Gender-Role Attitudes in University Students in the United States, Slovenia, and Croatia

Abstract

Determinants of gender-role attitudes were examined in samples of university students from Pittsburgh in the United States, Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Osijek in Croatia. Surveys including items from the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and the Neosexism Scale were administered to a total of 1,544 U.S. students, 912 Slovene students, and 996 Croatian students between the years of 1991 and 2000. As predicted, men held less egalitarian or more sexist attitudes about the appropriate roles for women and men, and those with more frequent attendance at religious services held more sexist attitudes. No changes in attitudes were found for women over time, but Slovene males were found to become more traditional over time.Gender-role attitudes are people's beliefs about the appropriate roles and obligations of women and men. Such beliefs have been of great interest in the United States over the last 30 years, as many argue that women's roles are changing, along with the attitudes about what the roles of women and men should be in today's society (Russo, 1997). Genderrole attitudes have been measured in a variety of ways

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