Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-pkt8n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-09T22:11:44.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - The Labor Market Behavior of Married Women with Young Children in the United States

Have Differences by Religion Disappeared?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

By
Evelyn L. Lehrer  and
Yu Chen
Edited by
Lisa A. Keister  and
Darren E. Sherkat
Evelyn L. Lehrer
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
Yu Chen
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
Lisa A. Keister
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Darren E. Sherkat
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Get access

Summary

Much of what is known about the role of religion in women's labor market behavior in the United States is based on studies that are now dated. Analyses of the 1987–8 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) found relatively low levels of employment among non-Hispanic white conservative Protestant wives with children under age 6 (Lehrer 1995). Using data from the Youth Parent Socialization Panel Study (1965, 1973, 1982), Sherkat (2000) found an association between belief in Bible inerrancy and young women's decisions to be housewives early in the life course. And based on data from the 1987/1988–93 NSFH, Glass and Nath (2006) found that affiliation with a conservative denomination was associated with a decrease in white women's labor supply after marriage and after a marital birth. More recently, Putnam and Campbell (2010, chapter 8) noted that although a narrow gap persists, egalitarian gender norms have been largely accepted by both secular and religious women in the United States, including those affiliated with conservative Protestant religions – and that at present differences in women's labor force participation rates by religious affiliation and participation are small. These conclusions were based on descriptive statistics for a pooled sample of all female respondents in the 2008 General Social Survey.

In this chapter we take advantage of newly released data from the 2006–10 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to study more closely the role of religion in women's time allocation decisions. Earlier research has shown significant differences across racial/ethnic groups in how various factors influence women's labor supply (England, Garcia-Beaulieu, and Ross 2004; Lehrer 1992), in various aspects of religious belief and practice (Ellison and Hummer 2010; Ellison and Sherkat 1995), and in the relationships between religion and economic/demographic variables (Fitzgerald and Glass 2008; Lehrer 2006) – suggesting the importance of separate analyses by race/ethnicity. Due to limitations of sample size, in this study we analyze data on non-Hispanic whites only. In addition, we focus on women with young children, the subgroup for which theory suggests that affiliation with conservative Protestant denominations may matter. As Sherkat (2000, p. 347) noted – commenting on the works of conservative Christian writers – they “are not loath to women in the workforce, but instead are articulating opposition to mothers of young children in the workforce.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Religion and Inequality in America
Research and Theory on Religion's Role in Stratification
 , pp. 146 - 170
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartkowski, J. P., and Xu, X.. 2010. “Religion and Family Values Reconsidered: Gender Traditionalism among Conservative Protestants” (pp. 106–25). In Ellison, C. G. and Hummer, R. A. (eds.), Religion, Family Life, and Health in the United States. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Brinkerhoff, M. B., and Mackie, M. M.. 1988. “Religious Sources of Gender Traditionalism.” In Thomas, D. (ed.), The Religion and Family Connection (pp. 232–57). Salt Lake City, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.Google Scholar
Chiswick, B. R., and Huang, J.. 2008. “The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination and Religiosity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(4):694–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiswick, C. U. 2006. “An Economic Perspective on Religious Education: Complements and Substitutes in a Human Capital Portfolio.” Research in Labor Economics 24:449–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiswick, C. U.. 2010. “Economics and Religion” (pp. 777–83). In Free, R. (ed.), 21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook. New York: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen-Zada, D., and Sander, W.. 2009. “Religious Participation versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?” Unpublished manuscript.
Darnell, A., and Sherkat, D. E.. 1997. “The Impact of Protestant Fundamentalism on Educational Attainment.” American Sociological Review 62:306–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, S. N., and Greenstein, T. N.. 2009. “Gender Ideology: Components, Predictors, and Consequences.” Annual Review of Sociology 35:87–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ecklund, E. H., and Scheitle, C.. 2007. “Religion among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines and Demographics.” Social Problems 54:289–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
England, P., García-Beaulieu, C., and Ross, M.. 2004. “Women's Employment among Blacks, Whites, and Three Groups of Latinas: Do More Privileged Women Have Higher Employment?” Gender & Society 18:494–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, C. G., and Bartkowski, P. J.. 2002. “Conservative Protestantism and the Division of Household Labor among Married Couples.” Journal of Family Issues 23(8):950–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, C. G., and Hummer, R. A., eds. 2010. Religion, Family Life, and Health in the United States. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Ellison, C. G., & Sherkat, D. E.. 1995. “The ‘Semi-involuntary Institution’ Revisited: Regional Variations in Church Participation among Black Americans.” Social Forces 73(4):1415–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, C. G., Wolfinger, N. H., and Ramos-Wada, A. I.. 2011. “Attitudes toward Marriage and Cohabitation among Working-Age Latinos: Does Religion Matter?” Presented at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC.
Feldman, H. 2007. “Protestantism, Labor Force Participation, and Employment across Countries.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 66(4):795–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, S. T., and Glass, J.. 2008. “Can Early Family Formation Explain the Lower Educational Attainment of U.S. Conservative Protestants?” Sociological Spectrum 28:556–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, S. T., and Glass, J.. 2012. “Conservative Protestants, Early Transitions to Adulthood, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Class” (pp. 49–74). In Keister, L., McCarthy, J., and Finke, R. (eds.), Religion, Work and Inequality. Bingley, UK: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortin, N. M. 2005. “Gender Role Attitudes and the Labour Market Outcomes of Women across OECD Countries.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 21(3):416–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, S. K., and Smith, C.. 1999. “Symbolic Traditionalism and Pragmatic Egalitarianism: Contemporary Evangelicals, Families and Gender.” Gender & Society 13:211–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, J., and Jacobs, J.. 2005. “Childhood Religious Conservatism and Adult Attainment among Black and White Women.” Social Forces 84(1):555–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, J., and Nath, L. E.. 2006. “Religious Conservatism and Women's Market Behavior following Marriage and Childbirth.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 68 (August):611–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, N., and Simmons, S.. 2009. “The Religiosity of American College and University Professors.” Sociology of Religion 70:101–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruber, J. 2005. “Religious Market Structure, Religious Participation, and Outcomes: Is Religion Good for You?” Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy 5(1): article 5. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruber, J., and Hungerman, D. M.. 2008. “The Church versus the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition?” Quarterly Journal of Economics May: 831–62.
Hout, M., and Fischer, C. S.. 2002. “Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations.” American Sociological Review 67(2):165–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hout, M., Greeley, A., and Wilde, M. J.. 2001. “The Demographic Imperative in Religious Change in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 107(2):468–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, E. F., and Westoff, F. C.. 1979. “The End of ‘Catholic’ Fertility.” Demography 16(2):209–18.Google Scholar
Keister, L. A. 2003. “Religion and Wealth: The Role of Religious Affiliation and Participation in Early Adult Asset Accumulation.” Social Forces 82:173–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keister, L. A.. 2005. Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got that Way. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keister, L. A.. 2007. “Upward Wealth Mobility: Exploring the Roman Catholic Advantage.” Social Forces 85:1195–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keister, L. A.. 2008. “Conservative Protestants and Wealth: How Religion Perpetuates Asset Poverty.” American Journal of Sociology 113:1237–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keister, L. A.. 2010. “Childhood Religious Denomination and Early Adult Asset Accumulation” (pp. 164–85). In Ellison, C. and Hummer, R. (eds.), Religion, Family Life, and Health in the United States. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Keister, L. A.. 2011. Faith and Money: How Religion Contributes to Wealth and Poverty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lehrer, E. L. 1992. “The Impact of Children on Married Women's Labor Supply: Black-White Differentials Revisited.” Journal of Human Resources 27(3):422–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 1995. “The Effects of Religion on the Labor Supply of Married Women.” Social Science Research 24:281–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 1999a. “Religion as a Determinant of Educational Attainment: An Economic Perspective.” Social Science Research 28:358–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 1999b. “Married Women's Labor Supply Behavior in the 1990s: Differences by Life-Cycle Stage.” Social Science Quarterly 80(3):574–90.Google Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 2004. “Religion as a Determinant of Economic and Demographic Behavior in the United States.” Population and Development Review 30(4):707–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 2006. “Religion and High School Graduation: A Comparative Analysis of White and Black Young Women.” Review of Economics of the Household 4(3):277–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 2009. Religion, Economics, and Demography: The Effects of Religion on Education, Work, and the Family. New York: Routledge Press.
Lehrer, E. L.. 2010. “Religious Affiliation and Participation as Determinants of Women's Educational Attainment and Wages” (pp. 186–205). In Ellison, C. G. and Hummer, R. A. (eds.), Religion, Families and Health in the United States: New Directions in Population Based Research. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Lehrer, E. L.. 2011. “Religion, Human Capital Investments, and the Family in the United States” (pp. 39–56). In McCleary, R. M. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lehrer, E. L., and Chiswick, C.. 1993. “Religion as a Determinant of Marital Stability.” Demography 30(3):385–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehrer, E. L., Lehrer, V. L., and Krauss, R.. 2009. “Religion and Intimate Partner Violence in Chile: Micro- and Macro-Level Influences.” Social Science Research 38(3):635–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Massengill, R. P. 2008. “Educational Attainment and Cohort Change among Conservative Protestants, 1972–2004.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(4):545–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massengill, R. P., and MacGregor, C. A.. 2012. “Religious Nonaffiliation and Schooling: The Educational Trajectories of Three Types of Religious ‘Nones’” (pp. 183–203). In Keister, L., McCarthy, J., and Finke, R. (eds.), Religion, Work and Inequality. Bingley, UK: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nason-Clark, N. 2004. “When Terror Strikes at Home: The Interface between Religion and Domestic Violence.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43(3):303–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, L. D. 2010. “Religion and the Timing of Births in the United States” (pp. 19–39). In Ellison, C. G. and Hummer, R. A. (eds.), Religion, Families and Health in the United States: New Directions in Population Based Research. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, L. D., and Thornton, A.. 2007. “Religious Identity and Family Ideologies in the Transition to Adulthood.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 69:1227–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. D., and Campbell, D. E.. 2010. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Read, Ghazal J. 2010. “Religion, Family, and Women's Employment among Muslim and Christian Arab Americans” (pp. 206–28). In Ellison, C. G. and Hummer, R. A. (eds.), Religion, Families and Health in the United States: New Directions in Population Based Research. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Roof, W. C. 1999. Spiritual Marketplace. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sherkat, D. E. 2000. “That They be Keepers of the Home: The Effect of Conservative Religion on Early and Late Transition into Housewifery.” Review of Religious Research 41(3):344–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, D. E.. 2010. “Religion and Verbal Ability.” Social Science Research 39:2–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, D. E.. 2012. “Religion and the American Occupational Structure” (pp. 75–102). In Keister, L., McCarthy, J., and Finke, R. (eds.), Religion, Work and Inequality. Bingley, UK: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, D. E., and Darnell, A.. 1999. “The Effects of Parents’ Fundamentalism on Children's Educational Attainment: Examining Differences by Gender and Children's Fundamentalism.” Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion 38(1):23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, D. E., and Ellison, C.. 1999. “Recent Developments and Current Controversies in the Sociology of Religion.” Annual Review of Sociology 25:363–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwadel, P. 2008. “Poor Teenagers’ Religion.” Sociology of Religion 69(2):125–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C. 2003. “Theorizing Religious Effects among American Adolescents.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42(1):17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, R. 1996. “Religion as Context: Hellfire and Delinquency One More Time.” Sociology of Religion 56(2):163–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steensland, B., Park, J. Z., Regnerus, M. D., Robinson, L. D., Wilcox, W. B., and Woodberry, R. D.. 2000. “The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art.” Social Forces 79(1):1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweet, J. A., and Bumpass, L. L.. 1990. “Religious Differentials in Marriage Behavior and Attitudes.” NSFH Working Paper No. 15, University of Wisconsin.
Uecker, J. E., and Stokes, C. E.. 2009. “Early Marriage in the United States.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 70(4):835–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vella, F. 1994. “Gender Roles and Human Capital Investment: The Relationship between Traditional Attitudes and Female Labour Market Performance.” Economica 61(242):191–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waite, L., and Lehrer, E. L.. 2003. “The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis.” Population and Development Review 29(2):255–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilcox, W. B., Cherlin, A. J., Uecker, J. E., and Messel, M.. 2012. “No Money, No Honey, No Church: The Deinstitutionalization of Religious Life among the White Working Class” (pp. 227–50). In Keister, L., McCarthy, J., and Finke, R. (eds.), Religion, Work and Inequality. Bingley, UK: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zajonc, R. B. 1960. “The Concepts of Balance, Congruity and Dissonance.” Public Opinion Quarterly 24(2):280–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×