Maternal gatekeeping: Mothers' beliefs and behaviors that inhibit greater father involvement in family work

Maternal gatekeeping is conceptualized within the framework of the social c onstruction of ender and is defined as having three dimensions: mothers' re luctance to relinquish responsibility over family matters by setting rigid standards, external validation of a mothering identity, and differentiated conceptions of family roles. These three conceptual dimensions of gatekeepi ng are operationalized with modest reliability and tested with a confirmato ry factor analysis on a sample of 622 dual-earner mothers. With cluster ana lyses, 21% of the mothers were classified as gatekeepers. Gatekeepers did 5 more hours of family work per week and had less equal divisions of labor t han women classified as collaborators.