Gendered Intergenerational Transmission of Work Values? A Country Comparison

• Author: Zeynep Cemalcilar,Carsten Jensen,Jale Tosun
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716218823681
• Subject Matter: How are Work Values Formed?

ANNALS, AAPSS, 682, March 2019 125

DOI: 10.1177/0002716218823681

Gendered

Inter-

generational

Transmission of

Work Values? A

Country

Comparison

By

ZEYNEP CEMALCILAR,

CARSTEN JENSEN,

and

JALE TOSUN

823681ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYGendered Intergenerational Transmission of Work Values

research-article2019

In this study, we examine two research questions: Are

the work values of young people determined by the

work values of their parents? Is the transmission of

work values conditioned by the young adults’ gender?

We use original survey data for respondents aged 18–35

and their parents in Denmark, Germany, Turkey, and

the UK to explore these questions. Our findings reveal

a robust pattern: in all four countries and for all four

types of work values we measure, young adults’ work

values are strongly influenced by their parents’ work

values. We also find a gender effect among German

respondents: work plays a more central role in the lives

of young men than in the lives of young women.

Gender helps to explain attitudes toward female labor

force participation in all of the countries we studied,

and we find no evidence that gender conditions the

effect of the intergenerational transmission of work

values except for in the UK, where gender does condi-

tion the effect of family attitudes on young peoples’

extrinsic work values and their views on work centrality.

Keywords: defamilization; gender; parent-child

dyads; transmission; work values

Values are internalized social representa-

tions or moral beliefs that people call on to

rationalize their actions (Oyserman 2002).

Work values, more specifically, refer to indi-

viduals’ attitudes about how important work is

and whether individuals pursue tangible or

intangible rewards in their jobs (see Kraaykamp,

Cemalcilar, and Tosun, this volume). Empirical

Correspondence: zcemalcilar@ku.edu.tr

Zeynep Cemalcılar is an associate professor of social

psychology at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her

most recent research focuses on youth autonomy and

self-sufficiency, subjective socioeconomic status, brief

social psychological interventions, and the role of

technology in social life.

Carsten Jensen is a professor in the Department of

Political Science at Aarhus University. His research is

focused on the causes and consequences of redistribu-

tive politics in advanced western democracies, as well

as democratic representation more broadly.