Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Times They Are A' Changin': Effects Of Social Structural Positions And Network Characteristics On Changes In Gender-Role Attitudes Among Returning Women Students, Rachel Maher Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

Since the 1960’s men and women’s gender-role attitudes have become increasingly nontraditional. The shift in attitudes has been attributed greatly to changes in women’s educational attainment and labor force participation. This thesis builds upon this line of work by exploring the effects of returning to school on women’s gender-role attitudes. Specifically, I use quantitative and qualitative data collected on 44 married mothers across a ten-year period beginning with their return to school in the early 1980s, focusing on the way in which women’s gender-role attitudes were affected by their increased educational attainment and their post-enrollment labor force experiences. As part …