Should mothers work? Age and attitudes in Germany, Italy and Sweden

Welfare states are constructed around values and political and economic pre ferences, creating social relationships between the genders. As women incre ase their labour market participation, new patterns of conflict within fami lies and around policies arise. In this article, attitudes towards family a nd gender relations among men and women in different age groups in Germany, Italy and Sweden are analysed. The findings show that national policies se em to influence the level of attitudes among men and women. Despite the dif ferences between the countries, an overall pattern emerges in which both ag e and gender influence people's understanding of women's paid work within a nd between the three countries. Finally, some implications of changing atti tudes on welfare state policies for gender equality are discussed.