FAMILY AND GENDER ROLES IN SPAIN FROM A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper will be to analyse changes in family and gender roles in Spain within the process of individualization in the European context. The focus is thus to evaluate the extent to which institutional factors (family policies) and individual factors interact in the development of cultural models that explain differences in preferences and family and labour strategies adopted by citizens. With the objective of determining to what extent a transition process towards an egalitarian family model is being made, socio-demographic factors that explain preference groups with regard to labour and family life-styles will be analysed in two countries with very different traditions of labour and family conciliation, such as Spain and Finland. Therefore, in a second part of the work, individual factors linked to population segments identified with the egalitarian model of family roles and with the traditional model of family in Spain and Finland will be clarified. This research has highlighted the fact that a difference between family life-styles is explained by variables such as education and marital status in Spain, whereas in Finland, analyses of segmentation have underlined that age is the best variable to explain differences regarding the desired role of females.

Keywords:

• gender roles
• family life styles
• individualization
• Welfare State

Acknowledgements

This research was co-funded by a grant of the European Commission under the VI Framework Programme's Research Infrastructure Action (Trans-national Access contract RITA026040 hosted by IRISS-C/I at CEPS/INSTEA Differdange (Luxembourg). I also gratefully acknowledge the support granted by the Centre for Study of Populations, Poverty and Socioeconomic Policy (CEPS/INSTEAD) in Luxembourg. The author carried out most of the work on this paper while a visitors of the European Centre. I would like to thanks to Philippe Van Kerm and staff for their support and technical assistance and Bernard Harris for his kind revision. Also to Enrique Crespo Ballesteros, for his help with the statistical analysis and the graphics.

Notes

¹Regarding this, it must be pointed out that although the PSOE socialist government (1982–1996) increased substantially the social expenditure, it was no so much in the scope of the family policies.