'A qualitative study of the influences of attitudes on work preferences and employment patterns of Dutch mothers. It shows that a woman’s employment behaviour is the result of a dynamic relationship between her personal work preferences and gender and work attitudes on the one hand, and her work experiences and cultural normative gender expectations on the other, rather than the outcome of a free choice. The study further reveals the prevalence of ‘a narrative of non-complaining’ among Dutch mothers regarding their spouses’ contribution to the home work.'
Lately preference theory has gained significance in the academic literature on the determinants of female employment patterns. Mostly, within these studies gender and work attitudes and work preferences are treated as one concept. However, in this working paper it is argued that relatively variable work preferences act as a mediating factor between more stable gender and work attitudes and actual labour market behaviour. This study demonstrates that the effect of gender and work attitudes on mothers’ labour market behaviour is largely mediated by the variable work preference, which influence on actual labour participation appears much larger than the influence of objective background characteristics. Next, the analysis supports the claim that more or less stable gender and work attitudes have a balancing effect on otherwise more flexible work preferences.