External Colloquium - February, 28, 2013 - Ellen Verbakel (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Ellen Verbakel (Radboud University Nijmegen): Gay Male and Lesbian Couples in the Netherlands: Are They Different from Heterosexual Couples?

February 28, 2013, 15.30-16.45 hours.

The family is a widely studied field in sociology and has focused on many topics concerning partnered lives. I will extend theoretical ideas that are usually applied to heterosexual couples to couples with two men or two women. For this colloquium, I will combine the results from several papers I wrote on gay men and lesbians. The first question to be discussed relates to the formation of partnerships: To what extent do assortative mating patterns differ between gay male, lesbian, and heterosexual couples? Once partners have formed a couple, the next question I will answer is: How do same-sex couples divide paid labour compared to heterosexual couples? Finally, I focus on individual labour market careers by answering the question: To what extent are gay men and lesbians better or worse off in terms of occupational success compared to their heterosexual counterparts? Hypotheses have been tested with the Dutch Labour Force Surveys; the results will be discussed.

Ellen Verbakel is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Radboud University Nijmegen. Previously, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. Her research interests include partner choice, partner effects, and relationships.