November 2012—A new report by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College finds that since the 1950s, women’s labor force participation has risen steadily in most countries. Over the past four decades, in step with this growth, many countries have witnessed noticeable shifts in expectations of gender roles. Despite these trends, however, traditional gender roles are still prevalent in many societies.

“A Woman’s Place? A Cross National Exploration of Gender Role Perspectives” looks at two different notions of gender roles:

• Men and women should spend the same amount of time on family responsibilities, but men should specialize in some domains (such as earning income) and women in others (such as taking care of family members).
• Men and women should share responsibility in all domains (such as earning income and taking care of family members).