Gender Role Attitudes and Implications on the Ability to Negotiate the Balance between Work and Family Life
Gender Role Attitudes and Implications on the Ability to Negotiate the Balance between Work and Family Life

Summary/Abstract: Although Romanian women express egalitarian opinions regarding their engagement on labour market and in child caregiving, data show that parenthood has a different impact on women and men’s employment. The gender gap in employment increases as the number of children in the family grows. Children’s age also has an impact. Thus, the gender gap in employment reduces by almost half for adults with children older than 12 years (13.5 percentage points in Romania in 2014), compared with adults having children younger than 6 years of age (23.2 points percentage).Women continue to assume the bulk of the nurturing and caregiving responsibilities in their household. This article uses a sociological approach regarding the impact of parenthood on employment with special focus on women’s gender role attitudes and their implications on the ability to negotiate the balance between work and family life. The paper is based on a quantitative analysis using data from the European Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) completed by qualitative research findings from two focus groups developed in Bucharest among working mothers.

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