Student Attitudes Toward Roles of Women and Men: Is the Egalitarian Household Imminent?

This paper analyzes the results of a survey of a sample of U.S. undergraduate students concerning their attitudes toward the roles of women and men in the labor market and in the home. We asked students about their attitudes and expectations because their attitudes may be expected to influence behavior over time. We found that both women and men held very egalitarian attitudes, which portends well for increasing gender equality. We also found evidence, however, that their answers did not always coincide with their intentions, suggesting that to some extent the opinions they expressed represent what they believed they ought to say rather than their real opinions.