Couple’s status on labour market and their attitudes towards gender roles

This paper focuses on the effect of changes in couples’ employment status on attitudes towards gender roles on the labour market, paying special attention to how interaction between the partners’ status on labour market shapes attitudes towards gender roles. Using data from nine successive waves of British Household Panel we investigate how change from the traditional couple male breadwinner/ woman homemaker to other types of couple influences attitude towards gender roles on the labour market of people living as a couple. The results point out that the interaction between the change of respondent’s own status on labour market and the partner’s one significantly influences attitudes towards gender roles on labour market. Moreover, any change from the traditional breadwinner-home-maker couple brings less support for women employment. This finding holds true no matter the respondent’s gender.