The Impact of Social Background on Gender-role Ideology

The study examines the effects of parental background variables on parent-child differences in sex typing of roles and occupations, using a sample of Israeli fathers and mothers and their adolescent children ( n = 134 in each group). In general, mothers held more liberal attitudes, followed by their children, whereas fathers appeared to be the most conservative. Parents' background variables were found to have some effect on their own attitudes as well as their children's attitudes to gender roles, but no impact on sex typing of occupations was found. Mothers' and fathers' education, as well as the mother's work status, significantly affected the views of both parents and children on the question of gender role. Parents with more education and families with full-time working mothers tended to be more liberal. The mother's place of birth, degree of family's religiosity, and number of children influenced parental attitudes but not those of offspring.