Does Gender Equality Cause Gender Differences in Values? Reassessing the Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox

Filip Fors Connolly,Mikael Goossen,Mikael Hjerm

doi:10.1007/s11199-019-01097-x

Abstract

The Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox (GEPP) is the finding that gender differences in personality are at their largest in the most gender equal countries. Previous known studies have not examined this relationship over time. Examining this linkage is crucial to our understanding of gender differences and personality development. In the present study, we contrast evolutionary perspectives predicting a gender divergence in personality due to progression in gender equality against biosocial perspectives predicting convergence. Using data from all eight rounds of the European Social Survey (n = 235,339) across 32 European countries, we report three findings. First, in accordance with the evolutionary perspective, country-level gender equality is positively associated with gender differences in basic human values. Second, in accordance with the biosocial perspective, we find evidence supporting gender convergence in basic human values. Third, contradicting both evolutionary and biosocial assumptions, we find no evidence that gender equality causes gender differences in values. We argue that there is a need to explore alternative explanations to the observed cross-sectional association between gender equality and personality differences, as well as gender convergence in personality over time.

Highlights

The Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox (GEPP) is the finding that gender differences in personality are at their largest in the most gender equal countries
In order to test our competing hypotheses—Hypothesis 3a, which posited that a progression in gender equality will drive gender divergence in values, and Hypothesis 3b, which proposed that a progression in gender equality will drive gender convergence in values—we focus on within-country change (i.e., Gender Equality Index (GEI) within)
We argue that future research should focus on identifying alternative factors, other than gender equality, that drive a change in gender differences in personality

Summary

Introduction

The Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox (GEPP) is the finding that gender differences in personality are at their largest in the most gender equal countries. In accordance with the evolutionary perspective, country-level gender equality is positively associated with gender differences in basic human values. This research has shown that gender differences in personality are more palpable in wealthier and more gender-egalitarian countries Scholars have examined this relationship in a variety of personality-related factors such as basic human values (Schwartz and Rubel-Lifschitz 2009), Big Five personality traits (Mac Giolla and Kajonius 2018), Dark Triad traits (Schmitt et al 2016), self-esteem (Zuckerman et al 2016), Filip Fors Connolly, Mikael Goossen and Mikael Hjerm contributed to the present paper. We use European Social Survey data between 2002 and 2016 (eight rounds) for 32 countries to test if changes in gender equality drive a process of gender divergence or convergence in personality

Results

Discussion

Conclusion