Gender Ideology in Europe: Plotting Normative Types in a Multidimensional Space

Abstract

Two recent articles (Grunow et al. in J Marriage Fam 80(1):42-60, 2018; Knight and Brinton in Am J Sociol 122(5):1485-1532) suggest that gender ideology is multidimensional. Such a finding is of utmost importance because, if robust, it can be used in future comparative (multilevel) research. However, these two articles present different results on which gender ideology profiles are dominant in Europe. Using the European Value Study, we replicate and extend these Latent Class analyses and address the question of generalizability and content- and criterion-related validity. We come to a five-cluster solution that not only synthesizes theoretically and empirically the results of the two articles, but also contributes to the literature by clarifying the place of these five gender ideology types in a multidimensional space. We suggest that in Europe five 'worlds of norms' exist that are mutually influenced by the general institutional context of welfare states.