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Gender Ideology

Gender ideology refers to attitudes regarding the appropriate roles, rights and responsibilities of men and women in society. Traditional gender ideologies emphasizes the value of distinctive roles for women and men where men fulfill their family roles through breadwinning activities and women fulfill their roles through homemaker and parenting activities.

Gender ideology also refers to societal beliefs that legitimate gender inequality. Gender ideology is not a variable that ranges from liberal to conservative instead it refers to specific type of belief those that support gender stratification.

Sociological approach to study and measure gender ideology can be traced back to 1930s with the development of instruments such as Kirkpatrick's 1936 Attitudes Toward Feminism scale.

The most common technique for measuring gender ideology is a summated rating scale in which respondents are presented with a statement and given three to seven response options that vary from strong agreement to strong disagreement.