Cross—regional Study on Supportive Attitude for Gender Egalitarianism

卢晓青

Abstract：

Opposed to related modernization theories which suppose gender egalitarianism parallels economic development， the paper puts forward research questions concerning whether gender egalitarianism is a cultural-specific value and specifically influenced by national power distance.The results show that the hypothesis is accepted based on the WVS items to test whether national gender egalitarianism cluster on cultural backgrounds but refused by data retrieved from the ISSP due to questionable internal reliability of the selected items.

Key words： gender egalitarianism， power distance， cultural-specific value， modernization theories

I. Introduction

Emrich， Denmark， and Den Hartog （2004） conceptualize gender egalitarianism from the cultural dimension in a more concise and understandable way. That is， “gender egalitarianism” is defined as “beliefs about whether members biological sex should determine the roles that they play in their homes， business organizations， and communities” （Emrich， Denmark， & Den Hartog， 2004， p. 347）.

Countries levels of gender egalitarianism are judged by degrees to which they adhere to the traditional gender-based labor division. The lower gender egalitarian cultures are more inclined to the traditional beliefs that men are considered as breadwinners and that women are caretakers of the family and less competitive than men in work place. Contrarily， in high gender egalitarian cultures， there is less gender difference in the involvement in both work and non-work domains （Emrich et al.， 2004）.

II. Theory and hypotheses

In modernization theory， postmaterialist argue that when a society progresses into a highly modernized one， people embrace postmaterialist values such as individual freedom of expression， quality of life， including the disposition towards egalitarianism， among which gender equality is one of the most frequently discussed issues. According to modernization theorist， “if and as the level of modernization increases， the level of structural uniformity among relatively modernized societies continually increases” （Marsh， 2014： 279， as cited in Halman， 2016： 5）. However， many of existing researches provide evidence showing that not all nations progressing to modernization in the same way. Specifically for gender aspect， the cross-regional differences on gender attitude can be dramatic even among countries in the same level of development.

Besides direct evidence of same development level not showing same gender-egalitarian attitude， some scholars also point out other problems in predicting the gender-egalitarian distribution by modernization theories. “Some western universalistic elements of modernity were taken over without giving up specific components of traditional identities” （ Eisenstadt， 2000： 15， as cited in Halman， 2016： 5）. “Modern societies have many central features in common， yet at the same time there are persistent differences between them” （Eisenstadt 2002： 42， as cited in Halman， 2016： 5）. Therefore， the first hypothesis is proposed as follows.endprint

Hypothesis 1： Attitudes on gender-egalitarianism cross different nations do not cluster corresponding to economic development level. Instead， they may cluster in the pattern of cultural-root clusters.

As to which cultural factors may explain the distribution of different attitudes on gender-equality cross countries better than GDP， some scholars are inclined to refer to hierarchical structure of societies. The power gap between two genders of a society is essentially part of the hierarchical system of that particular society. The cultural inequality between males and females assigns them into hierarchical groups or classes， one as a superior and the other subordinate. So gender egalitarianism， as one aspect of egalitarianism， probably correlates negatively with social hierarchy of a culture. Therefore， the second hypothesis is proposed.

Hypothesis 2： Culturally social hierarchy is closely correlated with the attitudes variation on gender-egalitarianism cross nations. The greater power distance of a culture， the less people in that culture concern or value gender equality.

III. Data

1） Datasets

To test the hypotheses， this study will compare supportive attitude for gender egalitarianism of different nations or regions. The ISSP-Family and Changing Gender Roles IV will be used as the dataset for analyzing gender equality degrees in family life， which was updated in 2012， contains samples from 44 nations or regions， and it was the first time that Chinese mainland was included. As for the test of gender egalitarianism as a general attitudinal value， items from the WVS （World Values Survey） are referred to. The Project GLOBE research， based onsurveys of over 17，000 middle-level managers in 62 societies， serves as the dataset to reflect national power distance， like previous researches （House et al.， 2004）.

2） methods

To test the hypotheses， methods of hierarchical cluster， correlation analysis and reliability analysis are adopted to ensure research reliability and validation. Hierarchical cluster， seeking to build a hierarchy of clusters， here uses agglomerative strategy.

IV. Analysis

Based on gender egalitarianism value data from the WVS at national level， hierarchical cluster is exerted. These countries （n=22） are generally clustered based on their cultural backgrounds， for example Confucian influenced culture. Therefore，hypothesis 1 that attitudes on gender-egalitarianism cross different nations cluster not corresponding to economic development level， but in the pattern of cultural background is statistically justified.Also， items from ISSP are used to explore gender equality in family life as a complement to the gender egalitarianism values in the WVS. The result doesnt support the finding above and the hypothesis one.The cronbachs alpha is around .625， so the reliability is questionable. Items chosen need further reconsideration.To test hypothesis 2， correlation analysis of the relationship between national power distance level and gender egalitarianism is carried out.According to the statistic result， n=22； the p value is .032， smaller than .05. Thus， the null hypothesis is rejected. Besides， the person correlation coefficient is -.458， which reveals the strong negative relationship between the two variables. That is， the greater power distance of a culture， the lower gender equality.endprint

V. Conclusion and discussion

The results show that the hypothesis is accepted based on the WVS items to test whether national gender egalitarianism cluster on cultural backgrounds but refused by data retrieved from the ISSP due to questionable internal reliability of the selected items. These items with various connotations may be ambiguous for testing gender equality. For example， the question “what women really want is home and kids” to some extent reflects the stereotype of gender role or attributes， and may also be an item for assertiveness evaluation as an example according to the understanding of respondents in different contexts. Thus， items to be selected need reconsideration and readjustment for further study of gender egalitarianism in family life.

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