GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDES AND MARRIAGE AMONG YOUNG-WOMEN

Although sociological research on family change has emphasized the imp ortance of gender role attitudes for decades, relatively few empirical studies have demonstrated behavioral consequences of these attitudes. We formulate hypotheses predicting both an impact of gender role atti tudes on early marriage behavior and a reciprocal impact of early marr iage behavior on changes in gender role attitudes. We also investigate the role of cohabitation in these relationships. While previous resea rch has found that women who believe that wives should be homemakers e nter marriage more quickly, we find that under some conditions these a ttitudes delay marriage. We use multiwave panel data to show that the behavioral impact of gender role attitudes on early marriage depends o n plans for attending school. Among young women who expect to complete a four-year college degree or more, believing that wives should be ho memakers leads to lower rates of marriage; however, among young women with low educational expectations, believing that wives should be home makers leads to higher rates of marriage. In addition, we show that ex periencing a marriage in early adulthood leads to more agreement that wives should be homemakers.