International Area Studies Review
[ Article ]
International Area Studies Review - Vol. 27, No. 1, pp.1-20
ISSN: 2233-8659 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Mar 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69473/iasr.2024.27.1.1

The Growing Gender Divide: Changing Perceptions of Gender Equality among the Youth in the United States

Phoebe W. Moon ; Hannah June Kim
Assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Mercer University International Political Economy, Political Psychology, Gender, and East Asian Relations
Assistant professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Sogang University Public opinion, Gender, Modernization, and Democracy in East Asia

Correspondence to: Hannah June Kim, Sogang University, Kim Daegon Hall 509, GSIS, Sogang University, #35, Baekbeom-Ro (Sinsu-dong), Mapo-Gu, Seoul 04107, Repulic of Korea Email: hannahkim@sogang.ac.kr

Abstract

This study examines why support for gender equality is declining among young Americans. We show that the youth in the United States are becoming increasingly more traditional in their views of gender equality and contend that this is due to a shift that is being led by democratic dissatisfaction and growing economic anxiety. Moreover, we further argue that this conservative shift is creating a divide between young women and young men, where anger and ideology are changing their support for women. Empirical analyses of the World Values Survey and the American National Election Survey show that these predictors have significantly influenced gendered attitudes among the youth. The results suggest that these differences may not only undermine the potential influence young Americans can make as primary decision-makers in the adult electorate, but can also significantly influence the progress of gender equality in the United States in the years to come.

Keywords:

Gender Equality, Public Opinion, Youth, United States, Ideological Divide

AI Acknowledgment

Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were not used in any way to prepare, write, or complete essential authoring tasks in this manuscript.

Conflict of Interests

The author(s) declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A3A2A02090384).

Notes
1. Indeed, gender inequality continues to struggle with significant challenges despite efforts for progress. For example, according to two Pew studies conducted in 2023 and 2024 in the United States, when it comes to employment and pay, women make up 47 percent of the labor force while they earn only about 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. In leadership positions, female legislators have less than one third of the US Congress seats (28 percent) while only 11 percent of CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies are women (Schaffer, 2024). When it comes to working parents, moreover, 67 percent of working mothers reported that feeling pressure related to household responsibilities, which was almost double the proportion of working fathers (35 percent) who answered that they felt the same pressure (Aragão, 2023). However, in this study we attempt to focus on progress related to gender equality since we examine support for, or lack thereof, gender equality.
2. The World Values Survey consists of 2,596 respondents in the United States, with 632 young respondents that are included in this study.
3. The ANES data includes a total of 1,307 young respondents, with 597 male respondents and 710 female respondents.
4. Here, higher political party affiliations indicate more conservative values, higher gender values indicate female, and higher race values indicate White.
5. When dividing this up by dimension, among young respondents, 83.7 percent rejected the idea that “men make better political leaders than women do” while 89.4 percent rejected the statement “university is more important for a boy than for a girl,” 86.1 percent dismissed the statement “men make better business executives than women do,” and 94.5 rejected the notion that when “jobs [are] scarce: men should have more right to a job than women.”
6. When asked similar questions, among young male respondents, 27.8 percent believed that “women interpret innocent remarks as sexist,” 19 percent stated that “women seek to gain power by getting control over men,” 10.2 percent believe that “women complaining about discrimination causes more problems,” and 11.6 percent agree that “women demanding equality seek special favors.” Among young female respondents, the results for the same items were 23.5 percent, 10.1 percent, 8.0 percent, and 10.4 percent, respectively. Though it is a smaller margin, young female respondents were less likely to support these statements that seemed to show discrimination towards women.
7. We included both political party affiliation (party ID) and ideology separately because, while it can be assumed that the two are closely aligned, recent studies have shown that the two are surprisingly not well correlated. As a result, we included Party ID as a control for Model 4.

References

  • Alonso, A., & Lombardo, E. (2018). Gender equality and de-democratization processes: The case of Spain. Politics and Governance, 6(3), 78–89. [https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v6i3.1419]
  • Anderson, K. J. (2014). Modern misogyny: Anti-feminism in a post-feminist era. Oxford University Press.
  • Aragão, C. (2023). Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades. Pew Research Center.
  • Baber, K. M., & Tucker, C. J. (2006). The social roles questionnaire: A new approach to measuring attitudes toward gender. Sex Roles, 54(7-8), 459–467.
  • Biroli, F. (2020, April). The backlash against gender equality in Latin America: Temporality, religious patterns, and the erosion of democracy. Lasa Forum, 51(2), 22–26.
  • Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), 789–865. [https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20160995]
  • Blau, F. D., Brinton, M. C., & Grusky, D. B. (Eds.). (2006). The declining significance of gender? Russell Sage Foundation.
  • Bolzendahl, C. I., & Myers, D. J. (2004). Feminist attitudes and support for gender equality: Opinion change in women and men, 1974-1998. Social Forces, 83(2), 759–789. [https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2005.0005]
  • Boring, A., & Moroni, G. (2023). Turning back the clock: Beliefs about gender roles during lockdown. Labour Economics, 84, 102363. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102363]
  • Bryant, A. N. (2003). Changes in attitudes toward women’s roles: Predicting gender-role traditionalism among college students. Sex Roles, 48(3–4), 131–142. [https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022451205292]
  • Buchanan, T., & Selmon, N. (2008). Race and gender differences in self-efficacy: Assessing the role of gender role attitudes and family background. Sex Roles, 58(11–12), 822-836. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9389-3]
  • Burn-Murdoch, J. (2024, January 26). A new global gender divide is emerging. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998
  • Canizales, S. L., & Vallejo, J. A. (2021). Latinos & racism in the Trump era. Daedalus, 150(2), 150–164. [https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01852]
  • Carpini, M. X. D., & Keeter, S. (1991). Stability and change in the U.S. public’s knowledge of politics. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(4), 583–612. [https://doi.org/10.1086/269283]
  • Carter, J. S., Corra, M., & Carter, S. K. (2009). The interaction of race and gender: Changing gender‐role attitudes, 1974-2006. Social Science Quarterly, 90(1), 196–211. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00611.x]
  • Cohen, P. N. (2004). The gender division of labor: “Keeping house” and occupational segregation in the United States. Gender & Society, 18(2), 239–252. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243203262037]
  • Collins, M. E., Kuykendall, S., Ramirez, M., & Spindle-Jackson, A. (2022). COVID impacts on U.S. youth workforce system: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Education and Work, 35(5), 470–484. [https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2022.2091119]
  • Cotter, D., Hermsen, J. M., & Vanneman, R. (2011). The end of the gender revolution? Gender role attitudes from 1977 to 2008. American Journal of Sociology, 117(1), 259–289. [https://doi.org/10.1086/658853]
  • Dalton, R. J. (2005). The social transformation of trust in government. International Review of Sociology, 15(1), 133–154. [https://doi.org/10.1080/03906700500038819]
  • Dalton, R. J. (2007). Partisan mobilization, cognitive mobilization and the changing American electorate. Electoral Studies, 26(2), 274–286. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2006.04.009]
  • Dalton, R. J. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies, 56(1), 76–98. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00718.x]
  • Danzer, N., Huebener, M., Spiess, C. K., Pape, A., Siegel, N. A., & Wagner, G. (2021). Cracking under pressure? Gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in times of a pandemic [Working paper]. CESifo. [https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3872383]
  • Donnelly, K., Twenge, J. M., Clark, M. A., Shaikh, S. K., Beiler-May, A., & Carter, N. T. (2016). Attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in the United States, 1976-2013. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 41–54. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684315590774]
  • Dorius, S. F., & Firebaugh, G. (2010). Trends in global gender inequality. Social Forces, 88(5), 1941–1968. [https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2010.0040]
  • Dugger, K. (1988). Social location and gender-role attitudes: A comparison of black and white women. Gender & Society, 2(4), 425–448. [https://doi.org/10.1177/089124388002004002]
  • Easterlin, R. A., & Crimmins, E. M. (1991). Private materialism, personal self-fulfillment, family life, and public interest: The nature, effects, and causes of recent changes in the values of American youth. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(4), 499–533. [https://doi.org/10.1086/269280]
  • England, P. (2010). The gender revolution: Uneven and stalled. Gender & Society, 24(2), 149–166. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243210361475]
  • England, P., & Li, S. (2006). Desegregation stalled: The changing gender composition of college majors, 1971-2002. Gender & Society, 20(5), 657–677. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206290753]
  • England, P., Levine, A., & Mishel, E. (2020). Progress toward gender equality in the United States has slowed or stalled. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(13), 6990–6997. [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918891117]
  • Essomba, M. À., Nadeu, M., & Tarrés, A. (2023). Youth democratic political identity and disaffection: Active citizenship and participation to counteract populism and polarization in Barcelona. Societies, 13(12), 245. [https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13120245]
  • Ferreira, F., & Gyourko, J. (2014). Does gender matter for political leadership? The case of U.S. mayors. Journal of Public Economics, 112, 24–39. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.01.006]
  • Fisher, D. R. (2012). Youth political participation: Bridging activism and electoral politics. Annual Review of Sociology, 38(1), 119–137. [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145439]
  • Foa, R. S., & Mounk, Y. (2016). The democratic disconnect. Journal of Democracy, 27(3), 5–17. [https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2016.0049]
  • Foa, R. S., & Mounk, Y. (2019). Youth and the populist wave. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 45(9–10), 1013–1024. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453719872314]
  • Fording, R. C., & Schram, S. (2020). Hard white: The mainstreaming of racism in American politics. Oxford University Press.
  • Glick, P. (2019). Gender, sexism, and the election: Did sexism help Trump more than it hurt Clinton? Politics, Groups, and Identities, 7(3), 713–723. [https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2019.1633931]
  • Goldscheider, F., Bernhardt, E., & Lappegård, T. (2015). The gender revolution: A framework for understanding changing family and demographic behavior. Population and Development Review, 41(2), 207–239. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00045.x]
  • Goodfellow, M. (2020). Hostile environment: How immigrants became scapegoats (2nd ed.). Verso.
  • Haerpfer, C., Inglehart, R., Moreno, A., Welzel, C., Kizilova, K., Diez-Medrano, J., Lagos, M., Norris, P., Ponarin, E., & Puranen, B. (2022). World values survey wave 7 (2017-2022) Cross-national data-set (5.0.0) [Data set]. World Values Survey Association. [https://doi.org/10.14281/18241.20]
  • Harp, D. (2019). Gender in the 2016 US presidential election: Trump, Clinton, and media discourse. Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
  • Ho, J. (2021). Anti-Asian racism, Black Lives Matter, and COVID-19. Japan Forum, 33(1), 148–159. [https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2020.1821749]
  • Hunter, A. G., & Sellers, S. L. (1998). Feminist attitudes among African American women and men. Gender & Society, 12(1), 81–99. [https://doi.org/10.1177/089124398012001005]
  • Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2003). Rising tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge University Press.
  • Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2005). Modernization and gender equality: A response to Adams and Orloff. Politics & Gender, 1(3), 482–492. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X0522113X]
  • Jennings, M. K. (2006). The gender gap in attitudes and beliefs about the place of women in American political life: A longitudinal, cross-generational analysis. Politics & Gender, 2(2), 193–219. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X06060089]
  • Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., & Allen, D. (2015). Youth, new media, and the rise of participatory politics. In D. Allen & J. S. Light (Eds.), From voice to influence: Understanding citizenship in a digital age (pp. 35–56). University of Chicago Press.
  • Kane, E. W. (1992). Race, gender, and attitudes toward gender stratification. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55(3), 311–320.
  • Kane, E. W. (2000). Racial and ethnic variations in gender-related attitudes. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 419–439. [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.419]
  • Kazin, M. (2016). Trump and American populism: Old whine, new bottles. Foreign Affairs, 95, 17.
  • Keeter, S., Zukin, C., Andolina, M., & Jenkins, K. (2002). The civic and political health of the nation: A generational portrait. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED498892
  • Landivar, L. C., Ruppanner, L., Scarborough, W. J., & Collins, C. (2020). Early signs indicate that COVID-19 is exacerbating gender inequality in the labor force. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 6. [https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023120947997]
  • Linz, J. J., & Stepan, A. C. (1996). Problems of democratic transition and consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and post-communist Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Lyness, K. S., & Grotto, A. R. (2018). Women and leadership in the United States: Are we closing the gender gap? Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 227–265. [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104739]
  • Maye, A., Banerjee, A., & Johnson, C. (2020). The dual crisis: How the COVID-19 recession deepens racial and economic inequality among communities of color. Center for Law and Social Policy. https://www.clasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jobs-Brief-Nov.-2020.pdf
  • McDonald, J., & Deckman, M. (2021). New voters, new attitudes: How Gen Z Americans rate candidates with respect to generation, gender, and race. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 11(2), 345–365. [https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2021.1962372]
  • Meagher, K. D., & Shu, X. (2019). Trends in U.S. gender attitudes, 1977 to 2018: Gender and educational disparities. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 5. [https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023119851692]
  • Medenica, V. E. (2018). Millennials and race in the 2016 election. The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 3(1), 55–76. [https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2017.33]
  • Oates, S., Owen, D., & Gibson, R. K. (2006). The internet and politics: Citizens, voters and activists. Routledge.
  • Owen, D. (2006). The internet and youth civic engagement in the United States. In S. Oates, D. Owen, & R. K. Gibson (Eds.), The internet and politics: Citizens, voters and activists (pp. 17–33). Routledge.
  • Palmer, A. N., Patel, M., Sledge, S. L., Kitchens, K., & Cassano, K. (2023). COVID-19 impacts on youth and young adult workforce development programs: A local perspective. Children and Youth Services Review, 155, 107291. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107291]
  • Panayotova, E., & Brayfield, A. (1997). National context and gender ideology: Attitudes toward women’s employment in Hungary and the United States. Gender & Society, 11(5), 627–655. [https://doi.org/10.1177/089124397011005006]
  • Parker, K., Graf, N., & Igielnik, R. (2019, January 17). Generation Z looks a lot like millennials on key social and political issues. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/
  • Pascall, G., & Lewis, J. (2004). Emerging gender regimes and policies for gender equality in a wider Europe. Journal of Social Policy, 33(3), 373–394.
  • Pascall, G., & Sung, S. (2007). Gender and East Asian welfare states: From confucianism to gender equality. Fourth Annual East Asian Social Policy research network (EASP).
  • Picchi, A. (2022, October 4). Upward mobility is out of reach for younger generations, most Americans say. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/half-of-americans-are-pessimistic-about-raising-their-standard-of-living/
  • Putnam, R. D. (2001). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.
  • Quintelier, E. (2007). Differences in political participation between young and old people. Contemporary Politics, 13(2), 165–180. [https://doi.org/10.1080/13569770701562658]
  • Rice, T. W., & Coates, D. L. (1995). Gender role attitudes in the Southern United States. Gender & Society, 9(6), 744–756. [https://doi.org/10.1177/089124395009006007]
  • Riek, B. M., Mania, E. W., & Gaertner, S. L. (2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 336–353. [https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_4]
  • Rosenfeld, D. L., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2021). Can a pandemic make people more socially conservative? Political ideology, gender roles, and the case of COVID‐19. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 51(4), 425–433. [https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12745]
  • Ross, M. (2023, October 6). Young Americans are struggling to gain economic ground. Building a better school-to-career pipeline can help. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/young-americans-are-struggling-to-gain-economic-ground-building-a-better-school-to-career-pipeline-can-help/
  • Rouse, S. M., & Ross, A. D. (2018). The politics of millennials: Political beliefs and policy preferences of America’s most diverse generation. University of Michigan Press.
  • Rubery, J. (2015). Austerity and the future for gender equality in Europe. ILR Review, 68(4), 715–741.
  • Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in-women, work and the will to lead. Random House.
  • Scarborough, W. J., & Risman, B. J. (2017). Changes in the gender structure: Inequality at the individual, interactional, and macro dimensions. Sociology Compass, 11(10), e12515. [https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12515]
  • Scarborough, W. J., Fessenden, D., & Sin, R. (2021). Convergence or divergence? The generational gap in gender attitudes, 1977-2018. In V. Demos & M. T. Segal (Eds.), Advances in gender research (pp. 73–94). Emerald Publishing Limited. [https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620210000030004]
  • Scarborough, W. J., Sin, R., & Risman, B. (2019). Attitudes and the stalled gender revolution: Egalitarianism, traditionalism, and ambivalence from 1977 through 2016. Gender & Society, 33(2), 173–200. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243218809604]
  • Schaffer, K. (2024). For women’s history month, a look at gender gains - and gaps - in the U.S. Pew Research Center.
  • Setzler, M., & Yanus, A. B. (2018). Why did women vote for Donald Trump? PS: Political Science & Politics, 51(3), 523–527. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096518000355]
  • Silva, E. O. (2019). Donald Trump’s discursive field: A juncture of stigma contests over race, gender, religion, and democracy. Sociology Compass, 13(12), e12757. [https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12757]
  • Siordia, C. (2016). On the relationship between gender roles attitudes, religious ideology and familism in a sample of adults in the United States. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 17(4), 16.
  • Skocpol, T. (1996). The politics of american social policy, past and future. In V. R. Fuchs (Ed.), Individual and social responsibility: Child care, education, medical care, and long-term care in America (pp. 309–340). The University of Chicago Press.
  • Sloam, J. (2011). ‘Rejuvenating politics? Youth, citizenship and politics in the United States and Europe.’. American Political Science Association 2011 Annual Meeting. [https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1910527]
  • Spar, D. (2013). Wonder women: Sex, power, and the quest for perfection. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Steel, G., & Kabashima, I. (2008). Cross-regional support for gender equality. International Political Science Review, 29(2), 133–156.
  • Steinberg, S. A. (2013, April 5). The high cost of youth unemployment. Center for American Progress. https://nhm-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-High-Cost-of-Youth-Unemployment-Center-for-American-Progress.pdf
  • Tajfel, H. (1978). Differentiation between social groups. Academic Press.
  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup bias. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), The psychology of intergroup relations. Nelson-Hall.
  • Thomas, S., & Wilcox, C. (Eds.). (2014). Women and elective office: Past, present, and future (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • Twenge, J. M. (1997). Attitudes toward women, 1970-1995: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1), 35–51. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00099.x]
  • Verloo, M. (Ed.). (2018). Varieties of opposition to gender equality in Europe. Routledge.
  • Weber, H. (2013). Demography and democracy: The impact of youth cohort size on democratic stability in the world. Democratization, 20(2), 335–357. [https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2011.650916]
  • Welzel, C., & Inglehart, R. (2005). Liberalism, postmaterialism, and the growth of freedom. International Review of Sociology, 15(1), 81–108.
  • Williams, T. (2022, October 7). The American Dream is dying as younger people believe it’s only downhill from here. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2022/10/07/young-americans-versus-parents-standard-of-living/