Cultural Factors Facilitating or Inhibiting the Support for Traditional Household Gender Roles

Abstract

Movement toward gender equality has occurred worldwide for the past century; nevertheless, some people still strongly endorse traditional gender norms. We investigated the associations of societal characteristics (gross domestic product [GDP] per capita and the gender empowerment measure) and cultural characteristics, including Hofstede’s, Schwartz’s, and Welzel’s scores (hierarchy vs. egalitarianism, person vs. social focus, mastery vs. harmony, long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity–femininity), with support for traditional household gender roles. To reveal advantageous or disadvantageous conditions for support for traditional household gender roles, we conducted a secondary data analysis with representative samples ( n = 59,713) of 41 societies collected by the International Social Survey Program. According to the multilevel modeling analysis, individuals have lower endorsement of traditional household gender roles in societies that value mastery and enjoy economic development (i.e., GDP per capita), gender equality (measured by the gender empowerment measure), and personal focus. Contrarily, individuals have higher endorsement of traditional household gender roles in societies where hierarchy, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and masculine characteristics are valued. Individual characteristics (women, work experience, education, big-city experience, and younger generations) also predict lower support for traditional household gender roles. In addition, gender differences in traditional household gender roles are larger in societies with greater economic development and personal focus and lower emphasis on hierarchy and long-term orientation. Finally, the national means of traditional household gender roles predict concurrent social movement activities and gender equality at a later time. Potential mechanisms are further discussed.