Predicting Traditional Gender Role Attitudes: Political Ideology, Church Attendance, and Religion

• In Event: 308 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Gender, Work and Family: Session II

Abstract

This research seeks to examine the associations between traditional work-family gender role attitudes and political ideology, religious attendance, and Biblical literalism with three hypotheses. The first hypothesis predicts political conservatism to be positively associated with traditional gender role attitudes, the second predicts increased religious attendance to be positively associated with traditional gender role attitudes, and the third predicts that those who interpret the Bible as the literal word of God to have more traditional gender role attitudes. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), multinomial logistic regression tests each hypothesis individually and then collectively with five distinct models. Consistent with the first hypothesis, the results indicate that there is a positive association between traditional work-family gender role ideology and political conservatism. Nonetheless, the second hypothesis was not substantiated such that when both political ideology and Biblical literalism are considered, religious attendance is not a significant predictor of traditional gender role attitudes. Predicted by the third hypothesis, however, the results suggest that there is a significant association between Biblical literalists and traditional gender role ideology.

Author

• Emily Joo Dorshorst, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee