Despite the growing demand for care economy employees (e.g., nurses, teachers, and social workers), men remain underrepresented in these careers. While economically developed countries support more equal rights for women and men, their labor markets are highly gender segregated (Charles, 1992, 2003). We conducted a focused investigation of this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, testing whether gender gaps in care economy career interest are larger in more economically developed countries and, if so, what psychological and cultural factors underlie these patterns. We examined these questions with labor data from 70 countries (Study 1) and a preregistered study of career interests among 19,240 university students from 49 countries (Study 2). Although more economically developed countries tend to promote greater gender equality, our results reveal that the gender gap in care economy representation (Study 1) and interest (Study 2) is especially large in such countries. We did not observe parallel patterns for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics representation or interest. Results from Study 2 supported an integrated theoretical account of this development paradox in care economy interest: Cross-national variation in the gender gap in care economy interest was predicted by country-level variation in economic development and individualism/collectivism but not by self-expression values or country-level gender equality, countering prior (controversial) claims of a gender equality paradox. Furthermore, larger gender gaps in communal values (e.g., men’s lower valuing of helping and caring for others) were a proximal predictor of larger gender gaps in care economy interest in highly economically developed countries.

Media representations of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people have become more frequent and have the potential to influence how readers feel and think about them. Across two experimental studies, we tested how news articles featuring positive, negative, and neutral representations of TGD people and issues influence the attitudes of cisgender people toward TGD people. Study 1 (N = 730; between-participants) revealed an indirect effect of the articles' valence on cognitive attitudes through the mediation of feelings: an article with positive valence increased positive feelings, which in turn increased positive cognitive attitudes toward TGD people. Study 2 (N = 387; mixed between- and within-participants) showed that an article with negative valence directly worsened cognitive and affective attitudes toward TGD people compared to baseline attitudes (measured 1 week before). Stronger positive feelings were linked to more positive cognitive, behavioural, and affective attitudes, while stronger negative feelings were linked to more negative affective attitudes. However, emotional responses varied according to participants' pre-existing attitudes. These results highlight the importance of valence in news media representations of TGD people by documenting how feelings elicited upon reading articles can influence attitudes toward them.

Organizations face challenges in leadership succession, partly due to reduced employee interest in progressing to leadership roles. This study examined participative decision-making (PDM) as a strategy to foster leadership aspiration and whether it is particularly beneficial for women, who often encounter barriers in the workplace. A cross-sectional study in Sweden surveyed non-leaders (N = 749) and leaders (N = 240) on their leadership aspirations and perceived inclusion in PDM. Results showed PDM was positively related to aspiration in both groups. Among non-leaders, the relationship was stronger for women; among leaders, unexpectedly, stronger for men. Results and practical implications are discussed.

Gender rules, that is, prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes, dictate how women and men should and should not be, and thereby perpetuate the gender hierarchy that privileges men over women. Across seven nations that span the continuum of gender equality, we investigated gender status norms by identifying the extent to which gender rules correspond with social status beliefs. As expected, in all investigated nations, participants (N = 4,327) believed that men should not show low-status traits reflecting weakness (e.g., weak, naive) but should show high-status traits reflecting agency (e.g., leadership ability, ambitious). Correlational analyses found that the more gender-equal a nation, the more men's agency prescriptions were aligned with high-status and their weakness proscriptions with low-status characteristics. Moreover, participants believed that women should not show high-status traits reflecting dominance (e.g., dominant, demanding) in the United States, Turkey, India, and Ghana—that is, in the relatively less gender-equal nations. Yet, no trait was proscribed for women in the relatively more gender-equal nations of Switzerland and Sweden. The status alignment of women's prescriptions and proscriptions did not relate to nations’ achieved gender equality. We discuss how the alignment of men's gender rules with status beliefs represents a hidden barrier to achieving full gender equality.

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre-registered, cross-national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries indicated the degree to which they believe childcare is (descriptive norm) and should be (prescriptive norm) equally divided among mothers and fathers. Policies were primarily operationalized as the existence of parental leave options in the respective country. The descriptive and prescriptive norms of equal division of childcare were stronger when parental leave was available in a country – also when controlling for potential confounding variables. Moreover, analyses of time since policy change suggested that policy change may initially affect prescriptive norms and then descriptive norms at a later point. However, due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, drawing causal inferences is difficult.

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.

Media representations of minorities (re)produce the societal context they are immersed in; thus, while media representations of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people have historically been negative and stigmatizing, different sociocultural contexts across countries can lead to considerable variations in these representations. The present study investigated how media representations of TGD people in news headlines varied across three European countries with different levels of legal protection and social acceptance of gender minorities: Sweden (high), the UK (medium), and Italy (low). In total, 830 headlines (Sweden = 300; UK = 300; Italy = 230) were coded for their valence (i.e., positive, neutral/mixed, negative), recurring social roles (i.e., criminals, victims, pioneers, professionals), gender aspects (i.e., target’s gender, misgendering), body aspects (i.e., medicalization, objectification), and focus (i.e., individual, group). We found that more gender-egalitarian societal contexts (Sweden, the UK) were associated with less negative and more neutral valence, less representations of TGD people as victims of discrimination and violence, more representations of gender diverse people, less misgendering, and less objectification. Trans women were represented more often than trans men and gender diverse people across all countries. By comparing news media representations of TGD people across countries, this research helps to shed light on the correspondences between media representations of gender minorities and the different levels of legal protection and social acceptance they experience.

Research on gender-fair language aims to identify language inclusive to a multitude of individuals, for example, increasing the visibility of women by using paired pronouns (he/she) instead of generic masculine forms (he). However, binary presentations like he/she might come with unwanted side effects and evoke what we label as normative gender bias. A normative gender bias is defined as when words lead to stronger associations with individuals with normative gender expressions than with individuals with non-normative gender expressions, thus contributing to making non-normative individuals invisible. In three experiments, we compared the extent to which the paired pronoun he/she (Swedish and English), the neo-pronouns hen (Swedish), ze (English), and the generic pronoun singular they (English) evoked a normative gender bias. Swedish- (N = 219 and 268) and English- (N = 837, from the UK) speaking participants read about individuals referred to with the paired pronoun he/she or with hen, ze, or they. In Experiment 1 (Swedish), there was no main effect of condition on a normative bias, but in Experiment 2 (Swedish), the paired pronouns he/she evoked normative gender bias while hen did not. In Experiment 3 (English), both ze and singular they evoked normative gender bias, although normative associations were lower in these conditions compared to he/she. Furthermore, the normative bias was lower among participants who had knowledge about the use of ze as a nonbinary pronoun. Finally, neither ze nor they evoked a normative gender bias when their use was explicitly stated to be nonbinary. A potential explanation for why singular they did not generally result in less normative associations, despite almost all participants knowing about it, may include its more common use as a generic pronoun. Taken together, our results suggest that neo-pronouns, but not paired pronouns, have the potential to evoke less normative associations, but that they must be both (1) actively created new words and (2) well-known to language users as nonbinary pronouns.

Nonbinary people face invisibility and misrecognition. This research investigated how the use of the Swedish gender-inclusive neopronoun hen influenced the gender categorization of faces beyond the binary. In a between-subjects design, participants (N = 368) were instructed to use the gender-inclusive neopronoun hen, the binary masculine pronoun han (he), or no pronoun in a writing task. Then, they categorized androgynous morphed faces by selecting one of four response options (“woman,” “man,” “nonbinary,” or “I don't know”). Altogether, the results indicated that few participants responded “I don't know,” indicating that categorizing gender by appearance is common. As expected, the use of the gender-inclusive pronoun increased nonbinary categorizations, whereas the use of the masculine pronoun did not increase man categorizations, documenting that gender-inclusive pronouns increase the visibility of nonbinary people. Gender binary beliefs were associated with less nonbinary categorization. The discussion outlines how these findings can inform social policymaking.

Introduction: The concept of participative decision-making (PDM) has been well established as a positive organizational factor, and has recently gained attention as a measure of gender inclusivity in the workplace. However, findings regarding gender differences in the experiences of PDM are inconclusive. This study hypothesized that women perceive themselves as less influential than men at the organizational level rather than at the workplace level. Furthermore, the study explored whether these assumed gender differences depend on the gender typicality of occupational positions and professions. We expected gender differences to be more pronounced for male-typed positions and professions (e.g., leadership, engineer) compared to non-male-typed occupational positions and professions (e.g., non-leadership, nurse).

Methods: Data on experiences with participative decision-making at the workplace and organizational levels were drawn from a large representative Swedish survey (N = 10,500; 60% women).

Results: Results showed that women experienced being less influential than men at the organizational level, whereas the experiences of women and men did not differ at the workplace level. The gender difference at the organizational level was not related to the gender typicality of position and profession.

Discussion: The findings highlight the importance of the inclusion of both women and men in strategic, large-scale decisions for achieving gender equality at work.