Gender Role Attitudes through the Prism of Religion/Religiosity: An Application of Normative Social Justice Theory

Barbara Okun , The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Stefan Liebig, Freie Universitat Berlin
Liat Raz-Yurovich, The Hebrew University

We argue that normative social justice theory, as applied to the context of partnerships, provides a foundation for the further development and testing of typologies of gender role attitudes (GRA) in the domestic sphere. Normative social justice literature is useful in the family context, as it explicitly considers how benefits and burdens (rewards and responsibilities) should be distributed between partners, as well as the character of gender relations in the partnership (the social relationship under consideration). Moreover, the justice literature is relevant to understanding how GRA varies across religion and religiosity population groups, as these groups may differ according to social understandings of partnerships. We develop a theoretical framework and also test derived hypotheses regarding the expected associations between understandings of relationship types and gender role attitudes. Analyzing data from the 2009 and 2019 Israel Social Surveys, we examine associations between perceptions of partnership type (based on the characteristics that are deemed important for a “successful” partnership) and GRA (based on attitudes towards women´s and men´s roles in the domestic sphere and in the labor market). Preliminary findings indicate that Muslims hold less egalitarian gender role attitudes than Jews, and that in terms of relational models, Muslims view their partnerships as more instrumental and hierarchical in nature, and place less emphasis on love. Our key finding is that group differences in how partnerships are viewed mediate part of the ethnic/religion differences in gender role attitudes, but only among men. Future research is considered in a larger project underway.

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 Presented in Session 45. Family, Housework and Time Use