Continuous Gender Identity and Typicality: Results from a 20-Country Study

• In Event: Gender as a Politicized Identity

Abstract

Discussions around non-binary gender identities and the distinction between biological sex and gender have become commonplace the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Responding to calls for more nuanced measures of gender identity, many scholars have proposed survey measures that go beyond both biological sex and binary gender. In political science, the incorporation of these new measures has revealed the insight that gender identity, measured continuously, often conditions the effects of sex on outcomes like vote choice and political attitudes. Much of this work has focused on the U.S. context. To what extent do citizens around the world identify in gender typical and atypical ways? We ask citizens in 20 diverse countries the extent to which they feel they have masculine and feminine characteristics. We then look at gender typicality-- the extent to which continuous gender identity aligns with binary gender identification. We first present descriptive results that show the extent to which citizens around the globe identify as feminine and masculine, as well as the prevalence of gender typical and atypical identities. We also explore how gender identity and typicality relates to constructs like ambivalent sexism, social dominance orientation, and preference for women political candidates. Extant findings suggest a gender affinity effect in candidate preference such that women tend to prefer women candidates more than men prefer women candidates. We explore whether continuous gender identity holds more explanatory power than binary gender.

Authors

• Claire Gothreau, Aarhus University

• Lasse Laustsen, Aarhus University