The effect of employment and gender role attitudes on men's marriage timin

Since the 1970s men and women, on average, have entered first marriages several years later than the parents' generation. During this same time period unemployment was high, and young men's real wages stagnated, such that earning a family wage was no longer possible for increasing proportions. Attitudes toward gender roles within marriage also changed. Separate gender spheres within the family, in which men are the economic provider and women are homemakers, were no longer whole-heartedly endorsed by the American public.;This research focuses on how men's employment experiences affected their expectations about the provider role and their marriage timing among men who entered adulthood during the 1980s. My three research questions focused on the effect of employment on men's marriage attitudes and behaviors. One, did men who had poor employment experiences become less supportive of the provider role? Two, did men's employment experiences have a stronger effect on marriage if they supported the provider role? Three, were there racial differences in the pathway from employment to marriage?;I used the sophomore cohort of the High School and Beyond data to examine these research questions. These data were a nationally representative sample of high school sophomores in 1980. Follow-up surveys were given to this cohort in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1992. The surveys included attitudinal questions about gender roles within marriage and information on the cohort's school, employment, and marriage experiences.;I found that many young men in this cohort decreased their attachment to the provider role as they entered early adulthood. However, I found that men with poor employment experiences, the men who in a sense could benefit most from sharing the provider role, were the least likely to embrace shared gender roles. African-American men with poor employment were particularly reluctant to support shared gender roles within marriage.;I found that men's attitudes toward marriage created specific contexts that made particular employment experiences more relevant for the decision to marry. Neither attitudes toward marriage nor employment experiences acted alone in determining when white or African-American men marry.