Older and Younger Adults’ Attitudes Toward Feminism: The Influence of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, Education, and Family

Abstract

The present study explored attitudes toward feminism in 245 U.S. college students and their older relatives. Participants completed a scale of attitudes towards feminism, political orientation, a religiosity measure, and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated that older adults were more conservative than younger adults on their attitudes towards feminism, religiosity, and political orientation measures. In the young adult sample, attitudes towards feminism were predicted by gender and political orientation, compared to older adults in which religiosity and political orientation were the best predictors. When exploring generational influence, older adults' attitudes and demographic information were not associated with younger adults' attitudes towards feminism and the women's movement. In contrast, young adults' political views were associated with older adults' attitudes towards feminism.

The Matilda Effect in Science Communication

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“Deep questions for a Saturday morning”: An investigation of the Australian and Canadian general public's definitions of gender

“…It is reasonable to assume that this methodological choice would limit our access to older groups of the population. When considering conceptions of gender, compared to older adults, individuals from younger age groups generally hold more varied and inclusive conceptions of gender (Cichy, Lefkowitz, and Fingerman, 2007;Fitzpatrick Bettencourt, Vacha-Haase, and Byrne, 2011). Although not representative of the general public as a whole, researchers may consider conducting more targeted research focusing on this particular demographic, as we inadvertently did with our sample.…”

A woman’s got to write what a woman’s got to write: the effect of journalist’s gender on the perceived credibility of news articles

“…Additionally, age of audiences could influence their assessment of news credibility. K E. Bettencourt, K E. Bettencourt, et al 2011 showed that age relates to people's attitudes towards feminism: Younger people have a more positive attitude towards feminism, because the older generation has grown up with more traditional views on gender and family (Livia S. Oláh, Irena E. Kotowska and Rudolf Richter 2018). Several other studies yielded a similar conclusion (F H. Dambrot, M E. Papp and Cheryl Whitmore 1984; Janet T. Spence and Robert L. Helmreich 1979).…”