Research note: Multidimensional gender ideologies, rural/urban living and self perceptions of place in a German survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-1243Keywords:
Gender ideologies, Germany, Rural/urban divideAbstract
Objective: This paper aims to offer an initial description of the relationship between gender ideology and rural living from a multidimensional perspective.
Background: Literature from geography and cultural studies identifies a strong connection between rurality and non-egalitarian ideologies of gender. This relationship has been rarely investigated with quantitative methods, and this paper aims to contribute to the quantitative literature on this underexplored relationship using a more novel, multidimensional approach.
Method: With the use of latent class analysis on a representative sample of German men and women, I define three multidimensional gender ideologies, and then examine the relationship between them and both self-assessed and objectively measured rural living.
Results: My results show a strong association between rurality (both self-assessed and objectively measured) and non-egalitarian ideologies of gender in Germany. This relationship is however mostly confined to former West Germany, while an association between gendered care and suburban living emerges among residents in former East Germany.
Conclusion: Both results are significant and highlight a potentially neglected geographical divide in the German perception of gender and gender roles, worth of further exploration.
References
Begall, K., Grunow, D., & Buchler, S. (2023). Multidimensional Gender Ideologies Across Europe: Evidence From 36 Countries. Gender & Society, 089124322311559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432231155914
Behrens, K., Böltken, F., Dittmar, H., Göttsche, F., Gutfleisch, R., Habla, H., Herter-Eschweiler, R., Hoffmann, H., Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, J. H. P., Klinger, J., Kobl, D., Krack-Roberg, E., Krajzar, H., Krischausky, G., Milbert, A., Mundil-Schwarz, R., Pfister, M., Müller, S., Pavetic, M., … Wiese, K. (2019). Regionale Standards: Ausgabe 2019 (Vol. 23). GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften.
Carter, J. S., & Borch, C. A. (2005). Assessing the Effects of Urbanism and Regionalism on Gender-Role Attitudes, 1974-1998*. Sociological Inquiry, 75(4), 548–563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2005.00136.x
Carter, J. S., Carter, S. K., & Corra, M. (2016). The Significance of Place: The Impact of Urban and Regional Residence on Gender-Role Attitudes. Sociological Focus, 49(4), 271–285. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2016.1169896
Dirksmeier, P. (2015). The Intricate Geographies of Gender Ideologies in Germany. Geoforum, 64, 12–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.05.022
Ebner, C., Kühhirt, M., & Lersch, P. (2020). Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment. European Sociological Review, 36(5), 814–828. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaa015
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/095892879100100108
GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. (2023). German General Social Survey—ALLBUS 2021 (ZA5282).
Grimsrud, G. M. (2011). Gendered Spaces on Trial: The Influence of Regional Gender Contracts on In‐migration of Women to Rural Norway. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 93(1), 3–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2011.00358.x
Grunow, D., Begall, K., & Buchler, S. (2018). Gender Ideologies in Europe: A Multidimensional Framework. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(1), 42–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12453
Halfacree, K. (2023). Towards a Revanchist British Rural in Post-COVID Times? A Challenge to Those Seeking a Good Countryside. The Geographical Journal, n/a(n/a). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12549
Johansson, M. (2016). Young Women and Rural Exodus – Swedish Experiences. Journal of Rural Studies, 43, 291–300. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.04.002
Johnson, N. E. (1999). Nonmetropolitan Sex‐Role Ideologies: A Longitudinal Study 1. Rural Sociology, 64(1), 44–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1999.tb00004.x
Kazyak, E. (2012). Midwest or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, and Sexuality. Gender & Society, 26(6), 825–848. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243212458361
Kleinschrot, L. (2024). Consistent Egalitarianism or Heterogeneous Belief Patterns? Gender Ideologies in Contemporary East and West Germany. Zeitschrift Für Soziologie, 53(4), 387–403. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2024-2027
Konietzka, D., & Kreyenfeld, M. (2002). Women’s Employment and Non-Marital Childbearing: A Comparison between East and West Germany in the 1990s. Population, 57(2), 331–357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/pope.202.0331
Kriechel, L., Muehlan, H., Brähler, E., & Beutel, M. E. (2024). Switching Location - Shifting Mindset? The Attitude Towards Female Employment of East - West Migrants in Germany. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1–10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03853-1
Leap, B. (2017). Survival Narratives: Constructing an Intersectional Masculinity through Stories of the Rural/Urban divide. Journal of Rural Studies, 55, 12–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.010
Lee, K. S., Alwin, D. F., & Tufiş, P. A. (2007). Beliefs about Women’s Labour in the Reunified Germany, 1991–2004. European Sociological Review, 23(4), 487–503. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcm015
Little, J. (2002). Rural Geography: Rural Gender Identity and the Performance of Masculinity and Femininity in the Countryside. Progress in Human Geography, 26(5), 665–670. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132502ph394pr
Little, J., & Austin, P. (1996). Women and the Rural Idyll. Journal of Rural Studies, 12(2), 101–111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0743-0167(96)00004-6
Lois, D. (2020). Gender Role Attitudes in Germany, 1982-2016: An Age-Period-Cohort (APC) Analysis. Comparative Population Studies - Zeitschrift Für Bevölkerungswissenschaft, 45, 35–63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12765/CPoS-2020-02
Mettler, S., & Brown, T. (2022). The Growing Rural-Urban Political Divide and Democratic Vulnerability. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 699(1), 130–142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211070061
Pfau‐Effinger, B. (1998). Gender Cultures and the Gender Arrangement - A Theoretical Framework for Cross‐National Gender Research. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 11(2), 147–166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.1998.9968559
Pfau-Effinger, B., & Smidt, M. (2011). Differences in Women’s Employment Patterns and Family Policies: Eastern and Western Germany. Community, Work & Family, 14(2), 217–232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2011.571401
Pollock, G. (2007). Holistic Trajectories: A Study of Combined Employment, Housing and Family Careers by Using Multiple-Sequence Analysis. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society), 170(1), 167–183. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00450.x
Riederer, B., & Beaujouan, É. (2024). Explaining the Urban–Rural Gradient in Later Fertility in Europe. Population, Space and Place, 30(1), e2720. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2720
Rosenfeld, R. A., Trappe, H., & Gornick, J. C. (2004). Gender and Work in Germany: Before and After Reunification. Annual Review of Sociology, 30(1), 103–124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.30.012703.110531
Sander, N. (2014). Internal Migration in Germany, 1995-2010: New Insights into East-West Migration and Re-urbanisation. Comparative Population Studies, 39(2), Article 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12765/CPoS-2014-04
Stawarz, N., Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge ,Matthias, Brehm ,Uta, & and Sander, N. (2024). No Place for Young Women? The Impact of Internal Migration on Adult Sex Ratios in Rural East Germany. Population Studies, 78(3), 547–562. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2024.2382154
Steinführer, A., Osterhage, F., Tippel, C., Kreis, J., & Moldovan, A. (2024). Urban–rural Migration in Germany: A Decision in Favour of ‘the Rural’ or Against ‘the Urban’? Journal of Rural Studies, 111, 103431. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103431
Trappe, H., Pollmann-Schult, M., & Schmitt, C. (2015). The Rise and Decline of the Male Breadwinner Model: Institutional Underpinnings and Future Expectations. European Sociological Review, 31(2), 230–242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcv015
Tuitjer, G. (2016). References to a Rural Idyll in the Attitudes and Self-Perceptions of Women in Rural West Germany. In K. Wiest (Ed.), Women and Migration in Rural Europe (pp. 44–63). Palgrave Macmillan UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-48304-1_3
Tuitjer, G. (2018). A House of One’s Own – The Eigenheim within Rural Women’s Biographies. Journal of Rural Studies, 62, 156–163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.08.002
Valero, D. E. (2022). From Brexit to VOX: Populist Policy Narratives about Rurality in Europe and the Populist Challenges for the Rural-Urban Divide. Rural Sociology, 87(S1), 758–783. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12410
van Dam, F., Heins, S., & Elbersen, B. S. (2002). Lay Discourses of the Rural and Stated and Revealed Preferences for Rural Living. Some Evidence of the Existence of a Rural Idyll in the Netherlands. Journal of Rural Studies, 18(4), 461–476. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(02)00035-9
Zoch, G. (2021). Thirty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Do East and West Germans Still Differ in Their Attitudes to Female Employment and the Division of Housework? European Sociological Review, 37(5), 731–750. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcab002
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Funding data
-
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Grant numbers 459056529
