Multiple Dimensions of Gender Ideologies: How They Relate to Normative Judgments of the Gender Division of Parental Leave

Abstract

Abstract Previous research has found that gender ideologies are multidimensional. Additionally, their influence on work–care practices depends on the context, including the life stage, presence of children, and partners’ resources, which has received less attention. This study contributes to the understanding of the conditionality of gender ideologies by examining how dimensions of gender ideologies relate to more specific normative judgments regarding the division of parental leave and testing whether the association depends on partners’ relative earnings. I draw on data from a vignette experiment implemented in the representative German GESIS Panel and apply ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with cluster-robust standard errors to 8,185 vignette evaluations of 2,249 respondents. More egalitarian ideologies regarding the division of employment and housework and less essentialist ideologies are associated with less traditional judgments of the division of parental leave. Support for individual choice is only associated with less traditional judgments on the condition that the mother earns more.