scholarly journals Is a “Christian America” a More Patriarchal America? Religion, Politics, and Traditionalist Gender Ideology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L Whitehead ◽  
Samuel Perry

Recent research shows that Americans who adhere to Christian nationalism―an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity and American civic life―tend to hold authoritarian and exclusionary attitudes, particularly regarding ethno-racial minorities and non-traditional family forms. Such findings suggest a fundamental connection between Christian nationalism and rigid symbolic boundaries, which would likely extend to Americans’ understanding of gender roles. Drawing on notions connecting religious nationalism with defenses of patriarchal norms and utilizing a recent national, random sample of American adults, the current study examines the link between contemporary Christian nationalism and traditionalist gender ideologies. Our analyses reveal that Christian nationalism is the strongest predictor of holding a more traditionalist gender ideology, even after taking into account a host of political and religious characteristics. Moreover, the relationship between Christian nationalism and gender traditionalism holds across religious traditions, including more gender-egalitarian groups like Mainline Protestants and even the unaffiliated. We conclude by highlighting the implications of these findings for understanding contemporary populist support for Donald Trump, which previous studies have shown is undergirded by both Christian nationalism and sexism.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Stefani ◽  
Gabriele Prati

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U- shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e. primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located. Traditional beliefs are linked to a complementary division of private versus public sphere between sexes, while egalitarian attitudes are associated with a more equitable division. Both conditions strengthen fertility. Instead, as in the transition phase, intermediate levels of gender ideology’s support are associated with an overload and a difficult reconciliation of the roles that women have to embody (i.e. working and nurturing) so reducing fertility. The present study has contributed to the literature by addressing the inconsistencies of prior research by demonstrating that the relationship between gender ideology and fertility rates is curvilinear rather than linear.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312098511
Author(s):  
Samuel Stroope ◽  
Heather M. Rackin ◽  
Paul Froese

Previous research has shown that Christian nationalism is linked to nativism and immigrant animus, while religious service attendance is associated with pro-immigrant views. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between religious ideologies and practices when considering how religion affects politics. Using a national sample of U.S. adults, we analyze immigrant views by measuring levels of agreement or disagreement that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are “mostly dangerous criminals.” We find that Christian nationalism is inversely related to pro-immigrant views for both the religiously active and inactive. However, strongly pro-immigrant views are less likely and anti-immigrant views are more likely among strong Christian nationalists who are religiously inactive compared with strong Christian nationalists who are religiously active. These results illustrate how religious nationalism can weaken tolerance and heighten intolerance most noticeably when untethered from religious communities.


2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Consuelo Paterna ◽  
Carmen Martínez

Men's discourse about the paternal role is changing significantly. Despite the fact that men still perceive themselves as being responsible for the family's economical protection and the children's discipline, they face increasing demands for more involvement in childcare. From this perspective, this work analyzes the traditional view of gender roles and the perception of inequality in a sample of 95 employed fathers, as well as the various levels of satisfaction with other life roles and their relevance as a function of some gender and sociodemographic variables. The results show that men do not maintain a very traditional gender ideology with regard to role distribution and they still consider the paternal role and feelings as the most important thing in their lives. However, the couple relationship gives them the most satisfaction. Level of traditionalism and age were the two significant predicting variables of perception of inequality of men and women.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (01) ◽  
pp. 80-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie Campbell ◽  
Silvia Erzeel

This contribution to the Special Issue on Gender and Conservatism uses expert and election surveys to explore the extent to which the feminist or traditional gender ideology of parties of the right relates to their economic and liberal/authoritarian ideology. We show that although parties of the left generally espouse more feminist ideologies than parties of the right, there are a significant number of rightist parties in Western Europe that combine laissez-faire economic values with liberal feminist ideals. That said, there is more homogeneity among parties of the populist radical right than rightist parties more generally. We find that despite some variation in their gender ideology, parties of the populist radical right overwhelmingly—with the exception of one party in the Netherlands—continue to adopt traditional or antifeminist gender ideologies. In terms of attracting women voters, we find that rightist parties who adopt a feminist gender ideology are able to attract more women voters than other parties of the right. We detect several examples of center-right parties that include feminist elements in their gender ideologies and are able to win over larger proportions of women voters than rightist parties that fail to adopt feminist positions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (16) ◽  
pp. 3931-3955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Ka-Lok Cheung ◽  
Erin Hye-Won Kim

This study examines how gender and family attitudes moderate the relationship between domestic labor and marital satisfaction in Korea, where the heavy and unequal burden of domestic labor on women intersects with traditional familism and gender ideology. We analyze panel data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families ( n = 11,488). Our individual fixed-effect regressions reveal that women’s time spent on domestic labor is negatively associated with the marital satisfaction of younger wives (in their 20s and 30s) when they do not hold traditional family attitudes. However, younger women’s satisfaction is positively associated with their husbands’ share of domestic labor regardless of the women’s gender-role attitudes. For older women (in their 40s or older), we find no evidence for either interaction effect. With the continued erosion of traditional familism in Korea, the burden of domestic labor may become more problematic for younger women’s marriages.


Author(s):  
Daria Tisch

Abstract This article studies the relationship between partner’s wealth share and their life satisfaction in different-sex couples using the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017). Resource-based theories and gender ideology are two prominent approaches to explain the effects of within-couple relative resources on various outcomes. Recently, scholars have argued that not relative but absolute personal resources are the crucial factor (autonomy perspective). Testing these different approaches is challenging because relative wealth mathematically perfectly depends on both partners’ absolute wealth, meaning the effects of relative and absolute wealth are hard to disentangle. To accurately test the theoretical approaches, this study analyses the relationship between relative wealth and life satisfaction under different conditions, such as whether relative wealth increases due to an increase in one’s own absolute wealth or a decrease in one’s partner’s absolute wealth. Individual fixed effects regressions show no statistically significant relationships between relative wealth and life satisfaction for men. In contrast, for women the relationship between their relative wealth and life satisfaction is significantly positive, in line with resource-based theories and the autonomy perspective. Further analyses reveal that this relationship is driven rather by changes in women’s own than in their partner’s absolute wealth.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Messner

By the mid-Twentieth Century in the U.S., a dominant ideology of natural, categorical differences between women and men was an organic part of the unequal distribution of women and men into domestic and public realms, especially in middle class families. Sport was a key site for the naturalization of this ideology, which I call “hard essentialism.” Since the 1970s, an explosion of female athletic participation mirrored the movement of women into the professions, leading scholars to examine sport as a terrain of contested gender relations. This paper extends that discussion by positing a four-part periodization of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic gender ideologies, stretching from the mid-Twentieth Century to the present. Touching down empirically on contemporary professional class youth sports coaches’ views of children and gender, I identify an ascendant gender ideology I call “soft essentialism.” I argue that youth sports has become a key site for the construction of soft essentialist narratives that appropriate the liberal feminist language of “choice” for girls, but not for boys, thus serving to recreate and naturalize class-based gender asymmetries and inequalities. I end by outlining emergent strategies that spring from the contradictions of soft essentialism.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson F. Shortle ◽  
Ronald Keith Gaddie

AbstractWe test for relationships between anti-Muslim attitudes and opinion and competing religious identity and religious belief variables in an evangelical Christian constituency. Original survey data from a statewide sample of 508 likely voters in Oklahoma are subjected to a robust regression analysis to determine (1) indicators of holding Christian nationalist beliefs and (2) the relationship between belief measures of Christian nationalism, evangelical Christian identity, and subsequent anti-Muslim sentiment. Christian nationalism is more prevalent among self-identified evangelicals. Christian nationalist beliefs and strong belief in Biblical literalism are significantly related to negative and restrictive views of Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiments in the form of general disapproval and the desire to limit Muslim worship are shaped more by beliefs than identities or behaviors. Evangelical self-identification does not help us disentangle domestic opinion regarding Muslims as well as measures that disentangle beliefs from identity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Ram Hlei Thang

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been plagued by ethnic conflict and civil war for decades since its independence in 1948. Applying historical method, this study examines the relationship between the issue of secularism and ethnic conflict in the country by focusing on the rise of religious nationalisms. This study finds that the rise of Buddhist nationalism among Burmese majority, as well as the rise of Christian nationalism among minority ethnics-have challenged peaceful coexistence  and vision of a secular state as aspirated by Burmese founding fathers. This study argues that this failure to adopt the principles of secularism was the root cause of ethnic conflict that has raged the country for over six decades.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. p64
Author(s):  
Hu Zheng-yan

Present the literature review focused on the true pictures of language and gender research conducted by scholars abroad and home. The current thesis aims at the differences and similarities in presenting female and male from lexical perspective and through lexicon related discourse analysis explores the connection between the vocabulary and the dominant gender ideologies of the magazine. There are differences and similarities in lexical choice. Reports on men and women both tend to use words, such as children, spouse, and business. Female images constructed by target lexicon differ from men’ and female were regarded as the second gender which is sealed in discourse.


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