Contingent gender gap: a cross-national study of female attitudes toward economic globalization

Abstract

This article examines the contingent differences between female and male attitudes towards economic globalization. Although global market forces provide more employment opportunities for women, gender inequalities persist and systematically disadvantage women in the workplace and society. I argue that whether women, relative to men, are more pro or anti-globalization depends on a country’s degree of modernization. Long-term economic development contributes to self-expression, emancipative and postmaterialist cultures which socialize women to stand for egalitarian and redistributive policies that promote their rights. In postindustrial knowledge societies, women are thus more economically left-leaning and anti-market/globalization than their male counterparts. However, the attitudinal gender gap is much narrower or reversed in low-income countries characterized by low living standards and patriarchal societal norms. Analyses of the Pew Global Attitudes Project Survey, World Values Survey and Asian Barometer Survey lend empirical support to the contingent differences between women and men in globalization attitudes.