Patterns in Gender-Related Perceptions: Mothers' Work History, Personal Attributes, and Feminist Orientation

Abstract

Perceptions of mothers' work history (temporal patterns, reasons why mothers worked or did not work outside the home) were examined in relation to 153 male and 188 female college students' self-reported personal attributes and feminist orientation. Men, more than women, reported their mothers had not worked and had wanted to be full-time homemakers. Women more frequently recalled that then-mothers had worked full time and were more likely to attribute mothers' not working to their husbands' objections. Respondents' personal attributes or (feminist) values were unrelated to their perceptions of their mothers' work patterns, but some were associated—differentially for daughters and sons—with reported reasons their mothers worked or did not work.