A Feminist Generation? Cohort Change in Gender-Role Attitudes and the Second-Wave Feminist Movement

This article tests novel hypotheses regarding cohort trends in gender-role attitudes in European countries. The second-wave feminist movement in Western and Southern Europe is found to be an important socialization experience leading the generation who came of age during this period to be unusually feminist given their low levels of education, female labor force participation, and secularism compared with younger cohorts. The feminist movement was especially influential for attitudes toward the trade-off between women's employment and family life. The feminist generation is not found in Eastern Europe, which did not experience the same second-wave feminist movement and its subsequent diversification and backlash. In addition, cohort change tends to be stronger for women, widening the gender gap in gender-egalitarianism across cohorts.