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making it difficult for an individual to perceive him/herself as not having
a family (Wall et al. 2001 ).
In contrast to these broad cross-national differences, distribution of
types of family networks by gender do not reveal major differences.
Nevertheless, three main trends may be highlighted with regard to the
impact of gender (χ^2 = 61.42; p < 0.001): men are more likely than
women to focus more narrowly on partnership—Couple (12.1% com-
pared to 5.9% among women) and Restricted nuclear (6.2% compared to
4.4% among men) types of network, while women are more likely to
bridge out to Sibling (14.1% compared to 9.8% among men) and
Beanpole (8.7% against 7.0% among men) types of family network.
Moreover, women are also more likely to find themselves in a No-family
network (4.4% compared to 7.7% among men; 6.3% in the total sam-
ple), a trend which might partly be explained by a lower likelihood to
repartner in case of divorce or widowhood, when compared to men, as
well as the fact that women tend to be more fully autonomous in house-
hold and care work. Lastly, some types of networks, such as the Friendship-
origin and the nuclear types (Nuclear-daughter, Nuclear-son) that usually
include some other relatives such as mothers and fathers, do not reveal
differences by gender.
Interestingly, the effects of this variable are not always significant or
the same across the three national contexts. Table 4.7 shows that men
and women are more associated with different types of as-family net-
works in Switzerland and Lithuania, whereas in Portugal the types of
network are more equally distributed between men and women. Both
in Switzerland and Lithuania, men are more oriented towards the
Couple and the Nuclear-son types of family networks. In Switzerland,
men are also associated with the Restricted nuclear type of network;
while in Lithuania, men are also more likely to be associated with the
friendship type. Curiously, the No-family pattern, which represents
those individuals who do not perceive any of their network members as
family, is overrepresented among women in both countries. In
Lithuania, women are also associated with the Beanpole arrangement;
whereas in Switzerland women are also likely to build the Siblings con-
figuration. Lastly, although the differences by gender in Portugal are
K. Wall et al.