Becoming Parents, Becoming Egalitarian? How Couples’ Gender Ideologies Shift With Parenthood in Australia, Germany and Switzerland

Daniele Florean , Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Christina Bornatici, University of Lausanne
Suri Li, University of Queensland
Natalie Nitsche, Australian National University
Janeen Baxter, University of Queensland
Daniela Grunow, Goe

Gender attitudes– beliefs about appropriate roles for women and men in paid work and family life – are key predictors of family and labour market outcomes. Research highlights that partners’ gender attitudes interact within couples, jointly shaping these outcomes. Despite growing evidence on how couples’ combined attitudes relate to work arrangements, we know little about how these pairings evolve. Given that shared attitudes influence the division of labour, understanding how these pairings change around major life events, such as parenthood, is essential. This study therefore asks: How do couples’ attitudinal pairings change around the birth of their first child? Adopting a comparative longitudinal approach, we draw on three panel datasets that repeatedly survey both partners’ gender attitudes: the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam), the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP). These data allow us to compare diverse institutional and cultural contexts that shape individuals’ attitudes and how parenthood may alter them. Using fixed-effects and complementary random-effects models, we examine within- and between-couple variations in attitudinal pairings over time. We analyse how transitions to parenthood affect these attitudinal pairings and whether partners’ attitudes converge as relationships develop and social roles evolve. Preliminary results indicate that, contrary to previous evidence, couples in Germany, Australia, and Switzerland tend to become more egalitarian regarding maternal employment after the birth of their first child, though the extent varies across countries. The attitudinal transition appears to begin before childbirth, suggesting anticipation effects.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 50. How Beliefs and Attitudes Shape Life Courses