This paper examines how country-level political and socio-structural contexts shape individual resistance to gender equality. tThe analysis seeks to move beyond individual-level explanations to account for contextual factors that may amplify or mitigate resistance to gender equality across countries. The study focuses on three key contextual dimensions: the political climate, socio-economic development, and structural achievements in gender equality.
The political context is captured through indicators of the electoral success of conservative and populist radical right (PRR) parties, measured as their share of seats in national parliaments. These parties often challenge gender equality norms and, therefore, provide a meaningful proxy for the broader political environment’s receptivity to egalitarian change. The socio-economic and institutional context includes countries’ levels of human development (UNDP), democratic institutionalization (Varieties of Democracy Project), and progress toward gender equality (EIGE Index).
Empirically, the analysis combines individual-level survey data on attitudes toward gender equality with these contextual indicators for 27 European countries. Using multilevel (hierarchical) modeling, the study estimates how much of the variation in resistance to gender equality arises from contextual factors, and whether these interact with individual characteristics such as gender, education, or ideology.
