Mommy in the kitchen, Daddy in politics? The influence of parental labour division on children’s political gender role attitudes

According to research on gendered political socialisation, children internalise political gender role attitudes by observing gender-specific behaviour in their environment. Since children’s experiences at home are crucial in this context, this article investigates the effect of the parental division of labour on children’s political gender role attitudes. For analyses, a unique data set from the ‘Learning to Live Democracy 2.0: Political Socialisation at the Beginning of Lower Secondary School’ research project with more than 1,000 German fifth-graders is used. The study reveals that children who perceive a traditional division of labour at home are more likely to have traditional political gender role attitudes. By means of mediation analysis, it is also found that the effect of the parental division of labour on children’s political gender role attitudes is mediated by their general gender role attitudes. These results underline the presumed close relationship between political and gender socialisation.