Catherwood LibraryILR School

While a new national study suggests that there is increasingly broad support for gender equality at work over time, it has also determined that approximately a quarter of people surveyed had more complicated views about gender equality and whether that differs between work and home. The General Social Survey, conducted by a research group at the University of Chicago, is an ongoing study that has collected responses from 27,000 people over four decades, regarding whether it is better when a man is a breadwinner and a woman takes care of the home and family; whether children suffer when mothers work; and whether men are better suited for politics than women. While it is not surprising that people in successive generations are likely to become more egalitarian, some of the researchers were surprised that millennials weren’t more equable, with other recent studies finding young people relying on traditional gender roles more than would be expected, particularly after having children. Paid family leave, subsidized child care and flexible schedules are not widespread in the U.S., where American parents were found to be the most unhappy when compared with non-parents, in another study that measured happiness in 22 English-speaking and European countries. Women, people with college degrees, African-Americans, and people who lived in the Northeast were most likely to believe in gender equality at work or home.