Ideological Legacies and the Long-term impact on Gender Attitudes: An Age-Period-Cohort Approach

Ideological regimes have been found to have a lasting influence on individuals' attitudes. Studies have also shown that ideological regimes shape attitudes toward gender that outlive their institutional collapse. However, the specific mechanisms by which these regimes leave enduring legacies remain underexplored as well as any possible gender gaps in these influences. We study the case of Communist regimes, which officially promoted gender equality, implementing policies to increase women’s labour force participation and formal rights. Yet, these regimes often failed to achieve substantive equality, leaving a complex legacy that persists in contemporary attitudes. This study focuses on the interaction between generational socialization and historical contexts and evaluates how exposure to ideological policies and subsequent transitions - such as post-communist democratization and market liberalization - affect attitudes toward gender roles. We employ a hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) framework and analyze individual attitudes towards gender egalitarianism in 14 cohorts across eight Central and Eastern European countries. We use data from the European Social Survey (ESS) that we link with historical macro data on female labour force participation, political representation quotas, and access to state-provided social services (1930-2022). By disentangling generational, temporal, and structural effects, this study offers new insights into the durability of ideological legacies and their implications for contemporary debates on gender equality and political culture. Beyond the post-communist region, this framework can be applied to examine the long-term attitudinal impacts of other historical and ideological regimes worldwide. The findings reveal that ideological legacies are not uniform: they vary by gender, cohort, and the intensity of regime exposure. Older cohorts socialized during communism show more traditional attitudes in contexts where policy implementation was symbolic. In comparison, younger cohorts often reflect either the erosion of ideological norms or the adoption of globalized values. Furthermore, gendered patterns persist, with women more likely to support egalitarian values, indicating that lived experiences of inequality shape distinct attitudinal trajectories, underscoring the intersection of gendered experiences with ideological socialization. By exploring how regimes imprint durable gendered attitudes, this study contributes to a broader understanding of the role of state ideologies in shaping political culture. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for uncovering how political ideologies and state policies shape attitudes over time, particularly in regions undergoing post-regime transitions.