Data analysis on inequalities between men and women: stereotypes, gender norms and shared responsibility in childcare

• Main Author: Belope Nguema, Sabina
• Other Authors: Fernández Cornejo, José Andrés, Escot Mangas, Lorenzo, Valencia Delfa, José Luis
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Complutense de Madrid 2019
• Subjects: Análisis Multivariante; Sociología; Iceland
• Online Access: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/59511/; https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/59511/1/T41851.pdf

The main motivation for this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of some of the root causes of gender inequality observed in the labor market. Indeed, the contributions collected in this thesis can be framed in two areas of structural gender inequality (or root causes of inequality): (1) the lack of shared responsibility between men and women in child and family care; and (2) the persistence of traditional gender stereotypes that condition the choice of studies of young people, eventually leading to an under-representation of women in engineering and technology (STEM professions). The perspective of the lack of shared responsibility between men and women in the home and in childcare is addressed in the first three empirical chapters that bring together three investigations, or articles, classifiable in this area. The first empirical chapter (chap. 3) examines the causes of the corporate culture that hinder the involvement of Spanish working fathers in the care of their young children and increase their work-family conflict. The second empirical chapter (chap. 4) examines how state policies on paternity and maternity leave, along with parental working hours, can affect shared responsibility for childcare among wage-earning couples with small children in Spain and Iceland. We pay special attention to analyzing the relative participation in childcare activities of working fathers compared to working mothers. The aim of the third chapter (chap. 5) is to measure the attitudes of young adults in Spain and Ghana, who do not yet have family responsibilities and who have not yet entered the labor market, towards anticipating a work-family conflict. In particular, we attempt to examine how this conflict affects their willingness to reconcile work and family life through the use of reconciliation measures offered by companies and, in particular, how it affects anticipated use of parental leave.