person doing laundry with their back turned to the camera. Photo by osseous, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The share of American adults who believe <\/span>that <\/span>men and women should be equal both at work and at home has been growing over the past four decades — it’s<\/span>\u00a0currently the highest it\u2019s ever been. But <\/span>even today, roughly a quarter of U.S. adults<\/span>\u00a0still <\/span>hold more complicated views about gender equality. <\/span><\/p>\n

This split in public opinion is evidence of what sociologists call the \u201c<\/span>stalled gender revolution<\/span><\/a>\u201d: a slowing down of the progress made toward gender equality since the 1970s, characterized by a leveling off of the<\/span> share of working women and the persistence of the gender-pay gap.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent <\/span>article<\/a>\u00a0in The New York Times\u00a0<\/em>highlighted research<\/a><\/span>\u00a0investigating views about gender equality by sociologists <\/span>William Scarborough<\/span><\/a>, \u00a0<\/span>Ray Sin<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Barbara Risman<\/span><\/a>. To better understand why the gender revolution stalled<\/span>, t<\/span>he researchers asked people questions like: I<\/span>s it better when a man is a breadwinner and a woman takes care of the home and family? Do children suffer when mothers work? Are men better suited for politics than women? <\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers focused on <\/span>the group of<\/span> respondents who embrace gender equality in either the public or the private domain, but not in both. They found that most of these people believe that women should have the same opportunities as men to work and participate in politics, but that they should be more involved in home-making and child-rearing. Risman explains one rationale for why people may hold these beliefs:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can believe men and women have truly different natural tendencies and skills, that women are better nurturers and caretakers, and still believe women should have equal rights in the labor force.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new study also reveals that among male Boomers (the generation born in the prosperous decades following WWII), one in five believe women should be more equal at work than at home. These men may resist gender equity at home because they wish to benefit from a second household income\u00a0<\/span>without<\/span><\/a> doing any extra chores. Sociologist <\/span>David Cotter<\/span><\/a> suggests,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt home, men are more resistant to that change because it really means surrendering privilege\u2026This way, they don\u2019t have to do more laundry.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But according to Risman and colleagues, a reluctance to endorse equity is not the only reason for these complicated attitudes. Instead, these trends may reflect Americans’ opinions about how much equity is achievable in a social context with tough work schedules but without paid family leave, subsidized child care, or flexible schedules. Regarding millennials in particular, Risman notes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir attitudes aren\u2019t stalled, but what might be stalled is the ability to live one\u2019s values\u2026As workplaces become more demanding, I think it\u2019s harder to be the parent of a young child and a full-time worker now than 30 years ago.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scarborough, Sin, and Risman’s findings help to explain the attitudes underlying the stalled gender revolution. They also provide valuable insights into structural solutions that could give it a jump start.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more about the \u201cstalled gender revolution,\u201d see Tristan Bridges\u2019 <\/span><\/em>Sociological Images<\/em> <\/span>post<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The share of American adults who believe that men and women should be equal both at work and at home has been growing over the past four decades — it’s\u00a0currently the highest it\u2019s ever been. But even today, roughly a quarter of U.S. adults\u00a0still hold more complicated views about gender equality. This split in public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,55,13],"tags":[30297,39112,70,39114,112760,2777,3849,33640,105597,255,1412,39110,20829,20792,39174,112759,891,76],"class_list":["post-7131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-gender","category-inequality","tag-care-work","tag-culture","tag-family","tag-gender","tag-gender-differences","tag-gender-discrimination","tag-gender-equality","tag-gender-revolution","tag-household-labor","tag-housework","tag-ideology","tag-inequality","tag-pay-gap","tag-second-shift","tag-sex-discrimination","tag-stalled-gender-revolution","tag-values","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7131"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7139,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions\/7139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}