Insights Panel: Gender Equality Norms among Urban Millennials – Midline Report
Summary
The report features qualitative research including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions from 85 panellists across Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam during October-November 2021.
The research builds on the Investing in Women Insights Panel Baseline study conducted in early 2021, which investigated four core gender norms across the three countries: childcare, breadwinning, job segregation, and leadership.
Contents
- Executive Summary
- Background
- Purpose
- Data Collection & Analysis
- Findings
- Childcare
- Responsibility
- Perceptions on Shared Responsibility
- Childcare Changes
- Breadwinning
- Main Breadwinner Figure
- Men’s Hold on Breadwinning
- Women as Breadwinners
- Social Expectation
- Attitude towards traditional gender roles
- Clash between progressive and conservative perspectives
- The critics and their concerns
- Social influencers
- Factors influencing social expectation
- Conclusion and Recommendation
- Annex 1
- Annex 2
Highlights
The research undertaken in this study is based on the premise that shifting attitudes towards breadwinning is essential to reducing the burden of childcare on women and advancing women in the workplace.
The report explores this interplay between the norms of childcare and breadwinning and social expectations among urban millennials, and compares differences in views among progressives and traditionalists, as well as between males and females. The research found that:
- While there was no significant difference in how men and women defined equal sharing of childcare responsibilities, clear differences could be identified between traditional and progressive panellists, irrespective of gender.
- Both traditional and progressive panellists viewed men as the main breadwinner. Men still hold their role as the breadwinner due to several cultural influences, including upbringing, sense of responsibility, and beliefs about gender roles and predisposition.
- Acceptance of women as breadwinners was reported among the progressives, while the traditionalists tended to deny women’s career continuation after being married.
- Progressive men accepted working women, but they tended to see women’s decision to work as financially motivated, whereas women identified non-economic motivation such as self-actualisation and utilising their advanced education.
- Factors that influence adherence to social expectations include geographical location, level of education, family structure, and exposure to other cultures and ways of life.
