Nonmetropolitan sex-role ideologies: A longitudinal study

Using the two waves (1987-1988 and 1992-1994) from the National Survey of F amilies and Households (NSFH), I focused on the 3,792 Main Respondents (MRs ) living in sexual unions at Wave 1 who, along with the spouse or domestic partner, were successfully recontacted at Wave 2. MRs from both formal marr iages and nonmarital cohabitations were included. An identically worded set of questions about proper roles for men and women was posed to each member of the pair at Wave 1 and again at Wave 2. An Exploratory Factor Analysis uncovered two factors. A conservative orientation on the Sexuality/Reproduc tion Factor (#1) defined legal marriage as the only acceptable domain for s exual intercourse, pregnancy, and childbirth. An orthodox perspective on th e Childcare Factor (#2) assigned mothers the primary responsibility for the care of young children and men responsibility for earning the main living. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that nonmetro residents would be m ore conservative on both sex-role dimensions than metro residents at Wave 1 , would be slower than metro residents to adopt more egalitarian attitudes, and thus would remain more traditional on both sex-role dimensions at Wave 2. The influence of nonmetro-to-metro and metro-to-nonmetro migration, as well as the sway over attitudes of the spouse/partner, was taken into accou nt.