Between the Egalitarian and Neotraditional Family: Gender Attitudes and Values in Contemporary Lithuania

Analyzing the data of two representative surveys of the Lithuanian population conducted in 2006, 12 semi-structured interviews with heterosexual couples and 15 semi-structured interviews with men on paternity leave, the article attempts to answer to what degree women and men’s attitudes to the egalitarian family differ and how both sexes conceptualize their professional and family responsibilities. How do Lithuanian women and men justify the division of housework in the family? The article employs the concepts of egalitarian or symetrical and neotraditional families. The analyzed interviews showed that most families believed to be egalitarian. However, after looking at the division of household labor and childcare it is possible to conclude that most of them can be ascribed to the neotraditional family type. In these families, a female partner/wife carries the double burden of employment and domestic duties. The two representative surveys conducted in 2006 also confirm the conclusions drawn from the interviews: women usually had a larger share of family responsibilities. The large part of the respondents of both the surveys and interviews realize the importance of egalitarian family but the dominant gender roles contradict their ideals. It can be argued that most barriers to the achievement of new familial ideals and egalitarian family are related to cultural norms and ideologies prevalent both in work organizations and the larger society.