Gender Attitude and its Effective Factors (A Comparative Cross-Country Study (

The close link between gender differences and the issue of inequality and power has transformed gender sociology into one of the growing and most important areas of sociology and cultural studies. In addition to conducting a comparative study of gender attitude in different countries, the paper attempts to explain different attitudes toward gender, by referring to conceptual-theoretical tools of "patriarchal discourse" and "modernity discourse". The theoretical reasoning of the article is that the inclusive and historical discourse of patriarchy, which produces an unequal gender attitude, is now challenged in opposition to modernity discourse and its equalitarian achievements. This hypothesis has been tested empirically by examining the relationship between "modernization" (in terms of economic, social, political and gender dimensions) and the "gender attitude" index. Methodologically, the study was conducted using the documentary method and secondary analysis of data from valid database and among 80 countries from 2005 to 2014. In the descriptive findings part of the study, gender attitude has been measured among the countries of the world and differentiated into five distinct clusters based on a spectrum of "totally equalitarian attitudes" to "purely patriarchal attitudes". The study of the relationship between modernization indicators and gender attitude confirms theoretical assumptions. Countries that rank higher in the indicators of modernization have an "equalitarian" gender attitude, and vice versa, countries with lower levels of modernization have a "patriarchal attitude". One of the other findings of this study is the decisive effect of the "Islam" on gender attitude.