Human Services News

From University of Cincinnati:

New research out of the University of Cincinnati finds that the more times are changing, the more the traditional gender roles between husbands and wives remain the same.

Research conducted by UC Sociology Professor David Maume finds that in the case of urgent child care, women are more likely to leave their jobs to attend to their children.

Maume will present his paper -- "Gender Differences in Providing Urgent Child Care Among Dual-Earner Parents" -- on Monday, Aug. 13, at the 102nd annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in New York City.

Men and women in dual-income families (a sample of 813 working women and 599 working men) were asked which parent was more likely to take off from work if a parent needed to take care of a child due to illness, failed child-care arrangements, an appointment, school-closing or other urgent child-care events.

Maume says his analysis of the data finds a large gender disparity in providing urgent child care, with 77.7 percent of women taking time off from work and 26.5 percent of men reporting that they attend to child-care needs (because the sample involved workers and not couples, the figures don't add up to 100 percent).

He adds that the gender differences in providing emergency child care exist regardless of the ideology of traditional families versus contemporary families that support equally sharing the housework, child-care and other family/work issues.

"These findings suggest that men are more likely to provide urgent child care after acquiring some power in their employment relationships, either by their record of service or by acquiring favorable job benefits," writes Maume.

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