vIACM 2021 Proceedings »
Gender Role Mindsets: A Lens for Examining Why Women Still Can’t “Have It All”
Abstract: Gender role mindset reflects the extent to which traditional gender roles, with men as breadwinners and women as caretakers, are held to be fixed or malleable. Across 2 studies, we examine the relationships between individuals’ gender role mindset and work-family conflict, and its downstream consequences for both job and relationship satisfaction. Undergraduate female (but not male) business students holding a fixed gender role mindset anticipate more work-family conflict. We replicate this finding in a sample of high-achieving dual career couples. We find an indirect effect of gender role mindset on job and relationship satisfaction measures, through work-family conflict, moderated by gender. Our findings suggest that espousing a growth gender role mindset could uniquely reduce work-family conflict for women and improve job and relationship satisfaction.
Keywords: gender roles, mindsets, work-family conflict, Actor-Partner Interdependence Model