CHANGES IN ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMENS EMANCIPATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OVER 2 DECADES - UNRAVELING A TREND

Attitudes toward women's emancipation in the Netherlands have been inc reasingly favorable since 1970. Decomposition of the trend indicates t hat intracohort change has a larger share in the general trend than co hort succession. Reduction in estimated effect of cohort succession by the inclusion of explanatory variables is larger than in intracohort change, but neither of the two components disappear. Education is the most important variable underlying cohort effects. Both genders have o n average adopted more favorable attitudes toward women's emancipation . Having a job is positively related to attitudes toward emancipation among women. Linear effects of aging are excluded from analyses on the oretical grounds. An age-related pattern was found, however, among peo ple under 25 years old. This result is discussed in terms of the forma tive period concept. It is argued that the trend consists predominantl y of period effects, which are constituted by actual changes in women' s positions in society. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.