A new study has found that more millennials support traditional family dynamics than the previous generation, The New York Times reports.
According to research conducted by sociologists Joanna Pepin and David Cotter, the proportion of young people holding progressive or egalitarian views about gender relationships has fallen since the mid-1990s. In 1994, 42 percent of high school seniors agreed that the best family included a male bread-winner and a woman taking care of the home. In 2014, 58 percent of seniors said this was true.
While more than 90 percent of millennials believe women should have “exactly” the same opportunities as men in business and politics, their views become significantly more traditional when it comes to home life, Quartz reports.
A separate research study strengthens these findings—in 1994, 16 percent of young adults believed a woman’s place was in the home. By 2014, that figure has risen to 25 percent.
Pepin and Cotter believe these attitudes come from growing support for the idea that women should have equal opportunities at work and face no discrimination, but that women will naturally choose different opportunities from men based on their ‘differences’, Quartz reported.
Although there is nothing inherently wrong with a woman (or a man) choosing to stay in the home, it’s slightly alarming to think that our generation has become more close-minded to different relationship types and a woman’s ability and right to have a successful career while still being a wife.