Time, Ideologies, and Care: Gendered Patterns of Parental Involvement in the UK and Portugal

Abstract

This study examines cross-national differences in parental involvement, work hours, and gender ideologies among parents in the UK and Portugal. Findings revealed that UK parents, particularly mothers, reported higher childcare involvement, while Portuguese parents worked more paid hours, reflecting fewer structural childcare constraints. Despite mothers in both countries endorsing more egalitarian gender ideologies than fathers, Portuguese parents overall held more egalitarian views and lower essentialist beliefs. Surprisingly, British fathers reported greater involvement in physical childcare than their Portuguese counterparts. Gender ideologies negatively predicted partner childcare hours, indicating compensatory dynamics, with significant mediation by work hours only in the UK. This suggests that egalitarian gender beliefs alone might be insufficient for achieving equality in family roles without corresponding sociopolitical frameworks to enable equitable practices. These results highlight the influence of national context and gender beliefs on family labour divisions and underscore the need for policies that support more equitable sharing of paid and unpaid responsibilities across both countries.