1 / 24

Gender Attitudes

Gender Attitudes. Outline. Cultural approaches Why are attitudes changing in Central Europe? Micro-level explanations of gender attitudes. The Modernization Explanation (Inglehart & Norris). Industrialization brings women into the labor market

zeroun
Download Presentation

Gender Attitudes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Gender Attitudes

  2. Outline • Cultural approaches • Why are attitudes changing in Central Europe? • Micro-level explanations of gender attitudes

  3. The Modernization Explanation (Inglehart & Norris) • Industrialization brings women into the labor market • Educational opportunities rise for women and they begin to participate in government • The postindustrial phase brings a shift toward greater gender equality as women rise in management and gain political influence • Transition from survival to self-expression values (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?)

  4. The Failure of Modernization Theory to Explain this Shift in Central Europe • High female employed existed already under the communist regime • Women had rather equal access to education already under communist rule • People did not have to worry about survival except perhaps in Poland

  5. But not completely wrong • But it is true that women did not yet rise in management or politics • The industrial shift from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy with a large service sector was hindered by the communist regimes • This does not seem sufficient to explain the change

  6. Cultural Differences? • Pfau-Effinger: two countries can have similar policies, but peple will still use them differently • In some societies men are more likely to choose father leaves than in others because they have different conceptions of the role of the father • Duncan: Gendered moral rationalities: what is morally rational is not always economically rational, for example, women might refuse daycare because it goes against their view of what is “proper”

  7. Hakim’s Preference Theory • Individualization process means we cannot group people of one country together • In modern society we have become more individualistic • There are different groups in every country

  8. Hakims 3 Groups • Caring group: will want to stay at home regardless of policies (about 20% of the population) • Career group: wants to have a career and is not interested in having children (about 20% of the population) • Adaptive group: will choose work or career depending on incentives

  9. Implications of Preference Theory • We cannot achieve gender equality because men do not want to change roles, only women • In Sweden, despite policies encouring men to stay at home, few do so • Only the adoptive group can be influenced by policies • The three groups have competing interests, while men all have the same interests, • Thus, men can organize better around their interests

  10. Criticisms • Men are stupid, but not as stupid as Hakim thinks, nor are they as homogeneous • In Sweden men are beginning to take father leaves to a much greater extent (now they take over 20% of the total leave time and almost all fathers go on leave) • Gender equality is also in the interests of many men. She just assumes men think the same, but does not provide evidence • Surveys show big differences among women in different countries • The largest group is adoptive, which means that policies do in fact matter

  11. Attitudes Changing in Central Europe • Slowly beginning to support more gender equality at the theoretical level • Great support for more gender equality at the concrete daily level • “Feminism” becoming more acceptable

  12. Theoretical level: Support for Equal Gender Roles

  13. Concrete, Daily Level:

  14. Women’s organizations • In Poland: 133 women's organizations • 50 consider themselves to be feminist (38%) • 93 support gender equality (70%) • In CR: 49 organizations • 6 show some support for feminism (6%) • 18 show support for gender equality (37%) • 1995 in CR: none openly supported gender equality, but 2 of 31 came close

  15. Newspaper Articles in the CR • In MF there were 15 articles in 2007 using the word “feminism” • Not negative anymore, but there is a defensive tone, the need to show feminists are not radical • Typical to use the term, “I am a feminist, but not a radical feminist….”

  16. Why this change? • The EU gave legitimacy with “gender mainstreaming” • Czechs have more experience living and studying in the West • The development of domestic gender studies • Cooperation with Western and international women’s organizations • Can we call these openings of the political opportunity structure? • Beliefs coming from communist legacy not as strong as other beliefs?

  17. Microlevel Analysis • Age • Church • Degree of religiosity • Educational Level • Gender

  18. Age • Generational difference: younger people have more post-modern values • Today’s women have greater career opportunities • Younger men are more interested in spending time with their children

  19. Church and Degree of Religiosity • The Catholic Church has traditionally supported the “nuclear family” and “traditional” roles • But this traditional family only existed for a very short time in our history • In agricultural society women worked, as did children and the family was extended • Degree of religiosity is important (not in Wilcox’ article) because in a country like Poland, almost everyone is Catholic, but not everyone is as religious • In the USA evangelical pastors have been very conservative • In Poland the degree of religiosity is not significant in explaining attitudes

  20. Educational Level • Those with a higher education are more supportive of gender equality • Women with higher education want equal chances • Men with higher education often chose partners who are higher educated and want to have careers • Educational levels are increasing, as is support for gender equality

  21. McDonald’s incoherence theory in the industrially advanced countries the conflict between norms supporting high levels of gender equity in individual-oriented social institutions (like education system and labor market) and sustained gender inequality in family-oriented social institutions (in caring and nurturing and household maintenance) has caused fertility rates to drop.

  22. Gender differences • Women obviously have a greater incentive to support equality • But in America more men than women supported ERA

  23. Conclusions • Attitudes toward gender equality are becoming more positive • This is partially due to post-modernization and to the development of the international discourse • All micro factors point to an increase in support for gender equality (the new generation and higher educated are more positives as are the more secular) • Life is becoming increasingly more difficult for men who want to oppress women and hate their children

More Related