Regional traditional gender stereotypes predict the representation of women in the workforce in 35 countries across five continents

Abstract

Intergroup biases have been studied on an individual level for decades, but recent research has examined intergroup bias as a regional phenomenon. Aggregated responses on bias tests from individuals in geographic proximity have shown to relate to important society-level discriminatory outcomes. In the present research, we examined the pressing issue of gender inequalities in employment using this regional perspective on intergroup bias. Using large scale open-access datasets, we investigated how psychological measures of regional gender stereotypes associating men with careers and women with families (traditional gender stereotypes) related to the representation of women in the workforce and parental leave policies in 35 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries across 5 continents. In countries with higher traditional gender stereotypes, we found that women were less represented in the workforce and, specifically, in manager positions. Regional traditional gender stereotypes were inconsistently related to parental leave policies. These findings suggest that the framework of regional intergroup bias may be fruitful to explain regional differences in gender disparities.