Measuring collective action intention toward gender equality across cultures

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective efforts. Various instruments to measure collective action intentions have been developed, but to our knowledge none of the published measures were subject to invariance testing. We introduce the gender equality collective action intention (GECAI) scale and examine its psychometric isomorphism and measurement invariance, using data from 60 countries (N = 31,686). Our findings indicate that partial scalar measurement invariance of the GECAI scale permits conditional comparisons of latent mean GECAI scores across countries. Moreover, this metric psychometric isomorphism of the GECAI means we can interpret scores at the country-level (i.e., as a group attribute) conceptually similar to individual attributes. Therefore, our findings add to the growing body of literature on gender based collective action by introducing a methodologically sound tool to measure collective action intentions towards gender equality across cultures

Measuring collective action intention toward gender equality across cultures

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective efforts. Various instruments to measure collective action intentions have been developed, but to our knowledge none of the published measures were subject to invariance testing. We introduce the gender equality collective action intention (GECAI) scale and examine its psychometric isomorphism and measurement invariance, using data from 60 countries (N = 31,686). Our findings indicate that partial scalar measurement invariance of the GECAI scale permits conditional comparisons of latent mean GECAI scores across countries. Moreover, this metric psychometric isomorphism of the GECAI means we can interpret scores at the country-level (i.e., as a group attribute) conceptually similar to individual attributes. Therefore, our findings add to the growing body of literature on gender based collective action by introducing a methodologically sound tool to measure collective action intentions towards gender equality across cultures.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role

Dusted But Connected: A Case Study of Australian Online Community for People Affected by Asbestos-Related Disease

The impact of an asbestos-related diagnosis in Australia is multi-faceted and complex. Sufferers and carers face a range of life-limiting physical symptoms as well as the additional anxiety frequently associated with pursuing a claim for legal compensation. The result is that those affected by asbestos-related disease, their carers and families, often experience social isolation and a lack of social support. While traditional, face-to-face support groups can provide geographically proximate members with a valuable opportunity for interaction and support, they are not readily accessible outside major population centres and for people with acute symptoms of mesothelioma where all forms of social interaction, including travelling to and attending a support group meeting is problematic. Digital technologies and in particular online communities have the capacity to provide social support and thereby reduce the social isolation experienced by people affected, both directly and indirectly, by an asbestos-related diagnosis. Online communities have the potential to connect members of this community to experientially similar others. They have a particularly important role to play in Australia, a geographically large but relatively sparsely populated country characterised by a mix of urban, regional, rural and remote communities. This paper presents details and findings from a members’ evaluation of a pilot project that involved the creation of the Dusted Community, a peer- to- peer online community for men and women affected by an asbestos-related diagnosis. It was hoped that the Dusted Community, by addressing social support directly, would provide substantial benefits both for individuals with an asbestos diagnosis and for their carers. The members of the Dusted Community expressed strong support for an online community and emphasised the unique nature and challenges associated with an asbestos-related disease and the importance of being able to share their own stories

Beyond sensation: current thinking on sensory pleasure

Pleasure is something most of us value very highly. However, although we may spend considerable time and energy engineering opportunities to experience pleasure, we may not give much thought to its essential nature. Recent advances in neuroimaging are allowing the nature of pleasure to be explored in new scientific ways. What is emerging is a finer-grained picture of hedonic pleasure as one unique aspect of what has traditionally been known broadly as ‘reward’. The brain structures and neurochemicals involved in the experience of pleasure are discussed here, along with the psychophysical evidence, and finally, initial speculation on some potential effects of pleasure beyond sensation

Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries ( N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.</p

Country‐level and individual‐level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries

International audienc

Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings