Equality prescribed? Contextual determinants of citizens\u2019 support for gender boardroom quotas across Europe

Katja Möhring,Céline Teney

doi:10.1057/s41295-019-00199-w

Katja Möhring, Céline Teney

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https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-019-00199-w

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We provide the first cross-national comparative study of citizens’ support for affirmative action policies in the economy using the example of gender quotas for company boards. In contrast to previous studies, we focus on the contextual level and analyse how factors related to political institutions and actors, and economic and social structure shape citizens’ support and the gap in support between men and women. We apply multilevel regression analyses of Eurobarometer data for 27 European countries. Levels of support and gender gaps in support for boardroom quotas vary largely between countries. Contextual factors related to existing quota laws, gender equality in social and economic life, and public opinion towards state intervention are important determinants of cross-national variation. Our results point to an ambiguous relationship of support for gender quotas and actual gender equality in a country. Citizens’ endorsement of quotas is low in countries with high levels of formal gender equality. Support is higher in countries where interventionist policies are widely accepted. Also, existing quota laws are positively related to citizens’ support of boardroom quotas.

Highlights

The contentious issue of gender equality in economic decision-making has taken hold in the European public sphere
The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) amounts to 0.066 for the empty random intercept model and to 0.075 for the empty model with gender slope, which is comparable to the ICC of a previous cross-national study on the support for quota laws in politics in Latin America (Barnes and Córdova 2016)
Standard errors adjusted to number of macro-units in parentheses; ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05; all models control for individual-level variables, GDP in PPP per capita, and existing gender boardroom quota

Summary

Introduction

The contentious issue of gender equality in economic decision-making has taken hold in the European public sphere. For citizens’ support for gender quotas in economic decision-making, two forms of attitudinal factors are relevant: norms of gender equality and the acceptance of state intervention which both will provide a favourable climate for affirmative action policies.

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