In a new study published in Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers found that gender stereotypes associating men with career and women with family are more pronounced in economically developed countries, potentially explaining the gender equality paradox.
This research aimed to address a phenomenon known as the “gender equality paradox”, which highlights that in more developed countries—where gender equality in education, work, and rights is generally higher—gendered preferences and stereotypes persist. These stereotypes often lead to differentiated roles, with men perceived as better suited for careers and women for family roles.
Clotilde Napp sought to explore why these stereotypes endure and even strengthen in societies with greater gender parity in other domains, hypothesizing that social role theory could explain this persistence by linking observable social roles to internalized stereotypes.
Building on past work showing that societal beliefs influence gendered choices, the researcher was motivated by the observation that, as economic and social opportunities expand, men and women often gravitate toward stereotypical gender roles in professional and family life, raising questions about the role of cultural and societal norms in shaping these decisions.
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Napp utilized data from Project Implicit, which collects information on implicit biases across a broad demographic. This dataset included responses from 1.5 million individuals spanning 111 countries, making it one of the most extensive cross-cultural assessments of gender stereotypes. The study employed the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a psychological tool designed to measure the strength of automatic associations in memory—in this case, between male names and career-related words and between female names and family-related words.
Participants were presented with words one by one and were asked to categorize them as quickly as possible according to gender and domain (career or family), with response times used to infer the strength of their implicit associations. Shorter response times in aligning male names with career-related words and female names with family-related words indicated stronger gendered stereotypes.
Participants also completed questionnaires asking them to rate how strongly they associated men and women with career and family roles on a 7-point Likert scale. These data were collected over 15 years, from 2005 to 2020, to observe trends and consistency over time.
The results of the study revealed a counterintuitive pattern: gender stereotypes were more pronounced in economically developed countries, contrary to the expectation that social progress and economic advancement would reduce such biases. Specifically, higher GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and HDI (Human Development Index) scores predicted stronger implicit associations of men with careers and women with family roles.
Interestingly, the stereotype was robust across both male and female participants, though male participants showed particularly strong explicit stereotypes associating family roles with women. This pattern was also consistent when controlling for demographic factors like age, education level, and the number of times a participant had taken the IAT.
Further analysis revealed that in more economically advanced countries, gender differences in personal values, personality traits, and occupational preferences were also more pronounced. Women in these countries expressed greater preference for communal and family-oriented values, while men reported higher career-oriented values.
This study suggests that the persistence of stereotypical gender associations in wealthier countries may contribute to the gender equality paradox, where increased societal freedom allows individuals to make career and family choices that align with more deeply ingrained stereotypes.
One limitation is the study’s reliance on cross-sectional data, which cannot establish causation. Longitudinal data may provide better understanding of how stereotypes and economic factors influence each other over time.
The study, “Gender Stereotypes About Career and Family Are Stronger in More Economically Developed Countries and Can Explain the Gender Equality Paradox”, was authored by Clotilde Napp.
