McRae Susan
School of Social Sciences and Law, Oxford Brookes University.
Br J Sociol. 2003 Sep;54(3):317-38.
This paper provides an empirical examination of women's work histories following a first birth, their sex-role attitudes, and the relationship between attitudes and work history. In the light of these analyses, the aptness of Preference Theory as an explanation for the position of women in the British labour market is considered. Addressed in particular is Hakim's argument that the main determinant of women's heterogeneous employment patterns and work histories is heterogeneity in their preferences for differing combinations of family work and paid employment. Although support is found for Hakim's argument that employment careers are centrally important for only a minority of women, little evidence is adduced that it is preferences that distinguish the minority from the majority. The existence of a continuum of work-family preferences means that women with similar preferences (but differing capacities for overcoming constraints) will have very different labour market careers. Analysis of longitudinal data fails to support the central argument of Preference Theory that women in Britain and North America (countries where women live 'in the new scenario') have genuine, unconstrained choices about how they wish to live their lives. Instead, it is argued that a complete explanation of women's labour market choices after childbirth, and of the outcomes of those choices, depends as much on understanding the constraints that differentially affect women as it does on understanding their personal preferences.
本文对首次生育后女性的工作经历、她们的性别角色态度以及态度与工作经历之间的关系进行了实证研究。鉴于这些分析，我们考量了偏好理论作为解释英国劳动力市场中女性地位的适用性。特别探讨的是哈基姆的观点，即女性就业模式和工作经历的异质性主要决定因素在于她们对家庭劳动和有偿就业不同组合的偏好异质性。尽管有证据支持哈基姆的观点，即就业生涯对只有少数女性至关重要，但几乎没有证据表明是偏好区分了少数和多数女性。工作 - 家庭偏好连续体的存在意味着具有相似偏好（但克服限制的能力不同）的女性将有非常不同的劳动力市场生涯。对纵向数据的分析未能支持偏好理论的核心观点，即英国和北美的女性（生活在“新情境”中的国家）对如何生活有真实、不受限制的选择。相反，有人认为，要完整解释产后女性的劳动力市场选择及其选择结果，既要理解对女性产生不同影响的限制因素，也要理解她们的个人偏好。
