Considering issues of the functional equivalence of the gender role battery of ISSP, across time and space, we consider whether the apparent trend reversal in egalitarianism is artefact or real. The paper analyzes the change of gender role attitudes from 1988 through 2002 along two dimensions: the consequences of female labor force participation for the children and a general gender role ideology. Each dimension is measured both by two core items which can be regarded as equivalent across countries and by an index consisting of three items one of which shows considerable problems of equivalence. We focus on those countries for which we have data for all three points in time (1988, 1994, and 2002), i.e. Austria, western Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Hungary. While in countries that have established long time series for gender role attitudes a liberal trend could be demonstrated to operate at least from the 70ies through the 90ies, scholars are discussing a possible trend reversal in more recent times. Using the two-item index, what is revealed is less a trend reversal than a leveling off of the liberal trend. This is particularly true of Great Britain and the United States, which were already characterized by less traditional attitudes; whereas in most of the countries with more traditional attitudes, the liberal trend is continuing (in particular: Austria and western Germany). However, using the three-item index, a marked trend reversal is revealed in many countries. This trend reversal, however, is not real but a methodological artifact. Though internationally comparative research is seen as an excellent possibility to promote theoretical and methodological progress in the social sciences (e.g. Kohn, 1987) the potential pitfalls in comparing countries are clearly seen (e.g. Jowell, 1998; Kuchler, 1998). Johnson (1998) finds more than 50 approaches on equivalence in the literature which, however, overlap to a high degree. On a general level one can follow the definition proposed by Alwin et al. (1994: 30): One common understanding of functional equivalence of items (questions) is when questions asked in different countries stand in identical relationships to the intended theoretical dimensions. Communication in surveys is standardized to a high degree (Schwarz, 1996). According to the principles of cooperation outlined by Grice (1975), contributions in a communication should be clear, relevant, informative and true. The social-cognition approach holds that respondents will abide by the principle of cooperation and deduce missing information and thus clarify unclear questions from the context made up by the introductory text, similar questions, etc (Sudman, et al., 1996). For interculturally comparative