Gendered Relational Work: How gender shapes money attitudes and expectations of young adults

ABSTRACT

We link the theory of gender performance to the perspective on the social meaning of money and relational work. Using longitudinal Panel Study of Income Dynamics data on young adult women and men, ages 18 through 24 in the US, we examine survey responses to different money-related situations. We question the expected gender-typical meanings of money, offering a more contextual understanding. Specifically, we find that when asked about the present, young women express that they worry more frequently about money than men do. However, when asked about the future – likelihood of having difficulty with financially supporting one’s family and likelihood of having a job that pays well – we find no significant gender differences. Instead, we find expressions of optimism rather than worry by young women and men alike. These results hold when controlling for psychological dispositions, financial obligations, and demographics. Overall, we note the importance of contextually situating ‘gender effects’ in relation to money matters, and call for more sociological research that places gender performance centrally into the analyses of economy and examines gendered relational work across different time orientations.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• money
• relational work
• cultural scripts
• time orientations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nina Bandelj

Nina Bandelj is Chancellor's Professor, Department of Sociology, and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development at the University of California Irvine. She studies how social structures, culture, power and emotions influence economic and organizational processes, including investment and debt, inequality, globalization, postsocialist transformations, and ideas about economy. Her articles have been published in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Socio-Economic Review and Theory & Society, among others. Her most recent book is Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works (with Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University Press, 2017).

Yader R. Lanuza

Yader R. Lanuza is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include race and ethnicity, (im)migration, education, family, culture, and punishment. His scholarship has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, Journal of Marriage and Family, International Migration Review, among other outlets.

Julie S. Kim

Julie S. Kim is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests are in economic sociology, gender, entrepreneurship and the life course. She has published articles in the Socio-Economic Review and The Routledge Handbook of Behavioral Economics as well as chapters in edited volumes.