Young Women’s Aspirations for Work and Family: Influences of Structural and Normative Constraints

Falling birth rates and an increase of women, especially mothers, in the paid workforce have elicited concern around Australian work-family policies—whether it sufficiently sustains women who choose to combine work and family, and also how it affects women’s aspirations for work and family. The present research aimed to explore the role of structural and normative influences on young women’s aspirations for childbirth and employment. It was predicted that participants in the supportive work-family policy condition would aspire towards having a higher number of children, childbearing at a younger age, and would prefer to work longer hours. More positive attitudes towards work and more egalitarian gender role attitudes were expected to be significantly associated with higher preferred working hours. It was predicted that participants who were presented with information of a younger age norm in childbearing would aspire to have children at a younger age and that this relationship would be strengthened if participants were also in the supportive policy condition. A sample of young, childless Australian women below the age of 29 (n = 176) completed an online survey. Results revealed age norm condition to be a significant predictor of aspired number of children. A significant norm x policy interaction was found for preferred age of childbirth. Gender role attitudes were significantly associated with aspirations for number of children, expected and preferred age of childbirth, as well as preferred hours of employment. Implications of the results are discussed