Cross-national Gender Differences Research Articles

Are men and women contacted differently by electoral campaigns? A cross-national examination of gender gaps

Although a large literature investigates cross-national differences in party mobilization, little is known about cross-national gender differences in electoral campaign contacts. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral System Module 4, which includes data from 2011 to 2016 and 32 countries, I find gendered patterns in reported contacts across different activities performed by campaigns. I test two potential explanation for these variations: electoral systems and women’s political participation. First, I find that women’s likelihood of reported contacts increases to a greater extent than men’s when electoral systems provide incentives for campaigns to increase their contact rates, decreasing and even reversing gender gaps. Second, I find limited support regarding the impact of the percentage of women in legislatures on gender differences in reported electoral campaign contacts.

Gender Differences in Bullying Reflect Societal Gender Inequality: A Multilevel Study With Adolescents in 46 Countries

PurposeSocial patterns in bullying show consistent gender differences in adolescent perpetration and victimization with large cross-national variations. Previous research shows associations between societal gender inequality and gender differences in some violent behaviors in adolescents. Therefore, there is a need to go beyond individual associations and use a more social ecological perspective when examining gender differences in bullying behaviors. The aim of the present study was twofold: (1) to explore cross-national gender differences in bullying behaviors and (2) to examine whether national-level gender inequality relates to gender differences in adolescent bullying behaviors. MethodsTraditional bullying and cyberbullying were measured in 11-year-olds to 15-year-olds in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (n = 200,423). We linked individual data to national gender inequality (Gender Inequality Index, 2018) in 46 countries and tested their association using mixed-effects (multilevel) logistic regression models. ResultsLarge cross-national variations were observed in gender differences in bullying. Boys had higher odds of perpetrating both traditional and cyberbullying and victimization by traditional bullying than girls. Greater gender inequality at country level was associated with heightened gender differences in traditional bullying. In contrast, lower gender inequality was associated with larger gender differences for cyber victimization. DiscussionSocietal gender inequality relates to adolescents' involvement in bullying and gendered patterns in bullying. Public health policy should target societal factors that have an impact on young people's behavior.

Masculine Female and Feminine Male: A Study of Gender Slippage Amid Migration Spaces in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Abstract Reviewing gender as a doing reveals how gender idiosyncrasy is framed and formed. The present study tackles gender as a discursively constructed category in Mohsin Hamid’s novel, Exit West (2017). Employing theoretical ideas from Butler’s Gender Trouble (1999) and Bodies That Matter (2003), this qualitative descriptive study analyzes the performative nature of gender. It exposes the constraints which the normative matrix of binaries inflicts on sex, gender, and desire of Muslim migrant and refugee characters living in non-Muslim spaces. Moreover, the paper investigates the role of religion, ethnicity, and cross-national gender differences in instilling dominant gender discourses in the minds of the migrants. The findings of this study reveal that the characters produce alternative discourses of agency, transformation and voluntarism against hegemonic gender norms while relying heavily on the processes of gender slippage and role reversal. Keywords: gender, Exit West, Butler, gender slippage, migrants

Gender, affect, and math: a cross-national meta-analysis of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015 outcomes

Understanding why women are consistently underrepresented in STEM fields has been a constant puzzle, with a consistent feature of the puzzle being performance in math. This study uses data from TIMSS exams to investigate cross-national gender differences in math-related affect, more precisely liking mathematics, confidence in mathematics, and valuing mathematics. We compared fourth and eighth graders to track any differences in these gender-related affective characteristics. Our findings suggest that despite the variability and some changes to the magnitude and direction of gender differences in math affect, boys and girls are similar. We also found that cross-national sociocultural, political, and educational equality of adults does not necessarily predict positive affect for both genders. In fact, the researchers found that some countries with a smaller adult gender gaps have students with higher gender differences in mathematics-relevant affect.

Video gaming and gender differences in digital and printed reading performance among 15-year-olds students in 26 countries

Video games are a favorite leisure-time activity among teenagers worldwide. This study examines cross-national gender differences in reading achievement and video gaming and whether video gaming explains gender differences in reading achievement and differences in performance between paper-based and computer-based reading. We use data from a representative sample of 145,953 students from 26 countries who sat the PISA 2012 assessments and provided self-reports on use of video games. Although boys tend to have poorer results in both the computer-based and the paper-based reading assessments, boys' under achievement is smaller when the assessment is delivered on computer than when it is delivered on paper. Boys underperformance compared to girls in the two reading assessments is particularly pronounced among low-achieving students. Among both boys and girls moderate use of single-player games is associated with a performance advantage. However, frequent engagement with collaborative online games is generally associated with a steep reduction in achievement, particularly in the paper-based test and particularly among low-achieving students. Excessive gaming may hinder academic achievement, but moderate gaming can promote positive student outcomes. In many countries video gaming explains the difference in the gender gap in reading between the paper-based and the computer-based assessments.

Cross-national gender differences in complex problem solving and their determinants

The present study examined cross-national gender differences in domain-general complex problem solving (CPS) and their determinants. A CPS test relying on the MicroDYN approach was applied to a sample of 890 Hungarian and German high school students attending 8th to 11th grade. Results based on multi-group confirmatory factor analyses showed that measurement invariance of CPS was found across gender and nationality. Analyses of latent mean differences revealed that males outperformed females and German students outperformed Hungarian students. However, these results were caused by Hungarian females performing worse than all other groups. Further analyses of logfiles capturing process data of the interaction of participants with the task showed that Hungarian females less often used vary-one-thing-at-a-time strategy, which lead to considerably worse knowledge acquisition. Results imply that analyzing process data such as use of strategies is highly advisable to identify determinants of overall performance differences in CPS across groups of interest.

Cross-national gender differences in the socioeconomic factors associated with smoking in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea

We compared rates of smoking among those aged 45years and older in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea, and examined cross-national gender differences in key socioeconomic differentials in smoking. We conducted weighted analyses on cross-sectional data from nationally representative surveys conducted in 2006. Current smoking was more prevalent for males than females in all countries; the gender difference was largest in Korea. Being unpartnered increased the likelihood of smoking in all countries, while greater wealth reduced it. In Korea, these effects interacted with gender; both indicators showed larger differentials among women than men. Lower educational attainment increased the likelihood of smoking for all groups except Korean women, among whom high school educated women were less likely to smoke than the tertiary educated. Our findings support a cultural interpretation of gender differences in smoking: in countries with low gender empowerment, gender differences in smoking are greater. With increasing divorce and female tertiary education rates in nations like Korea, we highlight the need for health promotion messages targeted towards older and more educated women.

Cross-national gender differences in behavior in a threshold public goods game: Japan versus Canada

To investigate the effects of gender and national culture on economic behavior, we compare all-male and all-female groups from Japan and Canada in the context of a threshold public goods game with a strong free-riding equilibrium and many socially efficient threshold equilibria. Females and Canadians exhibit higher levels of conformity when compared with males and Japanese, respectively. However, such symmetric group behavior translates into significantly tighter equilibrium convergence only for Canadian females. Canadians, particularly Canadian females, are more successful at providing the public good than Japanese. The results suggest that the prevalence of different notions of self-construal may affect behavior.

Varieties of Capitalism and Cross-National Gender Differences

The varieties of capitalism (VoC) approach (Hall and Soskice 2001 for an introduction) did not develop as an attempt to explain cross-national gender relations. It was the insight of Estevez-Abe that it could be used in gender analysis (Estevez-Abe this volume). She built on Iversen’s argument that the patterns of business and individual investments in skills implied by VoC could explain complementarities between welfare state regimes and varieties of capitalism (Estevez-Abe et al. 2001; Iversen 2005). These arguments are summarized shortly. This issue of Social Politics shows at least to my reading that VoC offers a range of important insights and tools of comparative analysis; but as Charles points out (this volume) many key characteristics of occupational segregation are common across advanced economies—blue collar work for example is seldom done by women anywhere. VoC is useful then in explaining comparative differences. In this commentary I first sketch out the VoC approach and why it implies that wage determination and skill formation systems differ substantially across economies. Using these two institutional differences the Estevez-Abe argument is set out the links between varieties of capitalism and welfare states are established and a number of implications for cross-national gender differences are drawn. Finally the relation between VoC and political systems are discussed. (excerpt)

Cross-National Gender Differences in Behavior in a Threshold Public Goods Game: Japan versus Canada

To investigate the effects of gender and national culture on economic behavior, we compare all-male and all-female groups from Japan and Canada in the context of a threshold public goods game with a strong free-riding equilibrium and many socially efficient threshold equilibria. Females and Canadians exhibit higher levels of conformity when compared with males and Japanese respectively. However, such symmetric group behavior translates into significantly tighter equilibrium convergence only for Canadian females. Canadians, particularly Canadian females, are more successful at providing the public good than Japanese. The results suggest that the prevalence of different notions of self-construal, may affect behavior.

Cross-National Gender Differences in Mathematics Achievement, Attitude, and Self-Efficacy within a Common Intrinsic Structure

Because of a marked increase in the Canadian immigrant and refugee population in recent years, school psychologists today are frequently called upon to make recommendations concerning the learning needs of students from many diverse backgrounds and cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine possible gender as well as cultural differences in mathematics attitude, achievement, and self-efficacy between Canadian high school students and English-speaking high school students from a northern city in India. Although the participants, tested in their home countries, were administered the same battery of measures, the findings revealed, among other things, significant multivariate and corresponding univariate country, gender, and country x gender interaction effects. The importance of these findings for the practice of school psychology is discussed.

Cross-National Gender Differences in Adolescents' Preferences for Free-Time Activities

According to a procedure developed by Sundberg and Tyler, adoles cents (904, 14 to 16 years of age) from Cyprus, India, the Nether lands, and the United States listed all the free-time activities they could think of, checking those they would consider for themselves. In each sample boys checked relatively more sports activities and more group activities as possible for themselves than did girls, although the result for sports in Cyprus was of borderline signifi cance. The pervasive gender differences in the use of free time correspond with widespread gender-trait stereotyping and may reflect differential socialization practices for girls and boys.