Work–Family Conflict and Attitudes Toward Marriage

Using 2002 International Social Survey Programme data, this study examines the association between women’s economic resources (full-time employment, educational attainment, and income) and their attitudes toward marriage across 31 countries ( N = 14,827). The focus of this study is to test whether state policy to reduce work–family conflict (shorter working hour schedules and enhancement of public child care services and parental leave) explains cross-national differences in the association between women’s economic independence and their attitudes toward marriage. The results show that highly educated women have negative attitudes toward marriage only in countries with long average working hours. Also, in countries with generous public child care services, the positive effect of educational attainment is stronger. These findings suggest that it is not women’s economic independence per se that reduces attractiveness of marriage; instead, it is the incompatibility between work and family life that lowers women’s marriage aspirations.