Abstract
AbstractIndividuals' attitudes about gender roles have been shown to be associated with a wide range of political outcomes. It is therefore crucial to better understand what shapes these attitudes. This note takes advantage of a randomized survey experiment embedded in the 2018 wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) to investigate how differences in education levels between partners influence the “gender childcare bias”—the extent to which individuals disapprove more of women working full time with children under three than men. Although male and female respondents exhibit an equally strong gender childcare bias on average, we find clear-cut evidence that the bias varies asymmetrically across the household education gap for women and men. In particular, positive household education gaps lead to a smaller gender childcare bias for female respondents, whereas the opposite holds for male respondents. Our findings are more in line with a resource-bargaining approach than a gender identity approach to the formation of gender role attitudes.
Highlights
IntroductionIndividuals’ attitudes about gender roles have been shown to be associated with a wide range of political outcomes such as political participation and interest (Andersen, 1996; Corder and Wolbrecht, 2006; Fraile and Gomez, 2017), party choice (Inglehart and Norris, 2003), women’s political representation (Hill, 1981; Arceneaux, 2001; Paxton and Kunovich, 2003), women’s decision to run political office (Elder, 2004), ministerial portfolio allocations (Goddard, 2019), the durability of marriage among top politicians (Folke and Rickne, 2020), welfare spending (Bolzendahl and Brooks, 2007; Bolzendahl, 2009), and voters and member of parliament (MP)’s support for gender-related policies such as abortion laws and affirmative action (Washington, 2008; Kane and Whipkey, 2009; Van Effenterre, 2020). It is crucial that we understand what shapes these attitudes
We find strong and robust evidence that positive household education gaps lead to a larger gender childcare bias for men, whereas the opposite holds for women
This note provides evidence that the gender childcare bias—the extent to which individuals disapprove more of women working full time with children under three than men—is greater for men with more education than their partners, whereas the opposite holds for women
Summary
Individuals’ attitudes about gender roles have been shown to be associated with a wide range of political outcomes such as political participation and interest (Andersen, 1996; Corder and Wolbrecht, 2006; Fraile and Gomez, 2017), party choice (Inglehart and Norris, 2003), women’s political representation (Hill, 1981; Arceneaux, 2001; Paxton and Kunovich, 2003), women’s decision to run political office (Elder, 2004), ministerial portfolio allocations (Goddard, 2019), the durability of marriage among top politicians (Folke and Rickne, 2020), welfare spending (Bolzendahl and Brooks, 2007; Bolzendahl, 2009), and voters and member of parliament (MP)’s support for gender-related policies such as abortion laws and affirmative action (Washington, 2008; Kane and Whipkey, 2009; Van Effenterre, 2020). It is crucial that we understand what shapes these attitudes. Influential theories on the formation of gender role attitudes provide competing explanations. A resource-bargaining approach sees gender role attitudes as a function of the relative power of individuals within the household (see, e.g., Iversen and Rosenbluth, 2006; Skorge, 2019; Syrda, 2020). A gender identity (or gender deviance) approach highlights the cost of deviating from stereotypical gender roles (see, e.g., Bittman et al, 2003; Dechant and Schulz, 2014; Bertrand et al, 2015; Folke and Rickne, 2020). We use a randomized survey experiment embedded in the 2018 wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) to provide new insights into what drives individuals’ gender role attitudes. We investigate how differences in education levels between partners affect the “gender
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