Since the 1950s Italian education expanded rapidly. However, these theoretical expectations are seldom tested empirically. The shift from norms emphasizing traditional gender roles to norms supporting gender equality is often explained by structural and cultural developments such as rising levels of educational attainment and declining religiosity (Inglehart, 1997). Is this observed shift in values due to changes in the composition of the population, or due to changes in individuals’ opinions due to change-inducing factors? Previous research that has compared levels of support for gender egalitarianism over time and across different birth cohorts (Brewster, Padavic, 2000 Cotter et al., 2011) has found mostly period effects, “but the impetus for change continues to be unclear” (Davis, Greenstein, 2009, 91).ĢOver the past three decades, the average Italian has become more likely to endorse gender egalitarianism (Lomazzi, 2017). Support for gender egalitarianism has been on the rise throughout the Western world in countries such as the US (Cotter et al., 2011), Australia (van Egmond et al., 2010), Italy (Lomazzi, 2017) and it has been reported also from cross-national studies (Inglehart, Norris, 2003 Seguino, 2007). Torna suġIn the last decades, cultural norms connected to the role of women in society have been changing in many countries. I do not find socialization experiences connected to levels of (female) education and religiosity common to particular cohorts to result in distinct gender egalitarian attitudes of these cohorts. Results show that overall, the changes over time in gender egalitarianism attributable to education and religiosity are mostly driven by period effects, not cohort replacement. I employ a hierarchical age-period-cohort cross-classified random effects model across sixteen cohorts based on micro-level data from the European Values Study’s (1990 - 2020) Italian sample integrated with historical and contemporary contextual measures of educational expansion and secularization. This article asks whether educational expansion and declining religiosity act as possible change-inducing factors to foster gender egalitarianism and if so, whether they influence all age groups or only the young in their formative years. Cultural norms connected to the role of women in society have been changing in Italy.
0 kommentar(er)
