Gender Stereotypes About Career and Family Are Stronger in More Economically Developed Countries and Can Explain the Gender Equality Paradox

Abstract

Using data from Project Implicit collected between 2005 and 2020, comprising 1,489,721 observations in 111 countries, we find that implicit and explicit gender stereotypes about career and family are more pronounced in more economically developed countries. Besides, these gender stereotypes are strongly correlated at the country level with gender differences in values (such as family values), self-reported personality traits (such as agreeableness or dependence), and occupational preferences (such as health-related occupations), and may account for the fact that these gender imbalances are “paradoxically” stronger in more economically developed countries (the so-called “gender equality paradox”).

In line with social role theory, our findings suggest that there are in developed countries strong gender stereotypes about career and family, which may at least partly explain the persistence or even the “paradoxical worsening” of a number of gender differences in these countries, despite generally high levels of gender equality in other areas.

Keywords

gender stereotypes about career and family cross-cultural analysis gender equality paradox implicit stereotypes gender differences

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackerman

L. S.

Chopik

W. J.

(2021). Cross-Cultural Comparisons in Implicit and Explicit Age Bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(6), 953–968.

Balducci

(2023). Linking gender differences with gender equality : A systematic-narrative literature review of basic skills and personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 14.

Bertrand

(2018). Coase Lecture – The Glass Ceiling. Economica, 85(338), 205–231.

Bian

Leslie

S.-J.

Cimpian

(2017). Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests. Science, 355(6323), 389–391.

Block

(2022). Why is the gender gap in the care economy larger in highly developed countries?

Breda

Jouini

Napp

Thebault

(2020). Gender stereotypes can explain the gender-equality paradox. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(49), 31063–31069.

Buss

D. M.

(1995). Psychological sex differences. Origins through sexual selection. The American Psychologist, 50(3), 164–168; discussion 169-171.

Charles

(1992). Cross-National Variation in Occupational Sex Segregation. American Sociological Review, 57(4), 483.

Charles

Bradley

(2009). Indulging Our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field of Study in 44 Countries. American Journal of Sociology, 114(4), 924–976.

10.

Charlesworth

T. E. S.

Banaji

M. R.

(2022). Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes III : Long-Term Change in Gender Stereotypes. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(1), 14–26.

11.

Correll

S. J.

(2004). Constraints into Preferences : Gender, Status, and Emerging Career Aspirations. American Sociological Review, 69(1), 93–113.

12.

Costa

P. T.

Terracciano

McCrae

R. R.

(2001). Gender differences in personality traits across cultures : Robust and surprising findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(2), 322–331.

13.

Cotter

Hermsen

J. M.

Vanneman

(2011). The end of the gender revolution? Gender role attitudes from 1977 to 2008. AJS; American Journal of Sociology, 117(1), 259–289.

14.

Croft

Schmader

Block

(2015). An Underexamined Inequality : Cultural and Psychological Barriers to Men’s Engagement With Communal Roles. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(4), 343–370.

15.

Cuddy

A. J. C.

Wolf

E. B.

Glick

Crotty

Chong

Norton

M. I.

(2015). Men as cultural ideals : Cultural values moderate gender stereotype content. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(4), 622–635.

16.

Deryugina

Shurchkov

Stearns

(2021). COVID-19 Disruptions Disproportionately Affect Female Academics. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111, 164–168.

17.

Eagly

A. H.

Koenig

A. M.

(2021). The Vicious Cycle Linking Stereotypes and Social Roles. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(4), 343–350.

18.

Eagly

A. H.

Nater

Miller

D. I.

Kaufmann

Sczesny

(2020). Gender stereotypes have changed : A cross-temporal meta-analysis of U.S. public opinion polls from 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist, 75(3), 301–315.

19.

Eagly

A. H.

Wood

(2012). Social role theory. In Handbook of theories of social psychology, Vol. 2 (p. 458–476). Sage Publications Ltd.

20.

Eagly

A. H.

Wood

Diekman

A. B.

(2000). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities : A current appraisal. In The developmental social psychology of gender (p. 123–174). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

21.

Ellemers

(2018). Gender Stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 275–298.

22.

England

(2010). The Gender Revolution : Uneven and Stalled. Gender and Society, 24, 149–166.

23.

England

Privalko

Levine

(2020). Has the Gender Revolution Stalled? The Economic and Social Review, 51(4), 463–488.

24.

Falk

Hermle

(2018). Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality. Science (New York, N.Y.), 362(6412), eaas9899.

25.

Farre

Felfe

Gonzalez

Schneider

(2023). Changing Gender Norms Across Generations : Evidence from a Paternity Leave Reform. SSRN Electronic Journal.

26.

Fazio

R. H.

Olson

M. A.

(2003). Implicit Measures in Social Cognition Research : Their Meaning and Use. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 297–327.

27.

Fisk

S. R.

Ridgeway

C. L.

(2018). Framing Gender. In Risman

B. J.

Froyum

C. M.

Scarborough

W. J.

(eds.), Handbook of the Sociology of Gender (p. 157–171). Springer International Publishing.

28.

Gelman

S. A.

Taylor

M. G.

Nguyen

S. P.

(2004). Mother-child conversations about gender : Understanding the acquisition of essentialist beliefs: IV. Talk about categories versus individuals (generics vs. non-generics). Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 69(1), 64–75.

29.

Goldin

(2021). Career & Family : Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equity. Princeton University Press.

30.

Greenwald

A. G.

Nosek

B. A.

Banaji

M. R.

(2003). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test : I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 197–216.

31.

Grusky

D. B.

Charles

(2004). Occupational Ghettos : The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men. Stanford University Press.

32.

Haines

E. L.

Deaux

Lofaro

(2016). The Times They Are a-Changing . . . or Are They Not? A Comparison of Gender Stereotypes, 1983–2014. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(3), 353–363.

33.

Herlitz

Hönig

Hedebrant

Asperholm

(2024). A Systematic Review and New Analyses of the Gender-Equality Paradox. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17456916231202685.

34.

Ilmarinen

V.-J.

Lönnqvist

J.-E.

(2024). Deconstructing the gender-equality paradox. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 127(1), 217–237.

35.

Inglehart

Norris

(2003). Rising Tide : Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. Cambridge University Press.

36.

Kleven

Landais

Søgaard

J. E.

(2019). Children and Gender Inequality : Evidence from Denmark. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(4), 181–209.

37.

Knight

C. R.

Brinton

M. C.

(2017). One Egalitarianism or Several? Two Decades of Gender-Role Attitude Change in Europe. American Journal of Sociology, 122(5), 1485–1532.

38.

Koenig

A. M.

Eagly

A. H.

(2014). Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content : Observations of groups’ roles shape stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(3), 371–392.

39.

Kosakowska-Berezecka

Bosson

J. K.

Jurek

Greijdanus

Grigoryan

Ryan

M. K.

(2022). Gendered Self-Views across 62 Countries : A Test of Competing Models. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

40.

Kosakowska-Berezecka

Sawicki

Celikkol

Bosson

J. K.

Laar

C. V.

Rossum

A. V.

Best

Jurek

Besta

Olech

Glick

(2024). Does Culture Moderate Gender Stereotypes? Individualism Predicts Communal (but Not Agentic) Prescriptions for Men Across 62 Nations. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

41.

Lane

K. A.

Banaji

M. R.

Nosek

B. A.

Greenwald

A. G.

(2007). Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test : IV: What We Know (So Far) about the Method. In Implicit measures of attitudes (p. 59–102). The Guilford Press.

42.

Lee

Ashton

M. C.

(2020). Sex differences in HEXACO personality characteristics across countries and ethnicities. Journal of Personality, 88(6), 1075–1090.

43.

Lewis

Lupyan

(2020). Gender stereotypes are reflected in the distributional structure of 25 languages. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(10), 1021–1028.

44.

Lippa

R. A.

(2010). Sex differences in personality traits and gender-related occupational preferences across 53 nations : Testing evolutionary and social-environmental theories. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(3), 619–636.

45.

Lippa

R. A.

Collaer

M. L.

Peters

(2010). Sex differences in mental rotation and line angle judgments are positively associated with gender equality and economic development across 53 nations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(4), 990–997.

46.

Löckenhoff

C. E.

Chan

McCrae

R. R.

De Fruyt

Jussim

De Bolle

Costa

P. T.

Sutin

A. R.

Realo

Allik

Nakazato

Shimonaka

Hřebíčková

Graf

Yik

Ficková

Brunner-Sciarra

Leibovich de Figueora

Schmidt

. . . Terracciano

(2014). Gender Stereotypes of Personality : Universal and Accurate? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(5), 675–694.

47.

Lueptow

L. B.

Garovich-Szabo

Lueptow

M. B.

(2001). Social Change and The Persistence of Sex Typing : 1974-1997. Social Forces, 80(1), 1–36.

48.

Mac Giolla

Kajonius

P. J

. (2019). Sex differences in personality are larger in gender equal countries : Replicating and extending a surprising finding. International Journal of Psychology: Journal International De Psychologie, 54(6), 705–711.

49.

Markowsky

Beblo

(2022). When do we observe a gender gap in competition entry? A meta-analysis of the experimental literature. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 198, 139–163.

50.

Master

Meltzoff

A. N.

Cheryan

(2021). Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(48), e2100030118.

51.

Miller

D. I.

Eagly

A. H.

Linn

M. C.

(2015). Women’s representation in science predicts national gender-science stereotypes : Evidence from 66 nations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 631–644.

52.

Myers

K. R.

Tham

W. Y.

Yin

Cohodes

Thursby

J. G.

Thursby

M. C.

Schiffer

Walsh

J. T.

Lakhani

K. R.

Wang

(2020). Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(9), 880–883.

53.

Napp

(2023). Gender stereotypes embedded in natural language are stronger in more economically developed and individualistic countries. PNAS Nexus, 2(11), pgad355.

54.

Napp

Breda

(2022). The stereotype that girls lack talent : A worldwide investigation. Science Advances, 8(10), eabm3689.

55.

Nosek

B. A.

(2005). Moderators of the Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Evaluation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 565–584.

56.

Nosek

B. A.

Banaji

M. R.

Greenwald

A. G.

(2002). Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6(1), 101–115.

57.

Nosek

B. A.

Smyth

F. L.

Sriram

Lindner

N. M.

Devos

Ayala

Bar-Anan

Bergh

Cai

Gonsalkorale

Kesebir

Maliszewski

Neto

Olli

Park

Schnabel

Shiomura

Tulbure

B. T.

Wiers

R. W.

. . . Greenwald

A. G.

(2009). National differences in gender-science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(26), 10593–10597.

58.

OECD. (2017). The Pursuit of Gender Equality : An Uphill Battle | en | OECD. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/publications/the-pursuit-of-gender-equality-9789264281318-en.htm

59.

Olsson

M. I. T.

van Grootel

Block

Schuster

Meeussen

Van Laar

Schmader

Croft

Sun

M. S.

Ainsaar

Aarntzen

Adamus

Anderson

Atkinson

Avicenna

Bąbel

Barth

Benson-Greenwald

T. M.

Maloku

. . . Martiny

S. E.

(2023). Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions : Evidence from 37 Countries. Political Psychology, 44(6), 1163–1192.

60.

Paulhus

D. L.

(1984). Two-component models of socially desirable responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 598–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.46.3.598

61.

Payne

B. K.

Vuletich

H. A.

Lundberg

K. B.

(2017). The bias of crowds : How implicit bias bridges personal and systemic prejudice. Psychological Inquiry, 28(4), 233–248.

62.

Ridgeway

C. L.

(2006). Gender as an Organizing Force in Social Relations : Implications for the Future of Inequality. In The declining significance of gender? (edited by Blau

E D.

Brinton

M. C.

Grusky

D. B.

, p. 23). New York: Russel Sage Foundation.

63.

Ridgeway

C. L.

(2009). Framed Before We Know It : How Gender Shapes Social Relations. Gender & Society, 23(2), 145–160.

64.

Saxler

F. M.

Dorrough

A. R.

Froehlich

Block

Croft

Meeussen

Olsson

M. I. T.

Schmader

Schuster

van Grootel

Van Laar

Atkinson

Benson-Greenwald

Birneanu

Cavojova

Cheryan

Lee Kai Chung

Danyliuk

Dar-Nimrod

. . . Martiny

S. E.

(2024). Did Descriptive and Prescriptive Norms About Gender Equality at Home Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Cross-National Investigation. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 1461672231219719.

65.

Schmitt

D. P.

Long

A. E.

McPhearson

O’Brien

Remmert

Shah

S. H.

(2017). Personality and gender differences in global perspective. International Journal of Psychology, 52(S1), 45–56.

66.

Schmitt

D. P.

Realo

Voracek

Allik

(2008). Why can’t a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in Big Five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(1), 168–182.

67.

Schwartz

S. H.

Rubel-Lifschitz

(2009). Cross-national variation in the size of sex differences in values : Effects of gender equality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 171–185.

68.

Stefanova

Farrell

Latu

(2021). Gender and the pandemic : Associations between caregiving, working from home, personal and career outcomes for women and men. Current Psychology.

69.

Stoet

Geary

D. C.

(2018). The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Psychological Science, 29(4), 581–593.

70.

Stoet

Geary

D. C.

(2022). Sex differences in adolescents’ occupational aspirations : Variations across time and place. PLOS ONE, 17(1), e0261438.

71.

Williams

J. E.

Best

D. L.

(1990a). Sex and Psyche : Gender and Self Viewed Cross Culturally. SAGE Publications Inc.

72.

Williams

J. E.

Best

D. L.

(1990b). Sex and psyche : Gender and self viewed cross-culturally (p. 212). Sage Publications, Inc.

73.

Wood

Eagly

A. H.

(2012). Biosocial Construction of Sex Differences and Similarities in Behavior. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (p. 55–123). Academic Press Inc.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.48 MB