Differences in Gender Norms Between Countries: Are They Valid? The Issue of Measurement Invariance

Abstract

The values and attitudes towards gender roles are often investigated and compared from a cross-country perspective without the proper statistical treatment of the measurement invariance (MI) assessment. This implies that the conclusions based on composite scales of gender norms, gender role attitudes or gender egalitarianism, to name only a few, may be questionable. In this study, we address this lack by investigating the cross-country MI properties of the Gender Equality Scale (GES) based on World Value Survey data. We use multi-group confirmatory factor analysis with and without alignment to determine the configural, weak, strong and strict MI. The results show that the concept of gender equality is not comparable across all countries involved in the survey. In particular, it seems to differ between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. We claim that only selected Central and Eastern European countries exhibit a configural MI but fail to show full weak MI and definitely fail to show full strong and full strict MI. However, under the aligned measurement framework, we succeeded in showing that for these countries, comparisons of the country rankings with respect to the GES are valid provided that a correction for non-invariance of certain factor loadings and/or intercepts is applied. Our study shows that the most egalitarian gender role attitudes measured by the GES are observed in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Croatia. They are significantly higher than the gender equality attitudes recorded in the lowest scoring countries Poland, Slovakia, Albania and Romania.

On Detecting Systematic Measurement Error in Cross-Cultural Research: A Review and Critical Reflection on Equivalence and Invariance Tests

“…Desa and Carstens (2015) proposed to apply this approach in the future in large-scale assessment contexts such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), as it legitimates mean comparisons in dozens of groups without requiring full measurement invariance. Weziak-Bialowolska (2014) tested gender ideology in the World Value Survey with CFA with and without alignment. She reported different patterns of country factor means from these two methods, and suggested that comparisons of the country rankings were valid provided that a correction for noninvariance of certain factor loadings and/or intercepts is applied in the alignment framework.…”

Representation of gender in migrant health studies – a systematic review of the social epidemiological literature

“…Internalised gender norms and relations of the country of origin may be challenged and modified in the country of reception via acculturation processes and socioeconomic integration [32]. However, we acknowledge that cultural differences may in some contexts be more accentuated within countries, as a body of literature highlights [36,37].…”

Measurement Invariance of the ADHD Rating Scale–IV Home and School Versions Across Age, Gender, Clinical Status, and Informant

“…According to Davidov, Dülmer, Schlüter, Schmidt, and Meuleman (2012) measurement invariance, in particular scalar noninvariance, represents one of the most serious threats to cross-cultural research. The literature on adult samples shows that there are significant differences in countries’ norms on gender equality between western Europe and central and eastern Europe (Weziak-Bialowolska, 2015). Moreover, there are differences between central and eastern European countries as well, with Romania being one of the lowest-scoring countries regarding attitudes toward gender equality.…”