Change and Continuity in Gender Ideology across Different Fertility Contexts: Comparing Japan, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States

In ultra-low fertility societies, persisting traditional gender ideologies may continue to discourage educated women from having children or having to choose between career and marriage. We examine trends and changes in the sociodemographic patterns of gender ideologies across Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Poland, Sweden and the US. Each country exemplifies different stages of fertility change, cultural contexts of marriage and family, and socioeconomic development and inequalities. Using 12 statements on attitudes toward marriage, gender roles, and alternative family forms from ISSP 2002 and 2012 data, we identified four gender ideological classifications with Latent Class Analysis, capturing changes by gender and education from 2002 to 2012. The four classes are: Liberal (class 1: 22%), Strict motherhood (class 2: 16%), Pro-marriage and pro-work (class 3: 33%), and Traditional (class 4: 29%). Class 2 puts less value on marriage but believes that working mom harms the wellbeing of family and pre-school children; class 3 highly values marriage especially for women, but holds paradoxical beliefs that being a housewife is fulfilling while both husband and wife should work. The results indicate that higher education is an important determinant for the increase of more liberal gender ideologies in transition economies like Taiwan and Poland for both genders. Yet there appeared little changes in post-industrialized Japan and US. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic models further show that more seats held by women in national parliaments and less wage gaps significantly predict more liberal gender ideologies. We end the discussions over the importance of offering a “choice” framework for women, and the dual-earner/dual-carer ideology that may boost fertility and increase population wellbeing in ultra-low fertility contexts like Taiwan and Poland. From a comparative perspective, this paper contributes to the gender and reproductive behavior literature in showcasing the individual- and country-level correlates that may draw fertility and family policy implications.