Relations between traditional gender-role attitudes, personality traits, and preference for the stay-at-home mother role in Lebanon

Why do some college-educated mothers of minor children prefer to stay at home to care for the family and the house, while others prefer to work outside the house in addition to caring for the children? The Social Role Theory suggests that mothers' preference for the homemaking role is influenced by their endorsement of traditional gender-role attitudes. We propose that mothers' personality traits are also associated with their preference for the homemaking role. The aim of this study is to test this proposition by examining the relations between mothers' Big Five personality traits and their preference for being a stay-at-home mother, controlling for their endorsement of traditional gender-role attitudes. For this purpose, four hundred and nine college-educated mothers of minor children in Lebanon were recruited through social media platforms to fill an online survey about their personality traits, traditional gender-role attitudes, preference for the homemaking role, and demographics. Data was analyzed using hierarchical regression. It was found that preference to be a stay-at-home mother was positively predicted by mothers' neuroticism, and negatively predicted by mothers' openness to experience above and beyond their internalized traditional gender-role attitudes. The findings suggest that both personality and cultural factors should be considered when understanding mothers' employment status preferences. They also call employers and policy makers to continue working on creating more mother-friendly work environments to retain women of all personalities in the workforce.