Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models


Kosakowska-Berezecka N., Bosson J. K., Jurek P., Besta T., Olech M., Vandello J. A., ...More

Social Psychological and Personality Science, vol.14, no.7, pp.808-824, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 14 Issue: 7
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/19485506221129687
  • Journal Name: Social Psychological and Personality Science
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ASSIA, Psycinfo
  • Page Numbers: pp.808-824
  • Keywords: communality, agency, self-views, binary sex differences, egalitarianism, gender equality
  • TED University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2022.Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.