Multidimensional Approach to Studying Gender Equality - Results from Geq Study of Gender Equality and Quality of Life in Poland and Norway

The paper presents an approach for studying gender equality, which was elaborated by the Norwegian scholars (Holter, Svare, Egeland 2009) and later tested in many countries, also in Poland. The original multidimensional framework allows for in-depth analysis of gender equality and quality of life relationships, in the light of both women and men participation in employment and growing involvement of men in care work.

Gender equality was researched in the following dimensions: gender equal practices (housework, care, decisions), resource distribution in the family, pro-equality attitudes, attachment to traditional gender roles in connection to family and work, male power, gender identity, and experience of gender equality in childhood. Self-assessed quality of life (QoL) was measured with use of GESQoLS (new scale based on WHOQOL-bref) consisting of six dimensions: somatic functioning, psychological well-being, social/personal relations, material conditions, infrastructure and life satisfaction. The results indicate that gender equality impacts on quality of life of women and men in Poland. For example, pro-equality attitudes have positive impact on most dimensions in both genders, similarly to equality in care duties in case of parents. Equality in decisions brings positive impact on most QoL dimensions for men, while male power and control negative on all dimensions for women. Work burden negatively impacts QoL of men in all dimensions, besides financial one.

The proposed framework indicates that the relationships between different gender equality dimensions are context specific and differ between men and women, also considering their work engagement. The proposed questionnaire proved to be an interesting tool for cross-cultural comparisons.

The presented results come from the project “Gender Equality and Quality of Life’ (GEQ) funded by the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme. The survey data was collected in Poland in 2015 (representative random sample of adult men and women, address sampling, 1501 respondents).