This paper provides an empirical test of two competing explanations for individual-level variation in resistance to gender equality in Europe. The first, the interest-based perspective, posits that individuals are more likely to reject gender equality when they perceive it as threatening their own interests. Accordingly, men are expected, on average, to show greater resistance to gender equality than women, particularly those men who attach high importance to their male identity. Moving beyond a binary conception of gender, the paper also adopts a non-categorical approach to gender measurement and hypothesizes that individuals scoring higher on masculinity will exhibit greater resistance to gender equality.
The second explanation considers the experience-based perspective, which suggests that resistance may be driven by personal experiences of gender discrimination, and that these experiences affect men and women in opposite ways. Specifically, we theorize that experiences of gender discrimination increase resistance to gender equality among men, while they decrease such resistance among women.
The analysis, based on data from the European Social Survey (ESS), tests these hypotheses while controlling for key sociodemographic and attitudinal factors such as age, education, religiosity, marital status, and urbanization. Findings reveal that the antecedents of resistance to gender equality vary across different dimensions, yet one pattern remains consistent: personal experiences of gender discrimination play a central role. For men, such experiences are associated with higher levels of resistance across all three dimensions examined: denial of gender equality’s contribution to social progress, denial of existing gender inequalities, and opposition to state action promoting gender equality. Conversely, for women, experiences of gender discrimination are linked to lower resistance across these same dimensions
