Life in the Balance: Are Women's Possible Selves Constrained by Men's Domestic Involvement?. (May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Croft, Alyssa; Schmader, Toni; Block, Katharina
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 45:Number 5(2019)
• Page Start: 808
• Page End: 823
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Subjects: gender roles -- possible selves -- stereotypes -- romantic relationships -- work–life balance; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167218797294
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

Do young women's expectations about potential romantic partners' likelihood of adopting caregiving roles in the future contribute to whether they imagine themselves in nontraditional future roles? Meta-analyzed effect sizes of five experiments (total N = 645) supported this complementarity hypothesis . Women who were primed with family-focused (vs. career-focused) male exemplars (Preliminary Study) or information that men are rapidly (vs. slowly) assuming greater caregiving responsibilities (Studies 1-4) were more likely to envision becoming the primary economic provider and less likely to envision becoming the primary caregiver of their future families. A meta-analysis across studies revealed that gender role complementarity has a small-to-medium effect on both women's abstract expectations of becoming the primary economic provider ( d = .27) and the primary caregiver ( d = −.26). These patterns suggest that women's stereotypes about men's stagnant or changing gender roles might subtly constrain women's own expected work and family roles.