Is increasing cultural diversity related to immigration a threat for gender equality achievements in Northern Europe? This article investigates how young adults (U40) with and without migrant parents in Finland view gender equality policies. Drawing on political socialization theory, we investigate how parental country of origin influences descendants’ attitudes toward gender equality. We test two competing hypotheses: the "culture" hypothesis, which posits that children born to parents from countries with less supportive gender equality norms will adopt less egalitarian attitudes; and the "backlash" hypothesis, which suggests that exposure to more gender-equal contexts may produce less support for gender equality policy.
We analyze data from two parallel representative surveys of 18 to 39-year-old Finns: one comprising individuals with at least one foreign-born parent (Gen2, n = 998), and another of native Finns with two Finnish-born parents (n = 1,321). Both groups were asked to evaluate the extent to which gender equality in Finland should be promoted by the state.
Results indicate that young people with migrant backgrounds are consistently more supportive of gender equality than their native peers. While a persistent gender gap exists – with women and non-binary persons showing stronger support for gender equality than young men – the magnitude of this gap does not significantly differ between native and migrant-background youth. Notably, parental political socialization emerges as an important moderating factor. Young adults born to parents who were politically socialized in more gender-equal contexts demonstrate less supportive attitudes toward gender equality measures, providing some support for the backlash hypothesis.
These findings contribute to broader debates about value transmission across generations in increasingly diverse liberal democracies. Our results suggest that young people in more gender-equal contexts may have grown skeptical of policies promoting further gender equality, viewing existing achievements as sufficient.
