Gender differences and parenting: the educational style of fathers and mothers. Results from an empirical study

Abstract

Quantitative empirical study presented here concern two main dimensions: on the one hand the participation of fathers and mothers to housework and child care, considering the educational outcome that this has on children and on other hand the fathers' and mothers' educational style, comparing also each other's perceptions. The leading objective underlying the investigation consist on understanding whether, in the rapidly changing actual social context, the parental couples reproduce family and educational patterns based on a traditional conception of gender roles, or, instead, present elements of transformation and, in case, in what direction they are going. The data from the sample, couples of parents living in a rural town (222 subjects), showed the presence of some changes that least affect the redistribution of family work between men and women (work that still disadvantage women), and that deal with father’s functions and characteristics: the fathers appear less normative and more inclined to involvement with their children. Finally, mothers and fathers seam found the educational relationship primarily on dialogue, with some differences in the type of approach depending on the children gender.