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The Effects of Traditional Family and Gender Ideology on Earnings: Race and Gender Differences

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ABSTRACT

Despite increasing gains in labor market opportunities, women and racial minorities earn less than their white male counterparts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study explores racial and gender variation in how family and gender ideology shape this wage gap. The findings reveal that traditional role attitudes reduce earnings for African American men, African American women, and white women. However, white women experience the largest threat to wages as a result of conventional gender ideology. Further, the number of children and the timing of childbearing are detrimental to black and white women’s earnings, while neither of these factors hampers men’s earnings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA

    C. André Christie-Mizell

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  1. C. André Christie-Mizell
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C. André Christie-Mizell, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, 258 Olin Hall, Akron, OH 44325-1905, USA; e-mail: mizell@uakron.edu.

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Christie-Mizell, C.A. The Effects of Traditional Family and Gender Ideology on Earnings: Race and Gender Differences. J Fam Econ Iss 27, 48–71 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-005-9004-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-005-9004-5

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