Gender and values in 20 years of the European Social Survey: Are gender-typical values linked to parenthood?

Using data from ten rounds of the European Social Survey 2002–2020 ( n = 158,126) across 32 European countries, Russia, Turkey and Israel, we examined whether a typically male or female value profile (gender typicality) was related to having children at home among participants between 18 and 45 years. To assess gender typicality, we employed a novel measure that assesses the value profile of each individual and the extent to which an individual’s values match the higher or lower values among each sex. Multilevel logistic regression results showed that, as expected, male-typical values were related to childlessness for women and, to a lesser extent, for men. In turn, having female-typical values was related to higher chances of having children for both. The proportion of individuals not having children increased through the ESS waves. Time, however, did not influence the association between gender typicality and having children for either men or women. Our results suggest that the association between value typicality and fertility has remained similar for the last 20 years.