Egalitarian Contexts Research Articles

Trends in Women’s Educational Advantage and Divorce in East and West Germany

Couples in which wives have more education than their husbands have been found to be more likely than other couples to divorce. But this relationship varies across time and place. We compare the relationship between spouses’ relative education and marital dissolution across four birth cohorts born between 1951 and 1990 in East and West Germany using 37 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2021) and Cox proportional hazard models. The comparison between East and West Germany provides contrasting levels and trends in women’s education, employment, and gender cultures, with East Germany persistently being a more gender egalitarian context compared to West Germany. Our results show that marriages in which wives have more education than their husbands are less stable in West Germany, but not in East Germany, where the point estimates indicate that these couples are more stable than other couples, but this association is not statistically significant. We do not find evidence of cohort change in these associations in either East or West Germany. These findings are consistent with the idea that the consequences of non-traditional gender arrangements are weaker in more egalitarian contexts and confirm that notable differences between East and West Germany persist after reunification. * This article belongs to a special issue on “Changes in Educational Homogamy and Its Consequences”.

Women away from the altar! Resistance to the gender equality pressures in the Polish organisations of the Catholic Church in England, Sweden, and Belgium

ABSTRACT This article examines the practices that maintain the gender asymmetry in transnational migratory religious organisations, as exemplified by the Polish organisations of the Roman Catholic Church (so-called Polish Catholic Missions). Based on interviews with women and men involved in these structures as well as on our observations during fieldwork, we reconstruct the gendered division of work in such organisations, with a special focus on differentiation within the area of religious functions. Drawing on integrative theories of gender (especially of Raewyn Connell) and on the new institutionalist understanding of organisations, we investigate how and why these transnational religious bodies resist the normative pressures regarding gender equality stemming from the egalitarian contexts in which they function (England, Belgium, and Sweden).

Women leading the audit process and audit fees: A European study

This study investigates if a gender effect exists on the audit fees associated with the presence of women in roles closely related to the audit process. The analysis is based on the largest European corporations studied between 2016 and 2018. The results show that firms with female chief financial officers and more female directors on the audit committee pay significantly lower audit fees than other firms. However, the results for the remaining gender variables (audit partner, chair of the audit committee, and chief executive officer) do not show any association. Additionally, we find that accounting expertise drives the association between female directors and audit fees. Therefore, neither non-expert female directors nor, more surprisingly, female directors who are labelled as financial experts, have any significant effects on audit fees. Another interesting finding is that the gender variables provide significant results when they are observed in more gender egalitarian contexts, though not in less egalitarian settings. These results have interesting implications at various levels.

How does the institutional context affect the risk of substitution faced by women and men?

This paper aims to investigate how the institutional context considered in light of the level of gender equality explains the difference in the risk of substitution faced by men and women. To this end, the probability of automation of European occupation is estimated and it is analysed how it is influenced by the gender of the worker. We found that in contexts where gender equality is higher, female workers face a lower risk compared to contexts with a lower gender equality. However, the protection enjoyed by female workers is reduced in less egalitarian contexts because, due to barriers regarding the participation in formal and non-formal education and training, women are not able to acquire the necessary skills to protect themselves from the risk of substitution.

High-Risk Contexts for Violence Against Women: Using Latent Class Analysis to Understand Structural and Contextual Drivers of Intimate Partner Violence at the National Level.

Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects 1 in 3 women and poses a major human rights threat and public health burden, yet there is great variation in risk globally. Whilst individual risk factors are well-studied, less research has focussed on the structural and contextual drivers of IPV and how these co-occur to create contexts of high risk. Methods: We compiled IPV drivers from freely-accessible global country-level data sources and combined gender inequality, natural disasters, conflict, colonialism, socioeconomic development and inequality, homicide and social discrimination in a latent class analysis, and identified underlying 'risk contexts' based on fit statistics and theoretical plausibility (N=5,732 country-years; 190 countries). We used multinomial regression to compare risk contexts according to: proportion of population with disability, HIV/AIDS, refugee status, and mental health disorders; proportion of men with drug use disorders; men's alcohol consumption; and population median age (N=1,654-5,725 country-years). Finally, we compared prevalence of physical and/or sexual IPV experienced by women in the past 12 months across risk contexts (N=3,175 country-years). Results: Three distinct risk contexts were identified: 1) non-patriarchal egalitarian, low rates of homicide; 2) patriarchal post-colonial, high rates of homicide; 3) patriarchal post-colonial conflict and disaster-affected. Compared to non-patriarchal egalitarian contexts, patriarchal post-colonial contexts had a younger age distribution and a higher prevalence of drug use disorders, but a lower prevalence of mental health disorders and a smaller refugee population. IPV risk was highest in the two patriarchal post-colonial contexts and associated with country income classification. Conclusions: Whilst our findings support the importance of gender norms in shaping women's risk of experiencing IPV, they also point towards an association with a history of colonialism. To effectively address IPV for women in high prevalence contexts, structural interventions and policies are needed that address not only gender norms, but also broader structural inequalities arising from colonialism.

Pensar o direito humano à educação

Pensar o direito humano à educação e sua efetivação, ou não, em diferentes espaçostempos educativos exige investigar práticaspolíticas, em busca de indícios de contribuição à emancipação social que neles se possa produzir. Com esta compreensão metódica de como investigar direito humano à educação, o texto visa a discutir ideias produzidas por pesquisadorxs em múltiplas intervenções no mundo da vida e que convergem, nos modos e nas formas de concebê-las, para consolidar alguns princípios, entre eles a dignidade humana, do que tem sido chamado direito à educação. Tratar desse direito para jovens, adultxs e idosxs motiva em grande parte as reflexões do texto, pelo entendimento de que o exercício do direito requer acesso a conhecimentos em contextos igualitários e plurais que respeitem conhecimentos anteriores e garantam a livre participação democrática, em que direitos individuais e sociais à aprendizagem e à cidadania digna sejam exercidos por todxs. Focando na vivência de políticaspráticas educativas cotidianas que caminham nessa direção, porque desenvolvendo a solidariedade e relações mais democráticas entre sujeitos, conhecimentos e culturas, xs autorxs finalizam perguntando como essas ações contribuem para que nesses cotidianos se amplie o caráter emancipatório dessas iniciativas, enquanto se amadurece a crítica como dispositivo de reflexõesações mais efetivas.

Local loops and micro-mobilities of care: Rethinking care in egalitarian contexts

This introduction to the Special Issue Local loops and micro-mobilities of care: Rethinking care in egalitarian contexts argues for the importance of analysing local organizations of care. This is a necessary addition to current scholarship which has focused on the globalization of care. Yet, in many parts of the world, such as the Northern and Eastern European countries, on which this issue focuses, care provision continues to be mainly local and migrant care workers are complementary. Nevertheless, the daily organization of care can be as complex as in the global care chains. To address this local complexity, we propose two concepts: the notion of local care loops and care as patchwork. The concept of local care loops is a sensitizing one that emphasizes routine, daily practices and micro-mobilities of care that create loops around daily practices of care. Patchwork refers to practices that are simultaneously routinized activities but that are also changing from day to day, depending on the available resources and constraints (of time, money, and caregivers), as well as the local geographies and distances that need to be connected in the loops. The introduction also presents the six articles that make up this Special Issue. The articles identify similarities and differences in processes related to the commodification of childcare and transforming gender ideologies in post-socialist and social-democratic welfare societies.

Spousal resources and relationship quality in eight European countries

ABSTRACTWe relate relationship satisfaction and thoughts about leaving a romantic relationship to a couple’s relative and absolute resources and check for context-dependency of those associations. Our theoretical point of departure is that the more resources women have compared to their spouses, the higher their intra-household bargaining power to negotiate themselves out of unpleasant tasks, particularly in gender-egalitarian and very income equal and unequal societies. In traditional societies (which score low on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)), the inflexible role of men within the household presumably prevents women from bargaining a better position, which in turn negatively affects relationship quality. Income equality (low GINI coefficient) may be a prerequisite for women’s bargaining position, where more inequality (mid-GINI) may be detrimental for it. Nevertheless, extreme income inequality (high GINI) may again be favorable for women’s relationship power. Using country fixed effects models on data from the Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS), we compare men and women who are in a couple (formed after 1995) for eight European countries. We find that absolute resources matter more than relative resources, at least for relationship satisfaction: Higher educated couples are more satisfied with their relationships, which could suggest lower stress levels in those couples (in more traditional contexts). Second, we observe GINI context-dependency of the association between relative education and relationship satisfaction for women and relative education and exit thoughts for men, although opposite to what we expected. Perhaps reference group theory or gender display theory can explain these unexpected results. Finally, we find that women have more break-up plans in societies with a lower score on GEM. This last result is consistent with the notion that bargaining only works in egalitarian contexts.

The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes Toward Gender Roles Among Adolescents in 36 Countries

In the present article, we look at attitudes toward gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying multilevel models to data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a) both young women and young men (in 8th grade; Mage = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b) young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and (d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between maternal employment and young men’s attitudes. Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings also indicate that young women are more responsive to external cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women, is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from being reached.

Inflating and down playing strengths and weaknesses—Practicing gender in the evaluation of potential managers and partners

In this paper we contribute to the debate on gender in evaluation decisions and the male norm in management by examining how the skills and experience of women and men are described and interpreted in the evaluation of candidates’ potential for future positions in a Swedish bank and a Dutch professional services firm. By drawing on Martin’s concept of practicing gender, we show how strengths and weaknesses are discursively constructed in real time and space. We identify four different and subtle patterns of practicing gender in the evaluation of men and women in which men’s strengths are inflated and their weaknesses downplayed, while women’s strengths are downplayed and weaknesses inflated. Although women are included in the process and seen as competent, their potential is – in general – limited to lower managerial levels. Moreover, we examine the entanglement of gender and age. We discuss how these patterns of practicing gender can help us understand how gender and other inequalities are reproduced in seemingly gender egalitarian contexts where women and men are considered for higher positions.

Is solidarity less important and less functional in egalitarian contexts?

Solidarity refers to a willingness to contribute to the welfare of other people. This study builds on the idea that not only the value of solidarity (i.e. whether people find solidarity important) but also the function of solidarity (i.e. whether solidarity results in reputational gains) can differ across societies. According to the literature, egalitarian contexts can either have a normative effect by promoting the value of solidarity and increasing the reputational gains of solidarity, or they can have a crowding-out effect by diminishing the value of solidarity and weakening the reputational gains resulting from solidarity. The current study investigates these conflicting ideas using individual-level data (N = 195,024) from the European Social Survey (ESS), which combines six waves of cross-sectional studies collected in 28 countries from 2002 to 2012. The results show that both the value of solidarity and the function of solidarity are weaker in egalitarian contexts, supporting the crowding-out hypothesis. In inegalitarian contexts individual solidarity is more valued and it serves more as a function for promoting higher reputational gains as compared to egalitarian contexts. The combination of between- and within-country over-time empirical evidence adds to the strength of these findings.

Gendered Activism

Despite an established tradition of comparative research that focuses on gender differences in the amount of protest, relatively little cross-national research examines gender differences in the kinds of protest. This study examines gender differences in types of protest using data from seven advanced capitalist democracies in the 1994–2004 waves of the World Values Surveys. Multinomial logistic regression models indicate that while men and women have similar levels of protest activity, there are gender differences in the forms of protest in which they participate. Specifically, women are more likely than men to engage in nonconfrontational activities. By contrast, men are more likely to be involved with forms of activism that involve confrontational activities. The results also suggest gender ideology plays a crucial role in creating the conditions that foster gendered forms of activism. In egalitarian contexts, women are more likely than men to participate in a wide array of protest activities. Evidence of gendered activism reinforces the argument that gender organizes protest politics in ways that undermine political equality.

The social benefits of initial vocational education and training for individuals in Europe

This article investigates the social benefits of initial vocational education and training (VET) for individuals in different European contexts. Drawing on data from the European Community Household Panel, results show that initial VET is associated with positive changes in social outcomes for individuals across Europe. Health benefits were mainly found in egalitarian contexts such as Sweden whereas benefits in terms of civic participation were mainly found in countries that reward participation in civil society such as Sweden and Austria or where participation in voluntary activities may be seen as an insurance to avoid falling into unemployment, for instance in Italy, Greece, and Spain. Overall, the benefits of initial VET for individuals are possibly where there are institutional factors that support the formation of these benefits.

Administrative Justice: A Libertarian Cinderella in Search of an Egalitarian Prince

This article argues that the political significance of the Coalition government's proposed changes to administrative justice, including the abolition of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, is in danger of passing unnoticed, despite its potential significance for the Big Society agenda. It suggests that the retrieval of genuine perspective lies in paying closer attention both to the contemporary importance of administrative justice and to the political debates of the 1950s and 1960s, which set opposing views of administrative justice in broadly libertarian and egalitarian contexts respectively. It concludes that the recovery in particular of an egalitarian account of administrative justice is necessary to animate, and rebalance, the debate. Administrative justice might then be perceived as an essential part of a broader political vision and a significant aspect of social justice more ambitiously conceived.

Divergence of nature myths and social relations: Polish state foresters between hierarchical and egalitarian contexts

On the basis of a survey among Polish foresters, the socio-cultural context of the Polish state forest organization is explored. The study is based upon Grid-group cultural theory, which assumes four political cultures (hierarchical, egalitarian, individualistic, fatalistic). These cultures comprise different perceptions of nature, compassed as nature myths. Yet testing the influence of the adherence to these nature myths on some variables (organizational level, main tasks, years in forestry, gender) showed that they are not a highly discriminating factor in this regard. However, they seem to influence opinions on the need for adaptation to climate change. Those foresters adhering to the hierarchical nature myth, who are the majority, consider it to be less important than the other foresters. Through additional measurements, it could also be shown that the socio-cultural context of state foresters is not only hierarchical, but also egalitarian. This is attributed to the particularities of the foresters’ work that requires flexibility when dealing with nature.

Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy (review)

Reviewed by: Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy Marla Brettschneider Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy, edited by Rachel Elior. Jerusalem and New York: Urim Publications, Lambda Publishers, Inc. and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 2004. 214 pp. $22.00. Elior's most recent edited publication, Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy, is a collection of essays originating from papers prepared for a 1998 conference held in Jerusalem. The conference, of the same name, was organized to explore "the changing meanings of gender reality within Israeli culture" (p. 11), and was sponsored by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The contributors to the book, and former participants in the conference, are engaged in an "ongoing dialogue between tradition and progress and between Judaism and democracy" (p. 14). The Framework for Contemporary Jewish Thought and Identity at Van Leer conducts the ongoing dialogue. As a (U.S.) political philosopher whose training is in democratic theory and whose work crosses critical theory and Jewish political theory, I am one feminist theorist who would love to participate in such a dialogue. Given the range of fields of specializations covered in the collection, I am sure many U.S. scholars would [End Page 156] appreciate such an opportunity to meet over time for concerted discussion under similar auspices. With this slim volume, some of the fruits of what I can only assume is a lively and challenging exchange are now available to those beyond the circle meeting through Jerusalem's Van Leer. As is often the case in volumes produced from conference papers, the articles are uneven: in length, in method, analytic frame, etc. Also, the use of gender as a somewhat "unifying" lens does not necessarily mean that each piece offers a "feminist" analysis, that the writers all understand themselves as feminists, or that there is a single feminist approach among the feminists. This, however, does not mean that there aren't many significant contributions made in the collection, and much material that could be very useful for additional feminist work. The volume is organized into four conceptual sections: pieces addressing questions of law, history, socio-religious encounters in the past, and the educational process. Many use what the editor and authors term "a gender perspective." Clarification of what that means, and its relation to various forms of feminist scholarship and debate in the academy and society, would have been helpful. The volume offers interesting pieces on such wide-ranging subjects as suffrage, divorce law, a religious minyan, the Haskalah, and monogamy from a variety of gender-based perspectives. Orit Kamir presents a constructive argument for using the notion of "human dignity" in legal arenas in the Israeli context where appeals to gender equality have little efficacy, such as in religious courts. Many pieces in the volume attempt to make sense of a divide perceived between secular democratic arenas and what are called religious or traditional oppressive arenas in Israel. In a poignant example, in forming a minyan on a kibbutz, Chana Safrai asks why Israeli men may make inegalitarian presumptions regarding representation even within highly egalitarian contexts. Although not every piece addresses operative challenges to gender equality in Israel, it is interesting to note the tone and nature of the explorations coming from scholars for whom political analyses occur within the context of a Jewish state. Worthy of analysis itself is the comparative need for and nature of gender-based political philosophy where Judaism, as in the title of the text, is inherently central (though certainly in different ways) to authoritative structures and in diaspora contexts where what is called Jewish may or may not be religious and must make a claim as authoritative. Living outside of Israel I find this potential comparison a fascinating, probably unintended, sub-text of the volume. I also find the intensity of the need for democracy as a strategy for gender justice palpable in the essays in a way that I would venture would be less so in Jewish feminist collections outside Israel. [End Page 157] Elior and some of the contributors are clear that "democracy" is not static and that there may be differences between democratic ideals and democracies in practice. The tradition...

Gender Ideologies, Relative Resources, and the Division of Housework in Intimate Relationships: A Test of Hyman Rodman's Theory of Resources in Cultural Context

Based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), the theory of resources in cultural context proposed by Hyman Rodman (1967, 1970) is tested by analyzing the impact of spouses' relative resources on the division of housework in egalitarian, transitional, and traditional cultural contexts. It is found that the relative resources of the spouses are effective not only in transitional cultural contexts, but that they actually have a greater impact on the division of housework in transitional contexts than in egalitarian or traditional contexts. In accordance with Rodman's theory, this article shows that the division of housework between spouses is not easily explained by either relative resources or gender ideologies, and interaction effects are found to be significant.