“A good mother can't—But a good father should?” Cross‐ and within‐country differences in attitudes toward parents' full‐time work in 26 European countries

Abstract

<p>Regardless of the rise of egalitarian parenting, maternal and paternal roles are subject to different expectations, shaped by cultural and institutional factors. We examine levels of (dis)approval of parents' full-time work in 26 European countries and ask: Do attitudes toward mothers' and fathers' full-time work vary across countries? What are the sociodemographic, cultural, and family policy-related institutional factors that explain these attitudes? To what extent can the gender arrangement framework help to understand differences in attitudes toward full-time working parents? Data from the 2018 European Social Survey was analyzed using cross-tabulation and multilevel analysis. Results reveal that the ideal of motherhood continues to be culturally more contested than that of fatherhood. Individual-level sociodemographic factors are more relevant to attitudes toward mothers' than to fathers' full-time work, while country-level factors connected to gender, work culture, and family policy are similar in their effects on attitudes toward mothers' and fathers' full-time work.<br></p>