Abstract
Debates about the gendered division of labour tend to focus on negotiation and decision-making by couples in the present, and assume that individuals make rational choices based on present circumstances when deciding questions about workforce engagement, domestic labour and childcare responsibilities. As a result, they overlook the fact that choices made in the present are shaped by past choices. We argue that choices made in the present about work and family are better understood as the outcome of a complex mix of choices that are made across the life course. Drawing on interview data with university undergraduates we show how they were already engaging in ‘gendered’ choices about careers long before the spectre of work and family became a daily reality. These choices were made in relation to future identities in which young men imagine a nirvana of seamless work-family balance, while young women imagine a future of compromise and negotiation with inevitable career interruption. In seeking to understand these highly gendered positions our paper contributes to debates about choice in work and family.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ainsworth, S., Baird, M., & Cutcher, L. (2006). Work choices and word choices, Our work… Our lives. In Proceedings of the 1st Biennial Conference of the National Network of Working Women’s Centres, 12–14 July 2006, Brisbane: Griffith University.
Becker, G. (1991). A treatise on the family (enlarged edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bittman, M., England, P., Folbre, N., Sayer, L., & Matheson, G. (2003). When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 186–214.
Brannen, J., & Nilsen, A. (2002). Young people’s time perspectives: From youth to adulthood. Sociology, 36(3), 513–537.
Bynner, J. (2005). Rethinking the youth phase of the life-course: The case for emerging adulthood? Journal of Youth Studies, 8, 367–384.
Campbell, C., Proctor, H., & Sherington, G. (2009). School choice: How parents negotiate the new school markets in Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Craig, L. (2007). Contemporary motherhood: The impact of children on adult time. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Crompton, R., & Harris, F. (1998). Explaining women’s employment patterns: ‘Orientations to work’ revisited. British Journal of Sociology, 49, 118–136.
England, P. (2010). The gender revolution: Uneven and stalled. Gender and Society, 24(2), 149–166.
Furlong, A., & Cartmel, F. (1997). Young people and social change: Individualization and risk in late modernity. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Gordon, T., Holland, J., Lahelma, E., & Thomson, R. (2005). Imagining gendered adulthood: Anxiety, ambivalence, avoidance and anticipation. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 12(1), 83–103.
Greenstein, T. (2000). Economic dependence, gender, and the division of labor in the home: A replication and extension. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 322–335.
Hakim, C. (1991). Grateful slaves and self-made women: Fact and fantasy in women’s work orientations. European Sociological Review, 7, 101–121.
Hakim, C. (1995). Five feminist myths about women’s employment. British Journal of Sociology, 46, 429–455.
Hakim, C. (2000). Work-lifestyle choices in the 21st century: Preference theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Himmelweit, S., & Sigala, M. (2004). Choice and the relationship between identities and behaviour for mothers with pre-school children: Some implications for policy from a UK study. Journal of Social Policy, 33, 455–478.
Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home. New York: Viking Press.
Hockey, J. (2009). The life course anticipated: Gender and chronologisation among young people. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(2), 227–241.
Hodgson, D. (2000). Discourse, discipline and the subject: A Foucauldian analysis of the UK financial services industry. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
Irving, Z. (2007). Gender and work. In D. Richardson & V. Robinson (Eds.), Introducing gender and women’s studies (pp. 160–184). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
McDonald, P., Pini, B., Bailey, J., & Price, R. (2011). Young people’s aspirations for education, work, family and leisure. Work, Employment and Society, 25(1), 1–18.
Pocock, B. (2005). Youthful aspirations meet unbending cultures: How young Australians plan to organise their jobs, care and housework. Australian Feminist Studies, 20, 3–110.
Pocock, B. (2006). The labour market ate my babies! Work, children and a sustainable future. Sydney: Federation Press.
Proctor, I., & Padfield, M. (1998). Young adult women, work & family: Living a contradiction. London: Mansell Publishing.
Sanders, J., & Munford, R. (2008). Losing self to the future? Young women’s strategic responses to adulthood transitions. Journal of Youth Studies, 11(3), 331–346.
Turner, B. S. (1995). Aging and identity: Some reflections on the somatisation of the self. In M. Featherstone & A. Wernick (Eds.), Images of aging: Cultural representation of later life (pp. 245–262). New York: Routledge.
van Egmond, M., Baxter, J., Buchler, S., & Western, M. (2010). A stalled revolution? Gender role attitudes in Australia 1986–2005. Journal of Population Research, 27, 147–168.
Wyn, J., & Woodman, D. (2006). Generation, youth and social change in Australia. Journal of Youth Studies, 9, 495–514.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murray, J., Cutcher, L. Gendered futures, constrained choices: undergraduate perceptions of work and family. J Pop Research 29, 315–328 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-012-9099-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-012-9099-0