scholarly journals Trends in U.S. Gender Attitudes, 1977 to 2018: Gender and Educational Disparities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311985169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey D. Meagher ◽  
Xiaoling Shu
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Educational Difference ◽  
Attitude Measures ◽  
Educational Groups ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
Familial Roles

These figures display gender- and education-related gaps in U.S. gender attitudes from 1977 to 2018. The authors use data from the General Social Survey ( N = 57,224) to estimate the historical trajectory of U.S. attitudes about women in politics, familial roles, and working motherhood. Of all attitudes analyzed, Americans hold the most liberal attitudes toward women in politics, with no gender gap and little educational difference on this issue. Attitudes toward familial roles have the largest educational gap but a small gender difference. The gender gap in attitudes toward working motherhood has persisted over time, with women holding more egalitarian attitudes than men. The educational disparity on this issue disappeared during the mid-1990s “stalled gender revolution” but has widened since. Although the “stall” occurred among all gender and educational groups on all four gender attitude measures, the decline was starkest among the college educated regarding working motherhood.

Attitudes and the Stalled Gender Revolution: Egalitarianism, Traditionalism, and Ambivalence from 1977 through 2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Scarborough ◽  
Ray Sin ◽  
Barbara Risman
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Empirical studies show that though there is more room for improvement, much progress has been made toward gender equality since the second wave of feminism. Evidence also suggests that women’s advancements have been more dramatic in the public sphere of work and politics than in the private sphere of family life. We argue that this lopsided gender progress may be traced to uneven changes in gender attitudes. Using data from more than 27,000 respondents who participated in the General Social Survey from 1977 through 2016, we show that gender attitudes have more than one underlying dimension and that these dimensions have changed at different rates over time. Using latent class analysis, we find that the distribution of respondents’ attitudes toward gender equality has changed over the past 40 years. There has been an increase in the number of egalitarians who support equality in public and private spheres, while the traditionals who historically opposed equality in both domains have been replaced by ambivalents who feel differently about gender equality in the public and private spheres. Meanwhile, successive birth cohorts are becoming more egalitarian, with Generation-Xers and Millennials being the most likely to hold strong egalitarian views. The feminist revolution has succeeded in promoting egalitarian views and decreasing the influence of gender traditionalism, but has yet to convince a substantial minority that gender equality should extend to both public and private spheres of social life

scholarly journals Who is afraid of more women in politics, and why? An analysis of public opinion in 28 European countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimiter Toshkov ◽  
Giulia Cretti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Masculine Culture

We study how individual and country-level variables interact in affecting political gender attitudes in Europe. Based on data from the 2017 Eurobarometer survey, we show that there are high levels of support for more women in politics and legal measures to achieve gender parity across the EU. In fact, more people, and women in particular, put higher trust in female compared to male political representatives than the other way round. We find that – at the individual level – gender, age and education have significant effects on political gender attitudes. Contrary to theory, however, the effect of gender is not mediated by beliefs about the proper role of women in politics and society. We also do not find support for the contextual effects of masculine culture and the religiosity of society, but we do uncover significant gaps in political gender attitudes between post-communist and other countries, especially for men. This gap is very significant in size and declines only marginally with the age of the respondent. Our study identifies men in post-communist countries as the group least likely to trust female politicians and support gender parity in politics in Europe. These attitudes are at least partly independent from stereotypes about gender roles.

Mentoring the Next Generation of Women Candidates: A Field Experiment of State Legislators

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarina Rhinehart
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Women Legislators ◽  
Specific Advice ◽  
Gender Specific

This experiment sent state legislators an email from an individual seeking advice on running for office, varying the gender and party of the sender. This project explores two inquiries—who the legislators choose to respond to and how the legislators’ own gender and partisan identities shape that decision. I theorize that women in politics is a salient issue for legislators; therefore, they will be more willing to advise politically ambitious women. Overall, I find that legislators are more willing to offer help when the aspirant is a woman and of the same party. When primed to further consider women in politics, legislators are more likely to offer gender-specific advice. Democrats rather than women legislators drive this heightened responsiveness to the woman aspirant. These findings highlight what role public officials can play in closing the candidate gender gap, and how legislators’ multiple identities intersect and frame their decisions to aid political aspirants.

The gender gap in work–life balance satisfaction across occupations

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 398-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Dilmaghani ◽  
Vurain Tabvuma
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Data Limitations

Purpose The purpose of this study is to compare the gender gaps in work–life balance satisfaction across occupations. Due to data limitations, the studies of work–life balance satisfaction have generally relied on researcher collected data. As a result, large-scale studies encompassing all occupations in the same social and policy context are rare. In several cycles of the Canadian General Social Survey, the respondents are directly asked about their work–life balance (WLB) satisfaction. The present paper takes advantage of this unique opportunity to compare the gender gap in WLB satisfaction across occupations in Canada. Design/methodology/approach This paper pools four cross-sectional datasets (N = 37,335). Multivariate regression analysis is used. Findings Women in management and education are found to have a lower WLB satisfaction than their male counterparts. Conversely, and rather surprisingly, a WLB satisfaction advantage is found for women in transport over males in this occupation. Further investigation shows that the female WLB advantage in transport is driven by the relatively low WLB satisfaction of males in this occupation, while the opposite is true for education. Social implications The findings are discussed in light of the WLB policies and their increasing gender-blindness. Originality/value This paper is the first large-scale study which compares the gender gap in WLB satisfaction across occupations, in a given policy context.

Adolescents' Attitudes toward Women in Politics:

1987 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIANE GILLESPIE ◽  
CASSIA SPOHN
Keyword(s):  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Women In Politics

Conventional Sex Differences in Personality: Does Sex or Verbal Ability Level Account for More Variance?

1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 931-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Potts ◽  
Walter T. Plant ◽  
Mara L. Southern
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
California Psychological Inventory ◽  
Ability Level ◽  
Ability Levels ◽  
Attitude Measures ◽  
Independent Variable ◽  
Psychological Inventory

Subjects were 106 students categorized into four groups on the basis of their sex and verbal ability: very bright men ( n = 23), very bright women ( n = 30), below average men ( n = 23) and below average women ( n = 30). Scores were also obtained from five scales of the California Psychological Inventory and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Six, 2(sex) × 2(ability levels) fixed effects factorial analyses of variance were computed yielding 12 F ratios. Estimates of ω2 were also computed for each significant F ratio. Four ω2 estimates of .02 to .11 were obtained for the independent variable of sex whereas five ω2 of .03 to .26 were obtained for the independent variable of ability level. In that four of the values of ω2 for ability were greater than any for the variable of sex, it was concluded that verbal ability better accounts for more variance in the personality-attitude measures used than does sex of subjects.

Why Won't Lola Run? An Experiment Examining Stereotype Threat and Political Ambition

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 232-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Pruysers ◽  
Julie Blais
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Among the most well-documented and long-standing gender gaps in political behavior are those relating to political ambition, as men have consistently been shown to express a significantly higher level of political ambition than women. Although this gap is well established, the reasons for the differences between men and women remain largely unknown. One possible explanation is that negative stereotypes about women's political ability are responsible. Stereotype threat, as it is referred to in the psychology literature, is a phenomenon where individuals of a social group suffer cognitive burdens and anxiety after being exposed to negative stereotypes that relate to their identity. These disruptions have been shown to alter attitudes and behavior. In order to test this possibility, we employed an experimental design whereby we randomly assigned 501 undergraduate students into threat and nonthreat conditions. While men exhibited higher levels of political ambition in both conditions, women in the nonthreat condition expressed significantly higher levels of political ambition than those women who were exposed to negative stereotypes. The results of this study therefore suggest that the gender gap in political ambition may be partly explained by negative stereotypes about women in politics.

The Measurement of Gender-Role Attitudes

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen C. McHugh ◽  
Irene Hanson Frieze
Keyword(s):  
Gender Role ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Gender Role Attitudes ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Occupational Activity ◽  
Gender Role Attitude ◽  
Attitude Measures ◽  
Attitude Scales ◽  
Sociohistorical Context

This article reviews measures of gender-role attitudes with an emphasis on The Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; Spence & Helmreich, 1972); the Sex Role Egalitarianism Scale (SRES; Beere, King, Beere, & King, 1984); the Modern Sexism Scale (MS; Swim, Aikin, Hall, & Hunter, 1995); the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI; Click & Fiske, 1996), and the Children's Occupational Activity Trait-Attitude Measure (COAT-AM; Bigler, Liben, Lobliner, & Yekel, 1995). The discussion of gender-role attitude measures focuses on the following themes: psychometric criteria; theoretical and conceptual distinctions among measures; domains of attitudes and behaviors included; relationship to other measures; and the meaningfulness and relevance of items. Gender-role attitude scales are viewed as measuring gender-role ideology in a particular sociohistorical context; context-specificity is viewed as contributing to the proliferation of scales, and as limiting the usefulness of scales across cultural and temporal boundaries.

scholarly journals Body Mass and Income: Gender and Occupational Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 9599
Author(s):  
Ping Li ◽  
Xiaozhou Chen ◽  
Qi Yao
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
Average Weight ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Occupational Structure ◽  
Health Capital ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Chinese General Social Survey

This paper aims to examine the influence of body shape on income, which varies with gender and occupational structure in China. The data were obtained from the CGSS (Chinese General Social Survey) 2010–2017 Survey. The overall finding in this paper is that women and men face different body shape–income effects. For females, the obesity penalty is significant and is reinforced with increasing occupational rank. For men, the thinness penalty (or weight premium) is enhanced as the occupational class decreases. Body shape–income gaps are mainly caused by the occupational structure. Twenty-nine percent of the income gap between overweight and average weight women can be explained by the obesity penalty, 37% of the income gap between overweight and average weight men can be interpreted by the weight premium, and 11% of the gap between underweight and normal weight men can be explained by the thinness penalty. The findings also suggest that the effect of body shape on income consists of two pathways: body shape affects health capital and socialization, and therefore income. Healthy lifestyles and scientific employment concepts should be promoted, and measures to close the gender gap should be implemented.

The Influence of Sexually Violent Rap Music on Attitudes of Men with Little Prior Exposure

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Wester ◽  
Cynthia L. Crown ◽  
Gerald L. Quatman ◽  
Martin Heesacker
Keyword(s):  
Rap Music ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Prior Exposure ◽  
Treatment Control ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Gangsta Rap ◽  
Sexual Beliefs ◽  
Sexually Violent ◽  
Attitude Measures ◽  
Music Lyrics

This article is among the first to focus on commercially available, sexually violent rap music, so-called “gangsta” rap (GR) and its influence on attitudes toward women. Collegiate males with little experience with GR were exposed to GR music, lyrics, both, or neither. Thus the effect of GR music and lyrics were isolated from each other and from acculturation to GR. Collapsing across all attitude measures, neither lyrics alone nor lyrics with music resulted in significantly more negative attitudes toward women than music-only or no-treatment control conditions. Participants in the lyrics conditions had significantly greater adversarial sexual beliefs than no-lyrics participants, however.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document