#genderequality — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #genderequality, aggregated by home.social.
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South Africa, Netherlands focus on turning inclusion pact into action
South Africa says the real success of its new cooperation agreement with the Kingdom of the Net…
#Netherlands #Nederland #NL #Europe #Europa #EU #DisabilityInclusion #GenderEquality #HumanRights #Internationalcooperation #JoanneDoornewaard #LGBTI+ #MemorandumofUnderstanding #MmapasekaLetsike #SindisiweLydiaChikunga #SocialInclusion #southafrica #Women #WorldPride #YouthDevelopment
https://www.europesays.com/netherlands/32443/ -
https://www.europesays.com/africa/339858/ South Africa, Netherlands focus on turning inclusion pact into action #DisabilityInclusion #GenderEquality #HumanRights #InternationalCooperation #JoanneDoornewaard #LGBTI+ #MemorandumOfUnderstanding #MmapasekaLetsike #netherlands #SindisiweLydiaChikunga #SocialInclusion #SouthAfrica #women #WorldPride #YouthDevelopment
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Portrait of Simone de Beauvoir Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-simone-de-beauvoir-mauricio-sobalvarro.html #WomensRights #SimoneDeBeauvoir #GenderEquality #Feminism #HumanRights #Vigilance #WomenEmpowerment #ProtectOurRights #FeministHistory #EqualityNow #SocialJustice #WomenInPolitics #CivicEngagement #GlobalSisterhood #Activism #FightForEquality #Intersectionality #EmpowerWomen #RightsAreFragile #FeministTheory -
Portrait of Simone de Beauvoir Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-simone-de-beauvoir-mauricio-sobalvarro.html #WomensRights #SimoneDeBeauvoir #GenderEquality #Feminism #HumanRights #Vigilance #WomenEmpowerment #ProtectOurRights #FeministHistory #EqualityNow #SocialJustice #WomenInPolitics #CivicEngagement #GlobalSisterhood #Activism #FightForEquality #Intersectionality #EmpowerWomen #RightsAreFragile #FeministTheory -
Portrait of Simone de Beauvoir Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-simone-de-beauvoir-mauricio-sobalvarro.html #WomensRights #SimoneDeBeauvoir #GenderEquality #Feminism #HumanRights #Vigilance #WomenEmpowerment #ProtectOurRights #FeministHistory #EqualityNow #SocialJustice #WomenInPolitics #CivicEngagement #GlobalSisterhood #Activism #FightForEquality #Intersectionality #EmpowerWomen #RightsAreFragile #FeministTheory -
Portrait of Simone de Beauvoir Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-simone-de-beauvoir-mauricio-sobalvarro.html #WomensRights #SimoneDeBeauvoir #GenderEquality #Feminism #HumanRights #Vigilance #WomenEmpowerment #ProtectOurRights #FeministHistory #EqualityNow #SocialJustice #WomenInPolitics #CivicEngagement #GlobalSisterhood #Activism #FightForEquality #Intersectionality #EmpowerWomen #RightsAreFragile #FeministTheory -
Portrait of Simone de Beauvoir Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-simone-de-beauvoir-mauricio-sobalvarro.html #WomensRights #SimoneDeBeauvoir #GenderEquality #Feminism #HumanRights #Vigilance #WomenEmpowerment #ProtectOurRights #FeministHistory #EqualityNow #SocialJustice #WomenInPolitics #CivicEngagement #GlobalSisterhood #Activism #FightForEquality #Intersectionality #EmpowerWomen #RightsAreFragile #FeministTheory -
Portrait of June Osborne with Latin Text Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-june-osborne-with-latin-text-mauricio-sobalvarro.html?newartwork=true #HandmaidsTale #NoliteTeBastardesCarborundorum #MargaretAtwood #DontLetTheBastardsGrindYouDown #Gilead #Offred #ElisabethMoss #JuneOsborne #UnderHisEye #BlessedBeTheFruit #MaytheLordOpen #PraiseBe #TheHandmaidsTale #FeministArt #Feminism #Feminist #WomensRights #GenderEquality #SmashThePatriarchy #GirlsSupportGirls #EmpowerWomen #FemaleEmpowerment #WomensHistory #FightLikeAGirl -
Portrait of June Osborne with Latin Text Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-june-osborne-with-latin-text-mauricio-sobalvarro.html?newartwork=true #HandmaidsTale #NoliteTeBastardesCarborundorum #MargaretAtwood #DontLetTheBastardsGrindYouDown #Gilead #Offred #ElisabethMoss #JuneOsborne #UnderHisEye #BlessedBeTheFruit #MaytheLordOpen #PraiseBe #TheHandmaidsTale #FeministArt #Feminism #Feminist #WomensRights #GenderEquality #SmashThePatriarchy #GirlsSupportGirls #EmpowerWomen #FemaleEmpowerment #WomensHistory #FightLikeAGirl -
Portrait of June Osborne with Latin Text Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-june-osborne-with-latin-text-mauricio-sobalvarro.html?newartwork=true #HandmaidsTale #NoliteTeBastardesCarborundorum #MargaretAtwood #DontLetTheBastardsGrindYouDown #Gilead #Offred #ElisabethMoss #JuneOsborne #UnderHisEye #BlessedBeTheFruit #MaytheLordOpen #PraiseBe #TheHandmaidsTale #FeministArt #Feminism #Feminist #WomensRights #GenderEquality #SmashThePatriarchy #GirlsSupportGirls #EmpowerWomen #FemaleEmpowerment #WomensHistory #FightLikeAGirl -
Portrait of June Osborne with Latin Text Painting by Mauricio Sobalvarro - Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of-june-osborne-with-latin-text-mauricio-sobalvarro.html?newartwork=true #HandmaidsTale #NoliteTeBastardesCarborundorum #MargaretAtwood #DontLetTheBastardsGrindYouDown #Gilead #Offred #ElisabethMoss #JuneOsborne #UnderHisEye #BlessedBeTheFruit #MaytheLordOpen #PraiseBe #TheHandmaidsTale #FeministArt #Feminism #Feminist #WomensRights #GenderEquality #SmashThePatriarchy #GirlsSupportGirls #EmpowerWomen #FemaleEmpowerment #WomensHistory #FightLikeAGirl -
'Divided response': Presbyterian Church bars women from senior roles
By Danuta KozakiA vote excluding women from elder positions in the Presbyterian Church in NSW and the ACT is disappointing but not surprising, a long-standing parishioner says.
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'Divided response': Presbyterian Church bars women from senior roles
By Danuta KozakiA vote excluding women from elder positions in the Presbyterian Church in NSW and the ACT is disappointing but not surprising, a long-standing parishioner says.
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Something odd about couples has puzzled scientists for more than a century
By Inga TingOnce I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. Had I noticed something real or was it just the people around me? I set out to find out what the data had to say.
#Relationships #Marriage #Demographics #GenderEquality #GenderRoles #Anthropology #EconomicTrendsandIndicators #LGBTQIA #IngaTing
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Something odd about couples has puzzled scientists for more than a century
By Inga TingOnce I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. Had I noticed something real or was it just the people around me? I set out to find out what the data had to say.
#Relationships #Marriage #Demographics #GenderEquality #GenderRoles #Anthropology #EconomicTrendsandIndicators #LGBTQIA #IngaTing
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https://www.europesays.com/africa/335958/ South Africa, Namibia strengthen partnership on women’s empowerment #AfricanUnion #BiNationalCommission #EmmaKantema #gbvf #GenderEquality #GenderBasedViolence #Namibia #Pretoria #RegionalCooperation #Sadc #SindisiweChikunga #SouthAfrica #WomenPeaceAndSecurity #Women'sEmpowerment
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APC staff, members and partners took part in 17 sessions and events at #WSIS2026, contributing to conversations on digital justice, meaningful connectivity, gender equality, sustainable financing and inclusive AI governance.
From Feminist AI Innovation from the Global South to the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, our network brought community perspectives to global digital policy.
#DigitalJustice #MeaningfulConnectivity #AIGovernance #GenderEquality
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APC staff, members and partners took part in 17 sessions and events at #WSIS2026, contributing to conversations on digital justice, meaningful connectivity, gender equality, sustainable financing and inclusive AI governance.
From Feminist AI Innovation from the Global South to the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, our network brought community perspectives to global digital policy.
#DigitalJustice #MeaningfulConnectivity #AIGovernance #GenderEquality
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New post: Multiple job holding in Switzerland has climbed to historic highs. This trend is being driven by persistent gender gaps and evolving work-life balance needs — with important implications for HR leaders and policymakers. Dive into the analysis and takeaways: https://wix.to/vbZQFMI
#HR
#Switzerland
#LabourMarket
#GenderEquality
#WorkLifeBalance -
New post: Multiple job holding in Switzerland has climbed to historic highs. This trend is being driven by persistent gender gaps and evolving work-life balance needs — with important implications for HR leaders and policymakers. Dive into the analysis and takeaways: https://wix.to/vbZQFMI
#HR
#Switzerland
#LabourMarket
#GenderEquality
#WorkLifeBalance -
New post: Multiple job holding in Switzerland has climbed to historic highs. This trend is being driven by persistent gender gaps and evolving work-life balance needs — with important implications for HR leaders and policymakers. Dive into the analysis and takeaways: https://wix.to/vbZQFMI
#HR
#Switzerland
#LabourMarket
#GenderEquality
#WorkLifeBalance -
New post: Multiple job holding in Switzerland has climbed to historic highs. This trend is being driven by persistent gender gaps and evolving work-life balance needs — with important implications for HR leaders and policymakers. Dive into the analysis and takeaways: https://wix.to/vbZQFMI
#HR
#Switzerland
#LabourMarket
#GenderEquality
#WorkLifeBalance -
Lee Urges Officials: Don’t Seat Young Colleagues Beside You at Drinking Sessions
President Lee Jae-myung holds a meeting with press corps reporters at the Chunchugwan of the Blue House on…
#EuropeSays #Korea #KR #SouthKorea #drinkingculture #genderequality #KoreaPresident #LeeJaeMyung #ministrybriefings #publicofficialdiscipline #workplaceharassment
https://www.europesays.com/korea/87384/ -
Bangladesh Parliament and UN Forge New Partnership to Advance Women and Youth Rights
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Bangladesh Parliament and UN Forge New Partnership to Advance Women and Youth Rights
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Bangladesh Parliament and UN Forge New Partnership to Advance Women and Youth Rights
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Bangladesh Parliament and UN Forge New Partnership to Advance Women and Youth Rights
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Bangladesh Parliament and UN Forge New Partnership to Advance Women and Youth Rights
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‘Hugely successful’ Queensland firefighter camp for girls scrapped after one year despite low diversity rates
An award-winning Queensland firefighting camp that told young girls that “to be it you have to be able…
#Australia #AU #Austrlia #Diversity #Emergencies #emergencyservices #firefighting #genderequality #girlsfirefightingexperiencecamp #qfd #queenslandfireandrescueservice #QueenslandFireDepartment #ses #swiftwaterrescue #womeninfirefighting
https://www.europesays.com/australia/49320/ -
https://www.europesays.com/ie/581232/ Thousands attend transgender and intersex pride march in Dublin – The Irish Times #BreakingNews #BreakingNews #dublin #Dublin2 #Éire #FeaturedNews #FeaturedNews #GenderEquality #Headlines #IE #Ireland #LatestNews #LatestNews #MainNews #MainNews #News #ScoutingIreland #TopStories #TopStories
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Some folks may have heard about 31-year-old Kelsey Pfendler’s mastery of the sea. What I find most impressive is that she shattered the records she broke.
She rowed a boat from California to Hawaii ALONE. Her 2,400-mile journey took 44 days. In doing so she was the:
1. Youngest woman
2. First American woman
3. Fastest woman
4. Fastest humanShe cut the previous women’s record (86 days) in half. She beat the previous men’s record (52 days) by just over a week.
What a beast. Go ahead and tell me men are physically superior to women. Kelsey straight up said “anything you can do, I can do better.”
Here’s a summary of a video diary she kept on route:
https://www.kcra.com/article/kelsey-pfendler-record-breaking-row-california-hawaii-top-moments/71819753#KelseyPfendler #WomenInSports #WorldRecords #GenderEquality #AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter
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Some folks may have heard about 31-year-old Kelsey Pfendler’s mastery of the sea. What I find most impressive is that she shattered the records she broke.
She rowed a boat from California to Hawaii ALONE. Her 2,400-mile journey took 44 days. In doing so she was the:
1. Youngest woman
2. First American woman
3. Fastest woman
4. Fastest humanShe cut the previous women’s record (86 days) in half. She beat the previous men’s record (52 days) by just over a week.
What a beast. Go ahead and tell me men are physically superior to women. Kelsey straight up said “anything you can do, I can do better.”
Here’s a summary of a video diary she kept on route:
https://www.kcra.com/article/kelsey-pfendler-record-breaking-row-california-hawaii-top-moments/71819753#KelseyPfendler #WomenInSports #WorldRecords #GenderEquality #AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter
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Some folks may have heard about 31-year-old Kelsey Pfendler’s mastery of the sea. What I find most impressive is that she shattered the records she broke.
She rowed a boat from California to Hawaii ALONE. Her 2,400-mile journey took 44 days. In doing so she was the:
1. Youngest woman
2. First American woman
3. Fastest woman
4. Fastest humanShe cut the previous women’s record (86 days) in half. She beat the previous men’s record (52 days) by just over a week.
What a beast. Go ahead and tell me men are physically superior to women. Kelsey straight up said “anything you can do, I can do better.”
Here’s a summary of a video diary she kept on route:
https://www.kcra.com/article/kelsey-pfendler-record-breaking-row-california-hawaii-top-moments/71819753#KelseyPfendler #WomenInSports #WorldRecords #GenderEquality #AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter
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Some folks may have heard about 31-year-old Kelsey Pfendler’s mastery of the sea. What I find most impressive is that she shattered the records she broke.
She rowed a boat from California to Hawaii ALONE. Her 2,400-mile journey took 44 days. In doing so she was the:
1. Youngest woman
2. First American woman
3. Fastest woman
4. Fastest humanShe cut the previous women’s record (86 days) in half. She beat the previous men’s record (52 days) by just over a week.
What a beast. Go ahead and tell me men are physically superior to women. Kelsey straight up said “anything you can do, I can do better.”
Here’s a summary of a video diary she kept on route:
https://www.kcra.com/article/kelsey-pfendler-record-breaking-row-california-hawaii-top-moments/71819753#KelseyPfendler #WomenInSports #WorldRecords #GenderEquality #AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter
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Some folks may have heard about 31-year-old Kelsey Pfendler’s mastery of the sea. What I find most impressive is that she shattered the records she broke.
She rowed a boat from California to Hawaii ALONE. Her 2,400-mile journey took 44 days. In doing so she was the:
1. Youngest woman
2. First American woman
3. Fastest woman
4. Fastest humanShe cut the previous women’s record (86 days) in half. She beat the previous men’s record (52 days) by just over a week.
What a beast. Go ahead and tell me men are physically superior to women. Kelsey straight up said “anything you can do, I can do better.”
Here’s a summary of a video diary she kept on route:
https://www.kcra.com/article/kelsey-pfendler-record-breaking-row-california-hawaii-top-moments/71819753#KelseyPfendler #WomenInSports #WorldRecords #GenderEquality #AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter
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Falling short again…
Cartoon by Adam Ziglyshttps://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NtwiCJxvU/
#worldcup #cartoon #football #equalpay #womenfootball #genderpaygap #soccer #womensoccer #genderequality #USpol #usasoccer #AdamZiglys #feminist #usa
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Falling short again…
Cartoon by Adam Ziglyshttps://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NtwiCJxvU/
#worldcup #cartoon #football #equalpay #womenfootball #genderpaygap #soccer #womensoccer #genderequality #USpol #usasoccer #AdamZiglys #feminist #usa
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DATE: July 8, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Why do relationships fail when women earn more? Study challenges traditional explanations
Women who earn more than their male partners are still more likely to experience relationship breakdown, according to a study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. However, the research challenges one of the most common explanations for this pattern, finding little evidence that traditional gender norms are responsible.
Over recent decades, women have increasingly surpassed men in education and, in many relationships, now earn more than their partners. Earlier studies have repeatedly shown that these couples are more likely to separate or divorce, leading researchers to suggest that traditional expectations about men being the main breadwinner may place extra strain on these relationships. Other explanations have focused on women’s financial independence, differences in earning potential, or the possibility that people seek partners with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
The researchers wanted to determine which of these explanations, if any, best accounts for the higher rates of relationship dissolution observed when women have a socioeconomic advantage.
Led by Pilar Gonalons-Pons, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, the research team analyzed harmonized panel data from 544,911 different-sex couples across 29 high-income countries between 2004 and 2020. The study included 437,102 married couples and 107,809 cohabiting couples drawn from several large international household surveys.
Using statistical models, they examined whether women earning more than their partners predicted separation while testing several competing explanations, including gender norms, economic independence, labor market conditions, and work–family conflict.
The researchers confirmed that couples in which women earned more than their partners were 36% more likely to separate. However, many of the explanations that have dominated previous research received little support. Countries with more traditional gender attitudes did not show a stronger association, suggesting that cultural beliefs about male breadwinners do not fully explain why these relationships end more often. Likewise, women’s greater financial independence, men’s relative economic advantage, and differences in opportunities to find similar partners failed to account for the pattern.
Instead, the strongest evidence pointed toward work–family conflict. The association between women’s higher earnings and relationship dissolution was noticeably stronger among couples raising children. Female-breadwinner couples with children were 49% more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples, whereas childless female-breadwinner couples were 23% more likely to separate than their male-breadwinning counterparts.
This finding suggests that balancing work and family responsibilities may place greater strain on relationships when women have higher earnings, perhaps because household responsibilities remain unevenly shared. The study authors also found partial evidence that the association might be somewhat tied to anticipation of separation or economic hardship as confounders.
“Work–family conflict might be particularly intense when women do not scale back from paid work after having children and male partners do not sufficiently contribute to domestic labor,” the authors explained.
The researchers caution that the findings should not be interpreted as showing that women earning more causes relationships to fail. For example, the researchers point out that their dataset lacks information on relationship duration, an important variable as the risk of separation changes over the course of relationships. In addition, large international surveys cannot capture every aspect of relationship quality, communication, or compatibility. The study also focused only on high-income countries and different-sex couples, meaning the results may not apply elsewhere.
The study “Women’s Socioeconomic Advantage Over Their Partners and Relationship Dissolution: A 29-Country Study” was authored by Pilar Gonalons-Pons and Allison Dunatchik.
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #WomensEarningsAndRelationships #WorkFamilyConflict #GenderRoles #BreadwinnerDynamics #RelationshipDissolution #SocioeconomicAdvantage #WorkLifeBalance #MarriageAndFamilyResearch #GenderEquality #CouplesStudies
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DATE: July 8, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Why do relationships fail when women earn more? Study challenges traditional explanations
Women who earn more than their male partners are still more likely to experience relationship breakdown, according to a study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. However, the research challenges one of the most common explanations for this pattern, finding little evidence that traditional gender norms are responsible.
Over recent decades, women have increasingly surpassed men in education and, in many relationships, now earn more than their partners. Earlier studies have repeatedly shown that these couples are more likely to separate or divorce, leading researchers to suggest that traditional expectations about men being the main breadwinner may place extra strain on these relationships. Other explanations have focused on women’s financial independence, differences in earning potential, or the possibility that people seek partners with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
The researchers wanted to determine which of these explanations, if any, best accounts for the higher rates of relationship dissolution observed when women have a socioeconomic advantage.
Led by Pilar Gonalons-Pons, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, the research team analyzed harmonized panel data from 544,911 different-sex couples across 29 high-income countries between 2004 and 2020. The study included 437,102 married couples and 107,809 cohabiting couples drawn from several large international household surveys.
Using statistical models, they examined whether women earning more than their partners predicted separation while testing several competing explanations, including gender norms, economic independence, labor market conditions, and work–family conflict.
The researchers confirmed that couples in which women earned more than their partners were 36% more likely to separate. However, many of the explanations that have dominated previous research received little support. Countries with more traditional gender attitudes did not show a stronger association, suggesting that cultural beliefs about male breadwinners do not fully explain why these relationships end more often. Likewise, women’s greater financial independence, men’s relative economic advantage, and differences in opportunities to find similar partners failed to account for the pattern.
Instead, the strongest evidence pointed toward work–family conflict. The association between women’s higher earnings and relationship dissolution was noticeably stronger among couples raising children. Female-breadwinner couples with children were 49% more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples, whereas childless female-breadwinner couples were 23% more likely to separate than their male-breadwinning counterparts.
This finding suggests that balancing work and family responsibilities may place greater strain on relationships when women have higher earnings, perhaps because household responsibilities remain unevenly shared. The study authors also found partial evidence that the association might be somewhat tied to anticipation of separation or economic hardship as confounders.
“Work–family conflict might be particularly intense when women do not scale back from paid work after having children and male partners do not sufficiently contribute to domestic labor,” the authors explained.
The researchers caution that the findings should not be interpreted as showing that women earning more causes relationships to fail. For example, the researchers point out that their dataset lacks information on relationship duration, an important variable as the risk of separation changes over the course of relationships. In addition, large international surveys cannot capture every aspect of relationship quality, communication, or compatibility. The study also focused only on high-income countries and different-sex couples, meaning the results may not apply elsewhere.
The study “Women’s Socioeconomic Advantage Over Their Partners and Relationship Dissolution: A 29-Country Study” was authored by Pilar Gonalons-Pons and Allison Dunatchik.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #WomensEarningsAndRelationships #WorkFamilyConflict #GenderRoles #BreadwinnerDynamics #RelationshipDissolution #SocioeconomicAdvantage #WorkLifeBalance #MarriageAndFamilyResearch #GenderEquality #CouplesStudies
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2030 Winter Olympics Axes Nordic Combined for Gender Equality
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The first-daughter effect, in which fathers whose first child is a daughter become more supportive of gender equality, has been replicated in Japan, where there is a high degree of gender inequality.
Original paper: https://academic.oup.com/poq/advance-article/doi/10.1093/poq/nfag040/8706729?login=false
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The first-daughter effect, in which fathers whose first child is a daughter become more supportive of gender equality, has been replicated in Japan, where there is a high degree of gender inequality.
Original paper: https://academic.oup.com/poq/advance-article/doi/10.1093/poq/nfag040/8706729?login=false
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DATE: July 7, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The first-daughter effect: How raising girls changes fathers’ political views in Japan
Fathers whose first child is a girl tend to develop more equal views on gender roles and support policies that promote women’s rights. A recent study published in Public Opinion Quarterly suggests this shift happens even in culturally conservative countries where gender inequality remains widespread. The findings provide evidence that the experience of raising daughters can reshape a parent’s political attitudes on specific social issues.
Political scientists often study how families share and pass down beliefs. This process is known as political socialization. Traditionally, experts viewed this as a top-down process where parents pass their political and social views down to their children. Recent research suggests a reverse process can also happen, as children can influence their parents’ beliefs through their own unique life experiences and challenges.
Researchers Daina Chiba and Yoshikuni Ono wanted to explore this dynamic. “What I found especially interesting is that political socialization is often studied as something that flows from parents to children, but our results suggest that children can also influence their parents’ political attitudes,” explained Ono, a professor of political science and economics at Waseda University.
One famous example of this reverse influence is the first-daughter effect. This concept describes a natural experiment where researchers compare fathers whose first child is a girl to fathers whose first child is a boy. Assuming the sex of a firstborn child is random, any major differences in the fathers’ later political views can likely be tied to the experience of raising a daughter. Past research in Western democracies suggests that fathers with firstborn daughters often become more supportive of gender equality.
Chiba and Ono sought to find out whether the effect requires a culturally progressive environment to take root. “I have long been interested in how gender shapes voters’ political attitudes and behavior, and I have conducted various studies on this topic in Japan, the United States, and other contexts,” Ono said.
Ono explained that the question of whether a child’s gender affects a father’s political attitudes had already been examined in countries like the United States. “We wanted to investigate whether a similar pattern could be observed in Japan,” Ono said. “This project began when my coauthor, Daina Chiba, found a large-scale Japanese social survey that asked voters about the gender of their children, which allowed us to examine this question empirically.”
Japan features a stable democratic government but still struggles with high levels of gender inequality. For instance, Japanese women face significant wage gaps and hold a very small percentage of seats in the national government. Traditional expectations surrounding the division of labor between men and women also remain strong in Japanese society.
In some other East Asian countries, a cultural preference for sons has led to manipulated birth sex ratios. In Japan, the ratio of boys to girls at birth has remained completely stable for over a century. This stability means the sex of a Japanese family’s first child is naturally random. This randomness provides researchers with an ideal environment to test the first-daughter effect without the data being skewed by parents choosing their child’s sex.
To explore this question, Chiba and Ono analyzed data from the Japanese General Social Survey. This is a large survey of adults in Japan that represents the national population and is conducted every two years. Participants complete face-to-face interviews and fill out self-administered questionnaires. The researchers looked at survey responses collected between 2000 and 2018, specifically focusing on male respondents who had at least one child.
Depending on the survey year, the sample sizes of these fathers ranged from about 250 to over 1,500. In this group, 46.8 percent of the men had a firstborn daughter, while 53.2 percent had a firstborn son. The researchers then compared these two groups across a variety of survey questions related to gender, politics, and social policies.
To measure gender-related attitudes, the survey asked fathers to rate their agreement with traditional gender roles. One question asked if a husband’s job is to earn money while a wife’s job is to look after the home. The survey also asked about legal reforms. This included a major debate in Japan involving a law that requires married couples to share a single family surname, which usually defaults to the husband’s name.
Another cultural issue involves whether women should be allowed to inherit the Japanese throne. The researchers measured support for female monarchs as well as support for female-line monarchs. The latter would allow children born to female royal family members to become emperor, representing a massive shift away from Japanese patriarchal traditions.
The researchers also examined opinions on two policies that are heavily tied to women’s well-being in Japan. The first was government-led income redistribution. Single-parent households in Japan are overwhelmingly headed by women, and these households face very high rates of relative poverty. The second policy was government spending on crime control, as women in Japan report higher fears of crime and are more likely to be victims of certain offenses.
The data provides evidence that the first-daughter effect is present in Japan. Fathers with firstborn daughters were significantly more likely to reject traditional gender roles than fathers with firstborn sons. They were also more likely to support legal changes that would allow married couples to keep separate surnames.
Fathers of firstborn daughters also showed stronger support for allowing the Japanese royal lineage to pass through the female line. Additionally, these fathers were more likely to support income redistribution and increased government spending on crime prevention. The only primary measure that did not show a major difference was general support for female monarchs, which did not reach statistical significance.
Ono noted that these results met his general expectations. “The findings were not entirely surprising, in the sense that they were broadly consistent with what one might expect, but they were still very interesting,” Ono told PsyPost. “Of course, these are average tendencies; not every father changes in this way, and the estimated effects are not overwhelmingly large.”
Even with modest effect sizes, the presence of these changes in a traditional society is notable. “Even in Japan, where gender gaps in politics remain large and society is often described as socially conservative, we find a pattern similar to that reported in some Western contexts: fathers whose first child is a daughter tend to hold more egalitarian views on gender roles than fathers whose first child is a son,” Ono said.
According to Ono, fathers with daughters are more likely to reject traditional gender-role divisions and to support gender-equality-related reforms. “Many fathers with daughters may not consciously think of their daughters as changing their political views, but our findings suggest that the experience of raising a daughter may increase fathers’ awareness of gender equality,” Ono said.
To ensure these attitude changes were actually about gender, the researchers tested a second set of survey questions. These placebo questions covered topics unrelated to gender equality, meaning the answers should not be affected by the sex of a person’s child. The topics included general liberal or conservative ideology, support for the Liberal Democratic Party, views on immigration, and opinions on national security.
The researchers found no differences between the two groups of fathers on these unrelated topics. Having a firstborn daughter did not make a father more generally liberal or change his views on immigration. The study also looked at attitudes toward homosexuality. The researchers found no effect there either, which suggests the fathers’ attitude changes are specifically focused on the rights and opportunities of women.
“One important limitation is that the differences we observe are concentrated in attitudes related to gender equality,” Ono said. “We did not find clear differences in broader political ideology or in attitudes toward issues such as national security policy.”
Readers might assume that having any number of daughters at any birth order would produce the same attitude changes. “Another important point is that our study mainly identifies the effect of the gender of the first child,” Ono said. “It does not capture the full effect of the broader experience of having daughters.”
Families often make choices about having more children based on the sex of their previous children. This means looking at total family makeup can skew the data and make it harder to trace direct causes. “It may be especially important whether parents begin childrearing with a daughter or a son, but our study cannot fully answer what happens when the second child is a daughter, or when parents have multiple daughters,” Ono said.
Another limitation is that the survey only captured personal opinions and attitudes at a specific point in time. The data cannot show whether these shifting beliefs lead to actual behavioral changes. For instance, the study does not measure if these fathers vote differently or actively participate in political advocacy to support women’s rights.
Ono hopes to address some of these unknown factors in future work. “I would like to continue examining how gender shapes voters’ political attitudes and behavior,” Ono said. “Experimental research can make visible the ways in which men and women sometimes perceive politics differently, respond differently, or behave differently under the same political institutions.”
The authors also want to look closer at how households operate. “I also hope to continue studying how family structure and family experiences shape political behavior and attitudes,” Ono said. “More broadly, I am interested in identifying how gendered patterns of behavior under the same institutional conditions may affect political outcomes, such as candidate emergence, electoral competition, and election results.”
In the meantime, the current findings suggest that family experiences can act as a subtle mechanism for promoting gender equality. “One broader implication of the study is that politics is connected to everyday life in ways that people may not always recognize,” Ono said.
Ono added that political attitudes are shaped not only by institutions, economic conditions, or formal education, but also by experiences within the family. “In this sense, family relationships may be one important pathway through which social attitudes gradually change,” Ono said.
The study, “Do Daughters Change Their Fathers? Evidence from the First-Daughter Effect in Japan,” was authored by Daina Chiba and Yoshikuni Ono.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #FirstDaughterEffect #JapanPolitics #GenderEquality #ParentalInfluence #PoliticalSocialization #FathersAndDaughters #WomenRightsPolicy #GenderRoles #PublicOpinionQuarterly #JapanSocialSurvey
-
DATE: July 7, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The first-daughter effect: How raising girls changes fathers’ political views in Japan
Fathers whose first child is a girl tend to develop more equal views on gender roles and support policies that promote women’s rights. A recent study published in Public Opinion Quarterly suggests this shift happens even in culturally conservative countries where gender inequality remains widespread. The findings provide evidence that the experience of raising daughters can reshape a parent’s political attitudes on specific social issues.
Political scientists often study how families share and pass down beliefs. This process is known as political socialization. Traditionally, experts viewed this as a top-down process where parents pass their political and social views down to their children. Recent research suggests a reverse process can also happen, as children can influence their parents’ beliefs through their own unique life experiences and challenges.
Researchers Daina Chiba and Yoshikuni Ono wanted to explore this dynamic. “What I found especially interesting is that political socialization is often studied as something that flows from parents to children, but our results suggest that children can also influence their parents’ political attitudes,” explained Ono, a professor of political science and economics at Waseda University.
One famous example of this reverse influence is the first-daughter effect. This concept describes a natural experiment where researchers compare fathers whose first child is a girl to fathers whose first child is a boy. Assuming the sex of a firstborn child is random, any major differences in the fathers’ later political views can likely be tied to the experience of raising a daughter. Past research in Western democracies suggests that fathers with firstborn daughters often become more supportive of gender equality.
Chiba and Ono sought to find out whether the effect requires a culturally progressive environment to take root. “I have long been interested in how gender shapes voters’ political attitudes and behavior, and I have conducted various studies on this topic in Japan, the United States, and other contexts,” Ono said.
Ono explained that the question of whether a child’s gender affects a father’s political attitudes had already been examined in countries like the United States. “We wanted to investigate whether a similar pattern could be observed in Japan,” Ono said. “This project began when my coauthor, Daina Chiba, found a large-scale Japanese social survey that asked voters about the gender of their children, which allowed us to examine this question empirically.”
Japan features a stable democratic government but still struggles with high levels of gender inequality. For instance, Japanese women face significant wage gaps and hold a very small percentage of seats in the national government. Traditional expectations surrounding the division of labor between men and women also remain strong in Japanese society.
In some other East Asian countries, a cultural preference for sons has led to manipulated birth sex ratios. In Japan, the ratio of boys to girls at birth has remained completely stable for over a century. This stability means the sex of a Japanese family’s first child is naturally random. This randomness provides researchers with an ideal environment to test the first-daughter effect without the data being skewed by parents choosing their child’s sex.
To explore this question, Chiba and Ono analyzed data from the Japanese General Social Survey. This is a large survey of adults in Japan that represents the national population and is conducted every two years. Participants complete face-to-face interviews and fill out self-administered questionnaires. The researchers looked at survey responses collected between 2000 and 2018, specifically focusing on male respondents who had at least one child.
Depending on the survey year, the sample sizes of these fathers ranged from about 250 to over 1,500. In this group, 46.8 percent of the men had a firstborn daughter, while 53.2 percent had a firstborn son. The researchers then compared these two groups across a variety of survey questions related to gender, politics, and social policies.
To measure gender-related attitudes, the survey asked fathers to rate their agreement with traditional gender roles. One question asked if a husband’s job is to earn money while a wife’s job is to look after the home. The survey also asked about legal reforms. This included a major debate in Japan involving a law that requires married couples to share a single family surname, which usually defaults to the husband’s name.
Another cultural issue involves whether women should be allowed to inherit the Japanese throne. The researchers measured support for female monarchs as well as support for female-line monarchs. The latter would allow children born to female royal family members to become emperor, representing a massive shift away from Japanese patriarchal traditions.
The researchers also examined opinions on two policies that are heavily tied to women’s well-being in Japan. The first was government-led income redistribution. Single-parent households in Japan are overwhelmingly headed by women, and these households face very high rates of relative poverty. The second policy was government spending on crime control, as women in Japan report higher fears of crime and are more likely to be victims of certain offenses.
The data provides evidence that the first-daughter effect is present in Japan. Fathers with firstborn daughters were significantly more likely to reject traditional gender roles than fathers with firstborn sons. They were also more likely to support legal changes that would allow married couples to keep separate surnames.
Fathers of firstborn daughters also showed stronger support for allowing the Japanese royal lineage to pass through the female line. Additionally, these fathers were more likely to support income redistribution and increased government spending on crime prevention. The only primary measure that did not show a major difference was general support for female monarchs, which did not reach statistical significance.
Ono noted that these results met his general expectations. “The findings were not entirely surprising, in the sense that they were broadly consistent with what one might expect, but they were still very interesting,” Ono told PsyPost. “Of course, these are average tendencies; not every father changes in this way, and the estimated effects are not overwhelmingly large.”
Even with modest effect sizes, the presence of these changes in a traditional society is notable. “Even in Japan, where gender gaps in politics remain large and society is often described as socially conservative, we find a pattern similar to that reported in some Western contexts: fathers whose first child is a daughter tend to hold more egalitarian views on gender roles than fathers whose first child is a son,” Ono said.
According to Ono, fathers with daughters are more likely to reject traditional gender-role divisions and to support gender-equality-related reforms. “Many fathers with daughters may not consciously think of their daughters as changing their political views, but our findings suggest that the experience of raising a daughter may increase fathers’ awareness of gender equality,” Ono said.
To ensure these attitude changes were actually about gender, the researchers tested a second set of survey questions. These placebo questions covered topics unrelated to gender equality, meaning the answers should not be affected by the sex of a person’s child. The topics included general liberal or conservative ideology, support for the Liberal Democratic Party, views on immigration, and opinions on national security.
The researchers found no differences between the two groups of fathers on these unrelated topics. Having a firstborn daughter did not make a father more generally liberal or change his views on immigration. The study also looked at attitudes toward homosexuality. The researchers found no effect there either, which suggests the fathers’ attitude changes are specifically focused on the rights and opportunities of women.
“One important limitation is that the differences we observe are concentrated in attitudes related to gender equality,” Ono said. “We did not find clear differences in broader political ideology or in attitudes toward issues such as national security policy.”
Readers might assume that having any number of daughters at any birth order would produce the same attitude changes. “Another important point is that our study mainly identifies the effect of the gender of the first child,” Ono said. “It does not capture the full effect of the broader experience of having daughters.”
Families often make choices about having more children based on the sex of their previous children. This means looking at total family makeup can skew the data and make it harder to trace direct causes. “It may be especially important whether parents begin childrearing with a daughter or a son, but our study cannot fully answer what happens when the second child is a daughter, or when parents have multiple daughters,” Ono said.
Another limitation is that the survey only captured personal opinions and attitudes at a specific point in time. The data cannot show whether these shifting beliefs lead to actual behavioral changes. For instance, the study does not measure if these fathers vote differently or actively participate in political advocacy to support women’s rights.
Ono hopes to address some of these unknown factors in future work. “I would like to continue examining how gender shapes voters’ political attitudes and behavior,” Ono said. “Experimental research can make visible the ways in which men and women sometimes perceive politics differently, respond differently, or behave differently under the same political institutions.”
The authors also want to look closer at how households operate. “I also hope to continue studying how family structure and family experiences shape political behavior and attitudes,” Ono said. “More broadly, I am interested in identifying how gendered patterns of behavior under the same institutional conditions may affect political outcomes, such as candidate emergence, electoral competition, and election results.”
In the meantime, the current findings suggest that family experiences can act as a subtle mechanism for promoting gender equality. “One broader implication of the study is that politics is connected to everyday life in ways that people may not always recognize,” Ono said.
Ono added that political attitudes are shaped not only by institutions, economic conditions, or formal education, but also by experiences within the family. “In this sense, family relationships may be one important pathway through which social attitudes gradually change,” Ono said.
The study, “Do Daughters Change Their Fathers? Evidence from the First-Daughter Effect in Japan,” was authored by Daina Chiba and Yoshikuni Ono.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #FirstDaughterEffect #JapanPolitics #GenderEquality #ParentalInfluence #PoliticalSocialization #FathersAndDaughters #WomenRightsPolicy #GenderRoles #PublicOpinionQuarterly #JapanSocialSurvey
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Wir haben die Behörde für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Gleichstellung (BWFG) bei der Aktualisierung des Hamburger Gleichstellungsmonitors unterstützt. Anhand von 78 Indikatoren beleuchtet er den Stand der Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern in der Hansestadt.
#Hamburg #Gleichstellung #GenderEquality #ÖffentlicheVerwaltung #teamfakten
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Wir haben die Behörde für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Gleichstellung (BWFG) bei der Aktualisierung des Hamburger Gleichstellungsmonitors unterstützt. Anhand von 78 Indikatoren beleuchtet er den Stand der Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern in der Hansestadt.
#Hamburg #Gleichstellung #GenderEquality #ÖffentlicheVerwaltung #teamfakten
-
Has anyone else read this article from UN Women* that calls for #GenderEquality and #Women'sRights to be embedded in #AI? It was published June 29; I came across it today (July 6). https://unric.org/en/ai-is-already-rewriting-reality-for-billions-of-people-it-is-getting-women-wrong/
______________
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Women -
Has anyone else read this article from UN Women* that calls for #GenderEquality and #Women'sRights to be embedded in #AI? It was published June 29; I came across it today (July 6). https://unric.org/en/ai-is-already-rewriting-reality-for-billions-of-people-it-is-getting-women-wrong/
______________
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Women -
DATE: July 5, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Higher education is less associated with economic parity for women in highly hierarchical cultures
New research published in Applied Economics Letters suggests that deep-rooted cultural beliefs about hierarchy and gender roles can prevent highly educated women from participating fully in the workforce. The findings indicate that in societies that heavily favor strict social hierarchies, earning an advanced education does not help women close the economic gender gap. These cultural barriers tend to overpower the usual career benefits of a good education.
Scholars continue to document the persistence of workplace gender inequality as a global issue. According to a United Nations report cited in the study, no country has achieved full gender equality, and a staggering 90 percent of people worldwide hold some form of bias against women. The inequalities are glaring in terms of financial compensation, as women tend to earn less than men across the globe. Even in progressive economies like the United States, women earn roughly 84 cents for every dollar paid to men.
This disparity persists at higher levels of academic achievement. For instance, women with a bachelor’s degree have significantly lower median weekly earnings compared to men with the exact same educational background. The researchers highlight data from Barclays International, which reports an average gender pay gap of 48 percent that climbs to 79 percent when financial bonuses are included.
The gender gap tends to worsen as individuals move up the corporate ladder. Women are frequently assigned lower-paying and less prestigious roles, while men are promoted at much higher rates. A business report cited by the authors found that for every 100 women promoted, approximately 130 men advance. The researchers note that many women also face a motherhood penalty, which occurs when women reduce their working hours or miss out on promotions to handle family responsibilities.
Education is widely considered a primary tool for leveling the playing field. In theory, if women possess the same knowledge and technical skills as men, they should have equal opportunities to advance in their careers. Education serves as a strong indicator of an individual’s problem-solving abilities and provides access to professional networks. It also builds confidence, enabling women to negotiate for better positions.
To understand why education sometimes fails to close this gap, Muge Yayla of the University of Texas at San Antonio and A. Melih Kullu of Florida Southern College examined the role of national culture. They suspected that deeply ingrained social norms might restrict women from utilizing their academic achievements in the labor market. These norms are often internalized from an early age through family structures and actively shape hiring practices.
The authors based their research on an established psychological framework that measures different cultural dimensions across nations. This framework originated from massive surveys initially conducted among corporate employees in over 50 countries. It provides standardized scores for cultural values, allowing researchers to compare societal norms on a global scale. Specifically, the researchers focused on a cultural trait known as power distance.
Power distance refers to how much the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. In countries with high power distance, people tend to accept strict hierarchies where everyone has a designated place that requires no justification. In these cultures, authority is based on tradition, workplace decisions are centralized at the top, and older men typically hold the most power. The researchers theorized that these rigid power structures create work environments where women are disproportionately affected by power imbalances.
The researchers also looked at a second cultural dimension referred to as masculinity. In the context of cultural studies, a highly masculine society is one that places a strong emphasis on competitiveness, achievement, and distinct traditional gender roles. A society with low masculinity, often referred to as a feminine culture, tends to value cooperation, nurturing, and social equality.
Yayla and Kullu wanted to see how these two cultural dimensions interact with educational attainment to affect women’s economic opportunities. They reasoned that formal education might lose its power as an equalizing force in highly hierarchical and traditional societies where men occupy the dominant roles.
To explore these dynamics, the researchers analyzed data from 144 countries. They gathered societal norms data using the established global database, which scores countries on various cultural dimensions on a scale from zero to 100.
For their measure of workplace inequality, they used the Global Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum. This comprehensive index evaluates differences between men and women across four key areas, which include educational attainment, health and survival, political empowerment, and economic opportunity. The researchers focused specifically on the economic participation and opportunity score. This metric captures data on labor force participation, wage equality, income levels, and the number of women in senior management roles.
The authors intentionally used data from 2017 to conduct their analyses. They chose this year to avoid the massive labor market disruptions caused by the global pandemic, which disproportionately forced women out of the workforce due to increased caregiving responsibilities. Using this timeline allowed them to observe long-term cultural influences during a period of relative global economic stability.
To ensure their results were accurate, the researchers also controlled for each country’s wealth using the Gross Domestic Product per capita. This step prevents differences in basic economic development from skewing the results. Wealthier nations typically have more resources to invest in social programs and enforce anti-discrimination laws. The final statistical models included data from 94 to 140 countries, depending on the availability of complete information across all the necessary variables.
The statistical analysis provided evidence that women’s economic participation is significantly lower in countries with high power distance. Specifically, the model predicts an approximate 8.5 percent decrease in women’s economic participation for every 60-point increase in a country’s power distance score. In places where strict social hierarchies are accepted as natural, inclusive economic opportunities for women shrink considerably.
When the researchers looked at educational attainment on its own, it did not have a direct, universal effect on closing the gender gap across all nations. Instead, the benefits of education depended heavily on the country’s level of power distance.
In countries with low power distance, high educational attainment strongly translated into better economic participation for women. In these more egalitarian societies, the labor market heavily rewards women for earning higher degrees. The path to promotion is generally based on merit, making it much more accessible to well-educated women.
As power distance increases, the positive association between education and economic participation begins to fade. In countries with very high power distance scores, which typically exceed 80 on the 100-point scale, the career benefits of education for women completely disappear. In some of these highly hierarchical environments, additional education actually showed a slight negative relationship with women’s economic participation.
The researchers suggest that in these high power distance societies, deeply entrenched hierarchical norms prevent educated women from leveraging their qualifications. Even with advanced degrees, women face structural barriers and traditionalist views that keep decision-making power concentrated among men. Older leaders in these societies are more likely to uphold traditional gender roles and resist reforms that promote equity.
The authors also found that a country’s level of masculinity plays a major role in this dynamic. In highly masculine societies, the interaction between power distance and education remains strong. The strict adherence to traditional gender roles in these cultures amplifies the structural barriers that educated women face. These societies tend to reinforce the idea of the male breadwinner, making it much harder for women to enter the workforce.
In contrast, societies with low masculinity scores showed a completely different pattern. In these more cooperative cultures, neither power distance nor educational attainment had a statistically significant influence on women’s economic participation. The researchers note that these feminine societies tend to prioritize social welfare, parental leave, and gender equality policies, which might override educational and hierarchical barriers.
While this study provides evidence that cultural norms shape economic outcomes for women, the authors note a few limitations to their work. The data used in the analysis is correlational, which means it cannot definitively prove that cultural traits cause the gender gap to widen. The theoretical framework strongly suggests that these cultural dimensions act as structural roadblocks to workplace equality, but other variables could be at play.
Another limitation is the use of an aggregate index to measure economic participation. A single national score can sometimes mask differences that exist within specific regions or specific industries in a given country. The index also focuses on formal employment and does not account for informal labor or unpaid caregiving work, which makes up a large portion of women’s daily activities in many parts of the world.
The researchers recommend that future studies explore other institutional factors that might interact with education, such as specific legal rights and the quality of government institutions. They also suggest using longitudinal data, which tracks changes over a long period. This approach could help scientists determine whether shifting cultural attitudes eventually lead to smaller gender gaps.
From a practical standpoint, the authors advise that multinational companies should tailor their management strategies based on local culture. In highly masculine and hierarchical societies, businesses should intentionally dismantle strict hierarchical practices and create transparent paths for promotion. In societies with strict hierarchies but a lower emphasis on traditional masculine competition, creating mentorship programs and flexible work arrangements could help educated women reach their full potential.
The study, “Power Distance and Gender Gap in Economic Participation: The Roles of Educational Attainment and Masculinity,” was authored by Muge Yayla and A. Melih Kullu.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PowerDistance #GenderGap #EducatedWomen #WomenInWorkforce #HierarchicalCulture #MasculinityCulturalDifferences #EconomicParticipation #GenderEquality #WorkplaceDiversity #EducationAndLaborMarket
-
DATE: July 5, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Higher education is less associated with economic parity for women in highly hierarchical cultures
New research published in Applied Economics Letters suggests that deep-rooted cultural beliefs about hierarchy and gender roles can prevent highly educated women from participating fully in the workforce. The findings indicate that in societies that heavily favor strict social hierarchies, earning an advanced education does not help women close the economic gender gap. These cultural barriers tend to overpower the usual career benefits of a good education.
Scholars continue to document the persistence of workplace gender inequality as a global issue. According to a United Nations report cited in the study, no country has achieved full gender equality, and a staggering 90 percent of people worldwide hold some form of bias against women. The inequalities are glaring in terms of financial compensation, as women tend to earn less than men across the globe. Even in progressive economies like the United States, women earn roughly 84 cents for every dollar paid to men.
This disparity persists at higher levels of academic achievement. For instance, women with a bachelor’s degree have significantly lower median weekly earnings compared to men with the exact same educational background. The researchers highlight data from Barclays International, which reports an average gender pay gap of 48 percent that climbs to 79 percent when financial bonuses are included.
The gender gap tends to worsen as individuals move up the corporate ladder. Women are frequently assigned lower-paying and less prestigious roles, while men are promoted at much higher rates. A business report cited by the authors found that for every 100 women promoted, approximately 130 men advance. The researchers note that many women also face a motherhood penalty, which occurs when women reduce their working hours or miss out on promotions to handle family responsibilities.
Education is widely considered a primary tool for leveling the playing field. In theory, if women possess the same knowledge and technical skills as men, they should have equal opportunities to advance in their careers. Education serves as a strong indicator of an individual’s problem-solving abilities and provides access to professional networks. It also builds confidence, enabling women to negotiate for better positions.
To understand why education sometimes fails to close this gap, Muge Yayla of the University of Texas at San Antonio and A. Melih Kullu of Florida Southern College examined the role of national culture. They suspected that deeply ingrained social norms might restrict women from utilizing their academic achievements in the labor market. These norms are often internalized from an early age through family structures and actively shape hiring practices.
The authors based their research on an established psychological framework that measures different cultural dimensions across nations. This framework originated from massive surveys initially conducted among corporate employees in over 50 countries. It provides standardized scores for cultural values, allowing researchers to compare societal norms on a global scale. Specifically, the researchers focused on a cultural trait known as power distance.
Power distance refers to how much the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. In countries with high power distance, people tend to accept strict hierarchies where everyone has a designated place that requires no justification. In these cultures, authority is based on tradition, workplace decisions are centralized at the top, and older men typically hold the most power. The researchers theorized that these rigid power structures create work environments where women are disproportionately affected by power imbalances.
The researchers also looked at a second cultural dimension referred to as masculinity. In the context of cultural studies, a highly masculine society is one that places a strong emphasis on competitiveness, achievement, and distinct traditional gender roles. A society with low masculinity, often referred to as a feminine culture, tends to value cooperation, nurturing, and social equality.
Yayla and Kullu wanted to see how these two cultural dimensions interact with educational attainment to affect women’s economic opportunities. They reasoned that formal education might lose its power as an equalizing force in highly hierarchical and traditional societies where men occupy the dominant roles.
To explore these dynamics, the researchers analyzed data from 144 countries. They gathered societal norms data using the established global database, which scores countries on various cultural dimensions on a scale from zero to 100.
For their measure of workplace inequality, they used the Global Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum. This comprehensive index evaluates differences between men and women across four key areas, which include educational attainment, health and survival, political empowerment, and economic opportunity. The researchers focused specifically on the economic participation and opportunity score. This metric captures data on labor force participation, wage equality, income levels, and the number of women in senior management roles.
The authors intentionally used data from 2017 to conduct their analyses. They chose this year to avoid the massive labor market disruptions caused by the global pandemic, which disproportionately forced women out of the workforce due to increased caregiving responsibilities. Using this timeline allowed them to observe long-term cultural influences during a period of relative global economic stability.
To ensure their results were accurate, the researchers also controlled for each country’s wealth using the Gross Domestic Product per capita. This step prevents differences in basic economic development from skewing the results. Wealthier nations typically have more resources to invest in social programs and enforce anti-discrimination laws. The final statistical models included data from 94 to 140 countries, depending on the availability of complete information across all the necessary variables.
The statistical analysis provided evidence that women’s economic participation is significantly lower in countries with high power distance. Specifically, the model predicts an approximate 8.5 percent decrease in women’s economic participation for every 60-point increase in a country’s power distance score. In places where strict social hierarchies are accepted as natural, inclusive economic opportunities for women shrink considerably.
When the researchers looked at educational attainment on its own, it did not have a direct, universal effect on closing the gender gap across all nations. Instead, the benefits of education depended heavily on the country’s level of power distance.
In countries with low power distance, high educational attainment strongly translated into better economic participation for women. In these more egalitarian societies, the labor market heavily rewards women for earning higher degrees. The path to promotion is generally based on merit, making it much more accessible to well-educated women.
As power distance increases, the positive association between education and economic participation begins to fade. In countries with very high power distance scores, which typically exceed 80 on the 100-point scale, the career benefits of education for women completely disappear. In some of these highly hierarchical environments, additional education actually showed a slight negative relationship with women’s economic participation.
The researchers suggest that in these high power distance societies, deeply entrenched hierarchical norms prevent educated women from leveraging their qualifications. Even with advanced degrees, women face structural barriers and traditionalist views that keep decision-making power concentrated among men. Older leaders in these societies are more likely to uphold traditional gender roles and resist reforms that promote equity.
The authors also found that a country’s level of masculinity plays a major role in this dynamic. In highly masculine societies, the interaction between power distance and education remains strong. The strict adherence to traditional gender roles in these cultures amplifies the structural barriers that educated women face. These societies tend to reinforce the idea of the male breadwinner, making it much harder for women to enter the workforce.
In contrast, societies with low masculinity scores showed a completely different pattern. In these more cooperative cultures, neither power distance nor educational attainment had a statistically significant influence on women’s economic participation. The researchers note that these feminine societies tend to prioritize social welfare, parental leave, and gender equality policies, which might override educational and hierarchical barriers.
While this study provides evidence that cultural norms shape economic outcomes for women, the authors note a few limitations to their work. The data used in the analysis is correlational, which means it cannot definitively prove that cultural traits cause the gender gap to widen. The theoretical framework strongly suggests that these cultural dimensions act as structural roadblocks to workplace equality, but other variables could be at play.
Another limitation is the use of an aggregate index to measure economic participation. A single national score can sometimes mask differences that exist within specific regions or specific industries in a given country. The index also focuses on formal employment and does not account for informal labor or unpaid caregiving work, which makes up a large portion of women’s daily activities in many parts of the world.
The researchers recommend that future studies explore other institutional factors that might interact with education, such as specific legal rights and the quality of government institutions. They also suggest using longitudinal data, which tracks changes over a long period. This approach could help scientists determine whether shifting cultural attitudes eventually lead to smaller gender gaps.
From a practical standpoint, the authors advise that multinational companies should tailor their management strategies based on local culture. In highly masculine and hierarchical societies, businesses should intentionally dismantle strict hierarchical practices and create transparent paths for promotion. In societies with strict hierarchies but a lower emphasis on traditional masculine competition, creating mentorship programs and flexible work arrangements could help educated women reach their full potential.
The study, “Power Distance and Gender Gap in Economic Participation: The Roles of Educational Attainment and Masculinity,” was authored by Muge Yayla and A. Melih Kullu.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
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