Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World

The twentieth century gave rise to profound changes in traditional sex roles. However, the force of this rising tide has varied among rich and poor societies around the globe, as well as among younger and older generations. Rising Tide sets out to understand how modernization has changed cultural attitudes towards gender equality and to analyze the political consequences of this process. The core argument suggests that women and men’s lives have been altered in a two-stage modernization process consisting of (i) the shift from agrarian to industrialized societies and (ii) the move from industrial towards post industrial societies. This book is the first to systematically compare attitudes towards gender equality worldwide, comparing almost 70 nations that run the gamut from rich to poor, agrarian to postindustrial. Rising Tide is essential reading for those interested in understanding issues of comparative politics, public opinion, political behavior, political development, and political sociology.

• Provides first systematic comparative study of attitudes towards gender equality around the world • Provides a clear, well-written and original analysis of the causes and consequences of gender equality based on the first release of ‘99–’01 WVS • Provides insights into problems of gender equality and social change that are of widespread concern to policy makers, scholars, and commentators

Part I. The Causes of the Rising Tide: 1. Introduction: Explaining the rising tide of gender equality; 2. From traditional roles towards gender equality; 3. Religion, secularization, and gender equality; Part II. The Consequences of the Rising Tide: 4. The gender gap in voting and public opinion; 5. Political activism; 6. Women as political leaders; 7. Conclusions: gender equality and cultural change.

‘The book is essential reading for scholars or students interested in gender politics, cultural change, and comparative public opinion.’ International Journal of Public Opinion Research

\'The book will prove appealing to individuals with an interest in contemporary gender dynamics, and will be like manna from the sun for political scientists concentrating on gender issues. The book is certainly recommended for its detailed charts and graphs … a cohesive tone to the text. An additional benefit is the text\'s comprehensive bibliography which will prove considerably useful to readers inspired by Rising Tide.\' Cercles

\'Rising Tide is an accessible book in comparative gender politics, providing a rich source of data and data analysis on gender equality in almost seventy countries. … an interesting source of information for feminist economists working on country-level as well as cross-country-level analyses of gender inequality.\' Feminist Economics