I dunno. The preferences were determined by a Pew Research Center survey. Slocum linked to it above. Perhaps you haven’t had time to read most of this thread yet? Please look below, I reposted it for you. Notice how the respondents’ replies seem to contradict those of the college age (non-parent) girls surveyed by Harry? Do you think that people’s preferences change as they get older, and in particular when they transition from being non-parents to parents?

In the span of the past decade, full-time work outside the home has lost some of its appeal to mothers. This trend holds both for mothers who have such jobs and those who don’t. Among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under), just one-in-five (21%) say full-time work is the ideal situation for them, down from the 32% who said this back in 1997, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/WomenWorking.pdf

rothko – “I agree that egalitarianism isn’t natural LF, that the best person for the job should get it, so how come they’re using equal rights legislation, affirmative action, to get boys into university?”

Good point. I’m not in favor of affirmative action under any circumstances. In fact, I’m in favor of privatizing all state funded schools and universities and eliminating all government funding thereof. Why should they have a monopoly on social engineering?—not to mention overpriced text books ;-)

I am curious about whether parenting is different now from when your students were younger. In Virginia, the Code now states that “The court shall assure minor children of frequent and continuing contact with both parents, when appropriate, and encourage parents to share in the responsibilities of rearing their children. As between the parents, there shall be no presumption or inference of law in favor of either.”

Moreover, I suspect that the number of shared custody arrangements is increasing dramatically with every year. As Courts move away from an arrangement where one parent gets custody and the other gets two weekends a month to an arrangement of more equal time, expectations regarding the division of labor should change.

Well said!

You think so? I’d say that societal and economic instability (as I mentioned above) is precisely what causes the enormous level of poverty in America. Instead of wearing shackles and leg irons, the modern day slave carries a load of consumer debt and unpaid medical bills that he hasn’t a hope of paying off within his lifetime. Thankfully, Europe has avoided much of that.

Piglet – “That is his response to my question whether he thinks that gender roles haven’t changed over the last two or three generations in the Nordic countries.”

Perhaps I hurriedly tried to put the issue into a historical context. Maybe this will give you better insight into the Nordics than my clumsy attempt to enlighten you?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4833310.ece

Piglet – “Serves us right to feed a troll, I have to admit.”

By your definition, is a “troll” anyone with whom you disagree?

Which perfectly explains why we happen not to live in a slave-holder society any more.

I’d say that the Soviet Union served as a mentor to egalitarian movements in the past.

That is his response to my question whether he thinks that gender roles haven’t changed over the last two or three generations in the Nordic countries. Serves us right to feed a troll, I have to admit.

I obsess a little (too much, perhaps) about birthrates, especially among women who hold PhDs.
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/search/label/Birthrates

“Natural” is a bit of a loaded term, isn’t it? Is democracy natural? Civil rights? Slavery? Becoming wealthier over time? Having 2.1 kids?

That’s a fair question. I’d say that the Soviet Union served as a mentor to egalitarian movements in the past. Since its collapse, the militancy of such movements have become much quieter. In fact, there’s currently a surprisingly right-wing phase going on in the Nordics. Furthermore, Nordic economies have become considerably more liberalized, and, not surprisingly, the standard of living has risen. Society is beginning to take on a much more natural shape in terms of family norms, and traditional arrangements are making a comeback among a larger part of the population than ever before. On the other hand, there’s also more freedom to express one’s inclinations, which means that care giving by a certain segment of males coexists with this trend.

Piglet – “gender roles have changed significantly in recent history and are likely to change further.”

Keep in mind that this has been going on for longer than 30-years in the Nordics—I’d say 50 is more like it. Egalitarianism has been elusive and will continue to be so, because it simply is not natural. Based on my observations, egalitarianism is a byproduct of economic and social disarray. In that sense, the United States is on the right track: keep going with the cycle of expansionist wars and resulting financial collapses, and you’ll continue to have the most egalitarian society in the world :-)

What a surprise – 30 years or so of social change have not achieved complete equality. But how does the present compare to the situation one, two, three generations ago? Would you really claim that nothing changed? And how about a comparison to the US? I suspect that the male domination here is more pronounced still and this is clearly true in the field of politics (as Bergman points out); whether it is also true with respect to economic power I don’t have the data to judge.

Bergman writes from the perspective of a feminist who would like to see full equality realized and is taking a critical look at what has, and has not, been achieved. You can choose to perceive the glass as half empty but a different perspective would recognize that gender roles have changed significantly in recent history and are likely to change further.

Are you certain about that?

The Nordic countries have a highly segregated labour market, both horizontally and vertically. Women are more likely to work in the public sector (where leave arrangements are more generous and attitudes more family-friendly), men in the private sector (where pay on average is higher). The high occupational segregation, combined with persistent gender differences in salaries, often surprises outside observers. They assume that the commitment to gender equality would be reflected in greater labour market equality.

It is clearly shown by empirical data on the gender composition in a number of societal institutions and organizations that male dominance is a persistent and core principle governing the construction and constitution of gender relations in the modern Nordic societies. Men dominate in the core leadership positions in practically all the fields, perhaps with the exception of national politics. Male dominance is marked in business life, the church and the military, to a somewhat lesser extent so in academia and cultural life, and least so in politics.
http://www.eurotopics.net/en/magazin/gesellschaft-verteilerseite/frauen-2008-3/artikel_bergman_frauen_norden/1