Volume 4 - Article 2 | Pages 29–96  

Gender and family stability: Dissolution of the first parental union in Sweden and Hungary

By Livia Sz. Oláh

Abstract

The increasing trend of partnership disruption among families with children in recent decades has been accompanied by substantial changes in traditional gender roles in industrialized countries. Yet, relatively little is known about the effects of changing gender relations on family stability in the European context. In this paper, we study such gender influences at the familial and societal level in Sweden and Hungary between the mid-1960s and the early 1990s.
We focus on the disruption of the first parental union (i.e. the union in which a couple’s first child was born). Our analysis is based on data extracted from the Swedish and Hungarian Fertility and Family Surveys of 1992/93. We use the method of hazard regression.
The results suggest (i) that the establishment of the dual-earner family model influences family stability only if it is accompanied by some changes in traditional gender relations within the family, and (ii) that women’s and men’s labor-market behavior have different effects in spite of the relatively long history of women’s (also mothers’) labor-force participation in both Sweden and Hungary.

Author's Affiliation

• Livia Sz. Oláh - Stockholms Universitet, Sweden EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Introduction to the Special Collection on The new roles of women and men and implications for families and societies
Volume 48 - Article 29

Economic uncertainty and first-birth intentions in Europe
Volume 39 - Article 28

Should governments in Europe be more aggressive in pushing for gender equality to raise fertility? The second "YES"
Volume 24 - Article 9

Reconciling studies of men’s gender attitudes and fertility: Response to Westoff and Higgins
Volume 22 - Article 8

Men's childbearing desires and views of the male role in Europe at the dawn of the 21st century
Volume 19 - Article 56

Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality
Volume 19 - Article 28

Becoming a Mother in Hungary and Poland during State Socialism
Special Collection 3 - Article 9

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