Gender, Postmaterialism, and Feminism in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Value change and the feminist movement represent two major shifts in mass political orientations and behavior in the late twentieth century. Yet we know little about how these two fundamental changes relate to one another. This article addresses this question by analyzing the relationship between postmaterialist values and feminism among 13 advanced industrial democracies, using the 1990-91 World Values Survey. The results suggest that both gender and postmaterialist values are associated with feminism: women and those who adopt a postmaterialist stance are notably more likely to endorse feminist beliefs compared to men or materialists. Religion also plays a major role, both in terms of individual religious self-identity, and in terms of the religious culture of the country in question. The relations among gender, postmaterialism, and feminism are complex and deserve more careful analysis.