The attitudes that people hold with regard to gender roles often have a significant influence on their life experiences, including most aspects of marital and family relationships. They can help continue or can help bring to an end gender-differentiated opportunities and accomplishments in education, employment, and politics. This chapter explores what the LNS respondents regard as proper gender roles, as well as their gender-related attitudes.

Gender roles are sometimes viewed as the division of labor by gender, but feminist scholars argue that this is a simplistic approach that ignores the power relationships that exist between men and women (DeBiaggi 2002; Ridgeway and Correll 2004; McCabe 2005). We use DeBiaggi's (2002, 39) definition of gender roles as “an individual's endorsement of personal characteristics, occupations and behaviors considered appropriate for women and men in a particular culture.” Attitudes toward gender roles range from very traditional ideas to extremely egalitarian views.