Study Notes on Gender Ideologies and Attitudes
ARTICLE Overview
Title: Classifying and mapping gender ideologies globally: Gender attitudes in 47 countries at the turn of the century.
Authors: Xiaoling Shu (University of California Davis, Department of Sociology), Bowen Zhu (Hunan Normal University, School of Sociology and Public Administration), Kelsey D. Meagher (Mighty Networks).
Contact: For correspondence and inquiries, contact Xiaoling Shu, affiliated with UC Davis, via Email: xshu@ucdavis.edu.
Funding: The research was supported by a Faculty Development Award and a Faculty Research Grant from the Academic Senate at UC Davis, indicating institutional support for the scholarly work.
Abstract
Objective
The primary objective of this study was to meticulously analyze and understand the cross-national variations in two critical dimensions of gender attitudes across 47 diverse countries. These dimensions include beliefs about vertical gender equality, which pertains to equal rights and status for women, and horizontal gender differentiation, which reflects beliefs regarding essential traits and functions derived from gender, often validating roles like nurturing for women.
Background
This research critically challenges the prevalent assumption of a universal and linear progression toward nontraditional gender attitudes worldwide. Instead, it posits that global gender attitudes exhibit highly uneven and complex distribution patterns, varying significantly across different nations, rather than a uniform move towards more liberal views.
Method
The study utilized extensive data from the World Values Surveys, encompassing a large sample size of individuals. For a comprehensive analysis, a range of sophisticated statistical techniques was employed, including machine learning for pattern recognition and classification, multilevel linear models to account for influences at both individual and national levels, and multinomial models for analyzing categorical outcomes like ideological classifications.
Results
Individuals within the surveyed countries were systematically classified into four distinct domains of ideological space based on their gender attitudes:
Liberal egalitarian: Individuals who support both gender equality in rights and status, and women's participation in paid employment.
Egalitarian essentialist: Those who advocate for women's rights and equality but may still oppose paid work for married mothers, often relying on the concept of 'separate spheres' for men and women.
Flexible traditionalist: Individuals who accept women's paid work but do not necessarily view them as equals to men in the workplace or society.
Traditional essentialist: Adherents to beliefs that advocate for male primacy, view women as subordinate, and actively discourage women's participation in the labor force.
The study's findings further indicate that female labor force participation (WLFP) is significantly associated with the presence of three nontraditional ideologies (liberal egalitarian, egalitarian essentialist, and flexible traditionalist). Additionally, economic development, as measured by factors like GDP, strongly correlates with the prevalence of liberal egalitarian and egalitarian essentialist attitudes.
Conclusions
A key conclusion is the widespread presence of liberal egalitarian ideology not only in expected Western contexts but remarkably, even in several Muslim-majority countries, challenging existing stereotypes. Furthermore, the findings underscore that diverse country characteristics (e.g., economic development, public policies, cultural norms) profoundly and diversely affect the shaping and distribution of gender ideologies across the globe.
Keywords
Development, family policy, gender attitudes, gender equality, gender ideology, separate spheres.
Introduction
Historical Context
Since the 1960s, there has been a notable societal trend towards the increasing embrace of egalitarian gender attitudes, as observed by scholars like Bell (1974) and Wilensky (2002). This shift is often framed within modernization theory, which posits a direct link between socioeconomic development (industrialization, urbanization, education expansion) and the adoption of more progressive social attitudes, including those related to gender.
Changing Socioeconomic Dynamics
The increasing demand for higher education in industrialized societies plays a crucial role in reshaping gender attitudes by promoting critical thinking and exposure to diverse perspectives. Concurrently, broader socioeconomic factors, such as increased educational attainment and economic opportunities for women, contribute significantly to lower fertility rates and a substantial increase in female labor force participation, further influencing gender roles and perceptions.
Challenges to Modernization Theory
Nonlinear progression: The assumption that highly developed Western countries will always exhibit more liberal gender attitudes than less developed ones is challenged. For instance, a 2008 general social survey in the U.S. indicated only moderate support for working mothers, with merely 50-70% of respondents holding egalitarian views. In stark contrast, over 80% of respondents in China expressed support for egalitarian roles for mothers, demonstrating a more complex, nonlinear relationship.
Gender segregation: Counter-intuitively, some developed countries exhibit greater gender segregation in specialized fields such as science and engineering compared to many developing nations, suggesting that economic development does not automatically translate into gender integration across all societal sectors.
Influence of National Characteristics: Beyond economic development, factors such as government legislation supporting gender equality, the implementation of specific public policies (e.g., parental leave), and prevailing labor market conditions significantly shape and modify gender attitudes. These national characteristics introduce complexities that challenge the simplistic linear relationship proposed by modernization theory between development and egalitarian views.
Multi-Dimensional View of Gender Attitudes
To accurately capture the spectrum of gender beliefs, the study employs a multi-dimensional framework:
Vertical Gender Equality: This dimension is associated with beliefs concerning equal rights and status for women, directly addressing perceptions of abilities, opportunities, and roles across genders. It measures the extent to which individuals believe men and women should have equal standing in society, in the workplace, and in politics.
Horizontal Gender Differentiation: This dimension reflects beliefs regarding inherent or essential traits and functions derived from gender, frequently serving to validate gender-specific roles. For example, it encompasses views on whether women are naturally more suited for nurturing roles or men for provider roles, often touching upon the concept of 'separate spheres' for different genders.
Frames of Gender Ideology
Variations in Gender Attitudes: Gender attitudes are conceptualized and characterized along two fundamental dimensions—vertical gender equality and horizontal gender differentiation—which together enable the nuanced classification of individuals into four distinct ideological categories:
Liberal egalitarian: This ideology supports both the principle of gender equality, advocating for equal rights, status, and opportunities for women, and embraces women's full participation in paid employment. This view was notably supported by data from 17 European countries (Knight & Brinton, 2017).
Egalitarian-essentialist: Adherents to this ideology generally support women's rights and equality but tend to oppose or express reservations about paid work for married mothers. This perspective often relies on the notion of 'separate spheres,' where women are primarily responsible for domestic and family care, while men are primarily breadwinners (Davis & Greenstein, 2009).
Flexible-traditionalist: Individuals within this category accept and accommodate women's paid work but typically do not perceive women as inherently equal to men in capabilities or status within the workplace or broader societal contexts.
Traditional-essentialist: This ideology represents the most conservative end of the spectrum, advocating for male primacy and viewing women as inherently subordinate to men. It actively discourages and often opposes women's labor force participation, believing their roles should be exclusively confined to the domestic sphere.
Macro Influences on Gender Ideologies
Economic Development
Economic development, generally indicated by measures such as a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, typically correlates positively with more liberal attitudes toward vertical gender equality. Higher GDP is consistently linked to more egalitarian attitudes concerning women's rights and roles, likely due to increased educational opportunities, changing labor demands, and exposure to diverse ideas that come with economic prosperity.
Women's Labor Force Participation (WLFP)
An increase in women's labor force participation (WLFP) is generally anticipated to drive shifts toward more egalitarian gender attitudes. More employed women, through their direct experience and economic independence, tend to express more supportive gender views compared to their non-employed counterparts. However, evidence demonstrates that the correlation between WLFP and gender attitudes can vary significantly by country, being strong in regions like Scandinavia but mixed or less direct in nations such as the U.S., reflecting differing institutional and cultural contexts.
Publicly Funded Parental Leave (PFPL)
The provision of high levels of publicly funded parental leave (PFPL) is theorized to foster women's economic independence and significantly promote egalitarian attitudes by supporting their reintegration into the workforce post-childbirth. However, the intersection of PFPL with existing gender dynamics may sometimes lead to paradoxical outcomes. While increasing women's labor force participation, generous parental leave policies, if not carefully designed, might inadvertently reinforce some aspects of traditional gender roles by solidifying the mother's primary caregiving role for an extended period.
Data, Measures, and Methods
Data Source
The study meticulously utilized data derived from the World Values Survey (WVS), specifically drawing from Waves III (conducted between 1995-1998) and IV (conducted between 1999-2004). Countries were included based on strict exclusion criteria, primarily the concurrent availability of reliable GDP per capita and parental leave data, ensuring a robust comparative analysis.
Dependent Variables
Identification of vertical equality: This was measured through responses to three specific survey questions designed to gauge beliefs regarding women's job rights, their leadership qualities, and the importance of education for girls relative to boys.
Measurement of horizontal differentiation: This dimension was assessed based on responses to two key variables evaluating the perceived impact of motherhood on children's well-being and beliefs concerning household income responsibilities (i.e., whether men or women should primarily be responsible for earning income).
Independent Variables
Individual-Level Factors
These included a range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents: gender, age cohort, educational attainment, marital status, parenthood status, employment status, family income, frequency of religious attendance, and controls for the specific survey year to account for temporal trends.
Country-Level Factors
These comprised macro-level indicators: economic indicators such as GDP per capita (Gross Domestic Product), Women's Labor Force Participation (WLFP) rates, Gender-related Development Index (GDI), Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), the implementation and generosity of publicly funded parental leave (PFPL) policies, and a detailed analysis of country-specific dominant gender ideologies.
Analysis
Statistical Techniques
The research employed a sophisticated array of statistical techniques for data processing and analysis. This included confirmatory factor analysis to validate the underlying structure of gender attitude dimensions, and unsupervised learning (clustering) approaches for robust classification of individuals into the four ideological groups without prior labeling. Additionally, multilevel models were utilized to precisely gauge the simultaneous influences of both individual-level and national-level factors on shaping gender attitudes, accounting for inherent hierarchical data structures.
Results Summary
Ideological Classifications and Findings
The comprehensive analysis meticulously presents empirical evidence for three distinct trajectories of gender egalitarianism, demonstrating varied pathways through which societies evolve in their gender attitudes rather than a single linear progression. Crucially, the socio-political landscapes of countries—encompassing their economic structures, policy frameworks, and cultural norms—significantly influence and shape predominant gender doctrines, illustrating the profoundly nuanced and complex global landscape of gender ideologies.
Conclusion and Discussion
The findings collectively highlight the intricate complexity of societal influences on gender ideologies. They emphasize a dynamic interplay between various factors including economic development, social structures (like female labor force participation), and institutional frameworks (such as family policy and publicly funded parental leave) in shaping deeply held attitudes toward gender roles and equality.
Implications for Future Research
The study strongly emphasizes the critical importance of conducting extensive longitudinal studies across diverse populations. This approach is essential to unraveling the intricate and reciprocal influences that exist between individual values and broader national characteristics over time, providing deeper insights into how gender ideologies evolve and interact with societal changes.
Acknowledgments
The authors extend their sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback and insightful suggestions, which significantly enhanced the quality of the manuscript. This work is also dedicated to the memory of Bowen Zhu, who regrettably passed away in 2023. The research received vital financial support from both the UC Davis Faculty Development Award and Faculty Research Grants, underscoring institutional commitment to this scholarly endeavor.