ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of sex-role ideology on employment patterns across the lifecycle: the decision to work full-time, part-time or not at all. In Britain, there is a substantial part-time workforce, so women have a real choice between full-time and part-time work. In Spain, part-time jobs are scarce, so women generally work full-time or not at all. The impact of values and lifestyle preferences only emerges in prosperous modern societies where what Ingle hart terms 'post-materialist' values have emerged. Ideal family model has no systematic impact on men's employment. Among women, ideal family model has only a small impact on overall work rates. In Britain, its effect is seen mainly in the choice between full-time and part-time work. In general, the likelihood of choosing a part-time job in preference to a full-time job is twice as high among white women as among ethnic minority women in Britain, after controlling for lifecycle stage and level of qualifications.
