Gender Differences in Scaling Back: Family Formation and Aspirations toward Work Achievement among Japanese Adults

Previous research suggests that family responsibilities can negatively affect work attitudes, particularly for women. The opportunity structure theoretical perspective posits that positions in opportunity structures in the workplace, not gender, shape work attitudes. But few studies have examined how work attitudes change during adulthood or identified which life events precipitate changes in work attitudes. Using six waves of panel data and fixed-effects models, the author examines changes in work attitudes, focusing on aspirations toward work achievement and upon becoming a spouse and subsequently a parent in Japan, a highly gendered, industrialized society. For women, transitions to marriage and parenthood are negatively associated with aspirations, even when controlling for job characteristics, whereas family formation has little association with changes in the aspirations for men. Women scale back their aspirations toward work achievement when forming families, and marriage triggers shifts in the work attitudes.