"Traditionalizing" Effect of Parenthood on First Time Mothers: Insights from a Longitudinal Study

Authors

Vilma Ražauskienė, Lithuanian Centre for Social SciencesFollow

Abstract

Researchers have documented that transitioning to parenthood may have a "traditionalizing“ effect on the gendered division of housework and childcare. The goal of this research is to enhance an understanding of the factors that influence this change in behaviour and attitudes swaying it to the side of traditional gender roles. To achieve this objective, two waves of individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten women during pregnancy and four to six months postpartum. Although convenience sampling was employed for data collection, the research participants displayed variation in terms of marital status, educational level, number of children, breastfeeding practices, and other characteristics. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out, allowing for a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the data. Results show that the research participants who declared a more traditionally gendered division of household labour prior to childbirth continued to be responsible for a greater share of housework duties after childbirth. While childcare tasks were mostly carried out by mothers, surprisingly, only two out of nine women expressed dissatisfaction regarding such a division of duties. Furthermore, by employing a novel approach to measuring attitudes towards gender roles and after they became parents, four research participants have altered their views on who should be the primary carer of an infant. The research findings suggest that the “traditionalizing“ effect may be observed in the attitudes of some women without necessarily being observed in the division of housework duties. The salience of the new identity as a mother is being discussed as a precursor for the “traditionalizing“ effect observed.

Keywords

longitudinal qualitative research, traditionalizing effect, gender-role

Author Bio(s)

Vilma Ražauskienė is with the Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences Please direct correspondence to vilma.razauskiene@lcss.lt

Publication Date

10-20-2024

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2024.7650

Recommended APA Citation

Ražauskienė, V. (2024). "Traditionalizing" effect of parenthood on first time mothers: Insights from a longitudinal study. The Qualitative Report, 29(9), 2472-2485. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.7650