Egalitarian Gender Role Attitudes Research Articles

Investigation of Early Childhood and Primary School Education Teacher Candidates' Attitudes to Gender Roles in Terms of Gender, Grade, Mother’s and Father’s Education Levels

Gender inequality indeed persists as a pervasive issue worldwide, infiltrating numerous facets of society and impeding progress toward a more equitable and just world. Schools play a crucial role as essential institutions where children embark on their initial journey into social life, contributing to the formation of values, norms, and social relationships. During these early years, children observe, imitate, and internalize the words, behaviors, and attitudes of teachers, shaping their understanding of the world around them. Therefore, children's perceptions of gender and attitudes toward gender can be significantly influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of their teachers. This research aims to examine whether there are differences in the gender-role attitudes among pre-service early childhood and primary school teachers based on gender, grade level, mother's and father's education level. The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey model, and data were collected from 1st and 4th-grade students enrolled in Early Childhood and Primary School Education Programs at a university in Turkey. The data were collected using a Personal Information Form and the Gender Role Attitude Scale (GRAS). The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests in SPSS 22.0, and effect sizes were calculated. Analysis indicated that there were statistically significant differences in gender role attitudes between genders, grade level, and mother’s education level. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the scores based on the father's education level. Female teacher candidates were found to have more egalitarian gender role attitudes compared to male teacher candidates, and 4th-grade students exhibited more egalitarian attitudes than 1st-grade students. Additionally, it was observed that teacher candidates whose mothers were illiterate tended to have more traditional gender role attitudes compared to those whose mothers had primary school, middle school, high school, or college degrees.

Gender-role attitudes of university students: a cross-sectional study from Turkiye

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the gender-role attitudes of the students studying in the first year of different faculties of the same university and the factors that may be related to these attitudes.
 Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 1080 students studying in the first year of five different faculties of the same university. The data were collected by face-to-face interview method using a questionnaire including “Gender-Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS)” and sociodemographic characteristics of the students. In the analysis of the data, frequency, percentage and mean values were used for descriptive statistics, Pearson chi-square, one-way ANOVA test and T-Test were used for comparative analysis.
 Results: The mean GRAS score of the students was 147.70±27.77. Medical students had the highest GRAS score while the students of Faculty of Theology had the lowest. While the GRAS scores of the students who were female, whose mother was higher education graduated, and who was a member of a nuclear family were higher, the GRAS scores were lower for those with low economic status and whose only mother or father was the decision maker in their family.
 Conclusion: Increasing the education levels and employment rates of women will contribute to the development of egalitarian gender-role attitudes of individuals. In order to reveal the effect of religion on gender roles more clearly, there is a need for new studies that will enable more detailed analyzes to be made.

EXAMINING GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDE: THE ROLE OF FAMILY RELATIONS, SELF-ESTEEM, LOCUS OF CONTROL AND SELF-EFFICACY

The present study examined differences in egalitarianism and traditionalism in gender-role attitudes within students’ population at University of Nis. These attitudes were examined according to the intensity of four major social and psychological categories: family relations, global self-esteem, social self-efficacy and externality of locus of control. Also, possible discrimination between these two groups was investigated. Measuring instruments: The Attitudes toward gender equality scale (Ravlic & Raboteg-Šarić, 2002), Faces IV questionnaire (Olson & Gorrall, 2006), a self-concept scale (Bezinović, 1988) with subscales: General Self-esteem (Rosenberg scale) and Locus of control, Perceived Social Self-Efficacy (PSSE) Scale (Caprara & Steca, 2005). The research sample consisted of 390 students of the University of Niš from various faculties and field orientation toward natural and social sciences. For statistical analysis of the data, the analysis of variance and canonical discriminant analysis were used. According to the analyses, it was determined that persons with egalitarian gender-role tendency may be discriminated against those of traditional tendency based on the identified levels of cohesion and flexibility in family functioning, as well as intensity of global self-esteem and internal locus of a control. In organizing certain interventions, it is important to have in mind that overcoming traditional perceptions on gender roles and strengthening and improvement egalitarian gender-role attitudes of new generations should not be only scientific goal and research material. It also should be the first task and achievement of modern society and representation of what is the personification of justice, democracy, and equality and above all kindness and humanity.

Born to care (or not): How gender role attitudes affect occupational sorting

AbstractOccupation segregation explains a significant portion of the gender wage gap, with women working in lower paid female‐dominated occupations. We examine how childhood and adolescent exposure to gender biased norms about work influence this occupational sorting. We document that early life exposure to traditional gender role attitudes, which view women's role as caretakers, increase women's likelihood of employment in care occupations and decrease the likelihood for men, thereby increasing the gender care occupation gap. A decomposition of the factors affecting this sorting shows that a primary channel is through differences in the choice of post‐secondary field of study or major. Our results suggest that traditional gender role attitudes may work to segment the labor market for men and women and contribute to the gender wage gap. This suggests that more egalitarian gender role attitudes which increase the share of men entering care occupations would increase wages for both men and women, lowering the gender wage gap.

From attitudes to social networks: National gender-role attitudes and gender differences in late-life social relationships

Studies often find gender differences in social networks in later life, but are these findings universal, or do they differ in various cultural contexts? To address this research gap, the current study examines the association between gender differences in social relationships and country-level gender-role attitudes. We combined data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) of individuals aged 50 years and older with country-level data on gender-role attitudes from the European Values Survey (EVS) for 15 European countries. We estimated a series of multivariate hierarchical regression models that predicted the size of the personal social network, its emotional closeness, and the proportion of the spouse, children, and friends in the network. The results indicated gender differences in social network characteristics. Women reported larger social networks and were more likely to have larger proportions of children and friends but smaller proportions of the spouse in their social networks. The magnitude of gender differences was associated with country-level gender-role attitudes. In countries with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes, women had larger networks with a larger proportion of friends compared to men. In countries with more traditional gender-role attitudes, women had larger proportions of their children and spouse in their social networks and had emotionally closer networks. Our findings suggest that the societal context and opportunity structures for social interactions play an important role in shaping the structure of women’s and men’s social relationships in later life.

Changing gender role attitudes and the changing gender gap in labour force participation

This paper uses micro-data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine the relationship between gender role attitudes and the labour supply of men and women. Using the Wellington decomposition technique, the paper also considers how much of the change in the gender gap in labour force participation (LFP) between 2001/5 and 2015/19 may be explained by changes in the gender role attitudes of adult women and men. The results show a 6.5 percentage point convergence in the gender gap in LFP between the two periods. Nearly half the convergence arises from a change in the schooling attainment of men and women. Just over one-third is due to changes in gender role attitudes (faster adoption of egalitarian gender role attitudes by women).

Association between gender role attitudes and social support from mothers and paternal involvement in childcare

Objective Paternal involvement in child-rearing is an action goal of Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Tier 2), and should be actively promoted. Clarifying the related factors may contribute to countermeasures for promoting paternal involvement in child-rearing. This study aimed to examine the association between fathers' gender role attitudes and social support from their spouses (i.e., the mothers of the children) and their involvement in child-rearing.Methods We obtained the data of fathers involved in childcare (aged 25-50 years; all full-time workers) through an internet research company. The paternal involvement in childcare scale (11 items, 4-point scale, e.g., "taking care of children," "cooking") was used as the dependent variable. The independent variables were gender role attitude ("Husbands should work outside the home and wives should take care of the home," 4-point scale) and social support from the mothers of the children (including appraisal, emotional, and instrumental support). The control variables were father's age, mother's employment status, number of children, the age of the youngest child, children going to nursery school or kindergarten, use of childcare services, self-evaluation of low economic status, work hours on weekdays, and marital relationship satisfaction.Results The data of 360 men were analyzed (mean age 36.8 years, standard deviation 5.6). The results of the multivariable regression analyses with interaction terms are as follows: gender role attitude was significantly associated with childcare (β=-0.103) and housework (β=-0.125); appraisal support was significantly associated with childcare (β=0.142) and housework (β=0.199); and the interaction between gender role attitude and instrumental support was significant (β=0.176), indicating that, in individuals with a high gender role attitude score, a higher level of instrumental support was related to a higher childcare score (β=0.242).Conclusions Fathers with egalitarian gender role attitudes and those who receive appraisal support from the other parent are more likely to participate in childcare. In addition, fathers with traditional gender role attitudes who receive instrumental support from the other parent may tend to participate in childcare.

Which social contacts with natives matter? Attitudes towards gender roles of Muslim immigrants and their children in Western Europe

AbstractSocial contacts with mainstream individuals play a central role in acculturation. Yet, research has paid little attention to examining whether social contact with natives is linked to egalitarian gender role attitudes among Muslim immigrants and their children. Using a unique data set including 4584 Muslim immigrants and the second generation in six western European countries (EURISLAM), the study investigates whether public‐ and private‐sphere social contacts with natives are associated with attitudes towards women's employment and men's domestic roles. The findings show that immigrants and their children who report stronger private‐sphere social ties, that is native friends and family members, hold more egalitarian attitudes towards women's employment and men's domestic roles. However, public‐sphere social contacts (at the workplace and in the neighbourhood) are not associated with these attitudes. These results support theories stating that private‐sphere social contact with natives is important in gender role ideology acculturation among Muslim families.

Do men and women really have different gender role attitudes? Experimental insight on gender-specific attitudes toward paid and unpaid work in Germany

This article uses a novel experimental approach to measure whether men and women actually differ in their gender role attitudes. Recent research has shown that operationalizing gender role attitudes on a unidimensional scale ranging from “egalitarian” to “traditional” is problematic. Instead, their multidimensionality must to be taken into account. Similarly, an ideal measurement tool should consider that gender norms are applied conditionally, i.e., extensive information on the situational context must be provided. In this article, both preconditions are met by using a multifactorial survey experiment. The vignettes used in the survey experiment contain extensive contextual information on fictional couples' division of paid and unpaid work. In addition, the experimental variation of this information (e.g., the vignette persons' gender, the presence and age of children, and the partners' shares of paid and unpaid work) allows to disentangle the different dimensions that may influence (different) gender role attitudes of men and women. Results show no gender difference in attitudes: On average, men and women have “classical” egalitarian gender role attitudes.

Can robots reshape gender role attitudes?

In this paper, we study the impact of robotization on gender role attitudes in China. We show that robot adoption promotes egalitarian gender role attitudes; and the impact is statistically larger for women, urban, and younger generation subsamples. We provide evidence to show that the reshaping of gender role attitudes is mainly due to the improvement and rationalization of women's employment performance: robot adoption increases females' non-agricultural employment opportunity and their wage, and also improves females' relative economic status both in the workplace and in the household.

The Development of Gender Role Attitudes During Adolescence: Effects of Sex, Socioeconomic Background, and Cognitive Abilities

How gender role attitudes develop during adolescence, and how biological, social, and cognitive factors predict this development, remains a matter of debate. This study examines the development of gender role attitudes from early adolescence to emerging adulthood and investigates how the developmental trajectory is affected by sex, socioeconomic status, and cognitive abilities (intelligence). Four waves of the large-scale longitudinal German dataset BIJU between 1991 (grade 7; N = 3828, Mage = 13, SD = 0.61, 53.1% female, 96.4% German nationality), 1995 (grade 10, Mage = 17), 1997 (grade 12, Mage = 19) and 2001/2002 (university/career entry, Mage = 24) were used. Measurement invariance was examined across waves and gender. Latent growth curve models showed that adolescents developed more egalitarian gender role attitudes. Differences between the sexes decreased over time but remained significant. Socioeconomic status seemed less relevant, while adolescents, especially those with lower intelligence scores, developed more egalitarian gender role attitudes during adolescence. The results showed that teenagers developed more open and egalitarian attitudes during adolescence, and that the development trajectories of female and male adolescents converge.

Social norms and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from Turkey

ABSTRACT We use a novel two-step empirical strategy to examine the relationship between social norms and the gender gap in labour force participation (LFP) across provinces of Turkey. In the first step, we identify the unexplained part of the gender gap in LFP that remains after accounting for differences in observed characteristics between women and men for each province by implementing a decomposition method. In the second step, we investigate the role of social norms in explaining cross-province variation in the unexplained part. The results reveal that more egalitarian gender role attitudes, smaller gender gap in tertiary education, lower fertility and consanguineous marriage rates, and lower level of religiosity significantly predict a smaller unexplained part of the gender gap in LFP favouring males.

Delay of Gratification, Gender Role Attitudes, and Death Reflections Predict Death Anxiety.

Previous work has established that gender, age, and self-control can predict Death Anxiety (DA), the distress that centers around thoughts of one's mortality. However, it has not been determined if DA is associated with Delay of Gratification (DG; a tendency to forgo immediate rewards to receive a more favorable outcome in the future), attitudes toward gender roles (as compared to gender identity itself), and Death Reflections (DR; positive goals that occur when contemplating death). To examine these relations, 131 adults (45% women; aged 23-67 years) completed questionnaires that assess these constructs. We found that greater DG, egalitarian gender role attitudes, and engagement with DR were all associated with reduced DA. Gender identity was not associated with any variable, including DA. Age correlated independently with DA, but not when included in the regression models. These results demonstrate that elements of self-regulation and prosocial attitudes may predict baseline DA.

Gender preferences for robots and gender equality orientation in communication situations

AbstractThe individual physical appearances of robots are considered significant, similar to the way that those of humans are. We investigated whether users prefer robots with male or female physical appearances for use in daily communication situations and whether egalitarian gender role attitudes are related to this preference. One thousand adult men and women aged 20–60 participated in the questionnaire survey. The results of our study showed that in most situations and for most subjects, “males” was not selected and “females” or “neither” was selected. Moreover, the number of respondents who chose “either” was higher than that who chose “female.” Furthermore, we examined the relationship between gender and gender preference and confirmed that the effect of gender on the gender preference for a robot weakened when the human factor was eliminated. In addition, in some situations for android-type robots and in all situations for machine-type robots, equality orientation in gender role attitudes was shown to be higher for people who were not specific about their gender preferences. It is concluded that there is no need to introduce a robot that specifies its gender. Robots with a gender-neutral appearance might be more appropriate for applications requiring complex human–robot interaction and help avoid reproducing a gender bias.

Marriage Without Meaningful Consent and Compromised Agency in Married Life: Evidence From Married Girls in Jharkhand, India

PurposeMarriage without meaningful consent persists in India, yet early marriage programs have rarely addressed consent, and research on the practice and its consequences for married life is limited. This study explores how consent in marriage decisions affects married life, specifically, agency, gender attitudes, spousal communication, contraception, and marital violence outcomes. MethodsA subset of 1991 married girls and young women was drawn from a 2018 state-representative survey of adolescents and youth aged 15–21 years in Jharkhand. We compared outcomes between those in self-arranged marriages (n = 392), those in semi-arranged marriages who were acquainted with their husbands before marriage (n = 612), and those in fully parent-arranged marriages with no premarital contact (n = 995). Logistic regression analyses identify associations between marriage decision-making and outcomes of interest, controlling for confounding sociodemographic factors. ResultsCompared with girls whose marriages were self-arranged, those in both fully parent- and semi-arranged marriages were less likely, respectively, to make household decisions (odds ratios [OR], .37 and .60), hold egalitarian gender role attitudes (OR, .48 and .66), uphold girls' rights (OR, .41 and .48), communicate with their husbands (OR, .48 and .64), and practice contraception (OR, .51 and .67). Those in fully family-arranged marriages also had less freedom of movement (OR, .64) and were less likely to express self-efficacy (OR, .64). Marital violence was unrelated to marriage arrangements. ConclusionsSelf-arranged marriage is associated with more positive outcomes than family-arranged ones, including semi-arranged ones, but marriage arrangements are unrelated with marital violence. Findings reaffirm the need to breakdown prevailing patriarchal norms and promote girls' right to meaningful, “free and full consent”.

Perceptions of gender roles and freedom among Iranian international students in Hungary

This qualitative study investigated attitudes toward gender roles and perception of freedom among Iranian students (n = 20) in Hungary. Four topics were extracted from the abductive content analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts: (1) gender essentialism, (2) gender-role egalitarianism, (3) traditional gender stereotypes, and (4) gendered freedom. Results indicated that: many men adopted gender essentialism, although women did not; men held transitional gender-role attitudes, whereas women held egalitarian gender-role attitudes; men generally displayed greater gender stereotypes and sexism as compared to women; almost all students, regardless of gender, endorsed gender equality and freedom and reported feeling more freedom in Hungary than in Iran; although, women expressed greater outrage over gender inequality and put greater emphasis on gender role differences; some forms of freedom in Hungary seemed to be more of a privilege to one gender than the other (e.g., no veiling requirement for women and relaxed cross-gender relationship for men).

Genderrolhoudingen en modernisering: terug naar de essentie?

Gender role attitudes and modernisation: back to the essence? The influence of modernisation, self-expressive values, and educational level on gender role attitudes in Europe Despite several societal developments, such as educational expansion, the second wave of feminism, and modernisation, the trend towards more egalitarian gender role attitudes has stagnated. This study complements previous studies that explain this phenomenon by a growing focus on self-expressiveness and gender essentialism, which contradicts the initial expectations of modernisation theory. The aim of this contribution is to explore the role of modernisation at the country level in Europe, in the relation between educational level, self-expressive values, and gender role attitudes at the individual level. A multilevel model shows that more self-expressiveness and a higher educational level lead to more egalitarian attitudes. At the contextual level, self-expressiveness strengthens this relation. The results are in line with expectations from modernisation theory, rather than expectations from the egalitarian-essentialism hypothesis. The study closes with a discussion on the measurement of gender role attitudes, suggesting a multidimensional alternative. In addition, it is suggested that gender essentialism might influence behaviour, rather than attitudes. This provides implications for further research in uncovering the structural and cultural processes behind persisting gender inequality.

Working from home, work–family conflict, and the role of gender and gender role attitudes

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that societal norms around gender roles can shape gender-based outcomes of working from home. This paper extends these findings to see how individuals’ gender role attitudes can moderate the relationship between working from home and work–family conflict, but again with varying outcomes for men and women. We use data from around 3150 employees who participated in wave 10 (2017–2018) of the German Family Panel Survey (pairfam). Results suggest that compared to employees with fixed work locations, those who work from home report higher levels of family-to-work conflict, but not higher work-to-family conflict. Positive associations between working from home and both types of work – family conflict are found only for women, not for men. Specifically, the positive association between working from home and family-to-work conflict is mainly present among women with traditional gender role attitudes, while the positive association between working from home and work-to-family conflict is mainly present among women with egalitarian gender role attitudes. No such variation, however, was found for men. This study highlights the importance of taking gender and gender role attitudes into account when examining the consequences of working from home.

Has the New Natalism Reduced the Religious Fertility Advantage?

AbstractReligion has historically been a pronatalist force, but because it fosters traditional gender role attitudes, its importance for fertility has the potential to wane if gender equality is emerging as the new natalism. We used World Values Survey (WVS) data from 1989 to 2020 to determine whether the religious fertility advantage has changed over the last three decades, with a particular focus on low‐fertility countries where egalitarian gender role attitudes are most likely to support childbearing. The fertility advantage associated with holding traditional gender role attitudes has indeed decreased over time, but this had at best a minimal effect on the religious fertility advantage.

Gender Equity, Religion, and Fertility in Europe and North America

AbstractReligion has historically been a pronatalist force, but because it fosters traditional gender role attitudes, its importance for fertility may wane where gender equity is thought to be emerging as the new natalism. In this study, I used World Values Survey and European Values Survey data from 1989 to 2018 to determine whether more religious Northern countries are slower to develop the widespread egalitarian gender role attitudes associated with fertility recovery. I concluded that the “old natalism” and the “new natalism” do not compete with each other as much as their negative association implies that they might. By tracing the evolution of country‐level gender equity in more‐ and less religious countries of Europe and North America, I showed how country‐level religiosity does not dampen the potential for a gender equity‐stimulated fertility recovery. This paper also contributes by showing that the curvilinear relationship between gender equity and fertility has continued into more recent time periods than covered by previous work.