A Test of the Biographical Availability Argument for Gender Differences in Environmental Behaviors

Abstract

Compared with men, women often express stronger proenvironmental attitudes and values and more frequently engage in private environmental behaviors (e.g., recycling), but not in public environmental behaviors (e.g., joining a protest about an environmental issue). This study uses the 2010 General Social Survey data to test whether this pattern is driven by the differing biographical availability of men and women. Do women’s time constraining commitments, such as having a paid job, living in multi-adult households, or parenting, relate to fewer public environmental behaviors but not fewer private behaviors? Results show that living with other adults while parenting increases the odds that a woman rather than a man performs no public behavior, but having a paid job does not. Living with other adults and not having a paid job also increase women’s participation in private behaviors. This study offers partial support for the biographical availability thesis, while also discovering a link between biographical availability and private environmental behaviors.