Gender differences in adolescents’ work and family orientations in the United States

In the United States, women’s labor force participation increased dramatically over the second half of the twentieth century. Yet women’s occupational attainment and earnings lag behind men’s, in part because of continued inequality in family responsibilities. This paper uses nationally representative data on secondary school students from the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002 to examine whether gender differences in adult work-family configurations have antecedents in adolescents’ goals for work and family achievement. We compare the value placed on work and family achievement by high school girls and boys, using latent class analysis to identify distinct configurations of work and family goals. Results show high ambitions for both work and family goals among both boys and girls and minimal gender differences. Although girls are more likely than boys to report that marriage and family relationships are very important to them, differences are relatively small, and girls are also more likely to value success at work and getting a good job. Neither boys nor girls show a pattern of placing high value on family and low value on work.