Evolution of employment preferences and trajectories of mothers in five European countries

What is it about?

This paper examines the coherence between mothers’ work–family attitudes and behaviors using data from the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, and Spain from ISSP (1994, 2002, and 2012). Findings show that mothers’ attitudes are more constrained than Hakim’s preference theory suggests: (i) Between one- and two-thirds of mothers experience inconsistency between preferences and employment. (ii) Norwegian and Czech mothers’ agency has increased in this period, while in Germany and Spain results are mixed. (iii) The options of British mothers with preschool children have worsened. (iv) Norway currently has the greatest coherence between preferences and employment trajectories.

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