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Gender Attitudes and Stereotypes

Gender Attitudes and Stereotypes is a 17-item measure of 14 survey items and 3 vignette-based items on gender-based value and stereotypes. The measure contains 6 subscales: Attitudes towards Female Gender Roles, Age of Marriage, Social and Economic Empowerment, Higher Education and Employment, Attitudes towards Fertility, Gendered Behavior.

Categories

Geographies Tested: India

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adolescents, Children

Items:

Attitudes towards Female Gender Roles
1. Wives should be less educated than their husbands.
2. Boys should be allowed to get more opportunities and resources for education.
3. A man should have the final word about decisions in his home.
4. Parents should maintain stricter control over their daughters than their sons.
5. A woman's most important role is to take care of her home, feeding kids and cook for her family.
6. Men are better suited than woman to work outside the house.

Response Options:
Strongly agree - 1
Agree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Disagree - 4
Strongly agree - 5
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Age of Marriage
7. At what age would you like your sister/female cousins/friends to get married minus At what age would you like your brother/male cousins/friends to get married?
8. At what age would you like your sister/female cousins/friends to get married minus At what age would you like your brother/male cousins/friends to get married?

Response Options:
__[age]

Social and Economic Empowerment
9. Daughters should have a similar right to inherited property as sons.
10. It would be a good idea to elect a woman as the Sarpanch of your village.

Response Options:
Strongly agree - 1
Agree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Disagree - 4
Strongly agree - 5
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Higher education and Employment
Now we will read you a short description of a family. We will ask you a couple of questions about what you think the father should have done. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers. Please answer reach in terms of your own reactions.
There exists a lower middle class family in a village. The family consists of three children, their parents and grandparents. Among the three children, the two elder ones Rakhi and Rajat are twins. They have a younger brother Ramesh.
Rakhi and Rajat have just passed their HSC exams with 80% marks. Both of them have aspirations to go to the nearby town and study in a good college. But that will require them to stay in a hostel in the town independently.
The family has hot just enough money to send only one of their two children to the town. They also have another younger son to take care of. Finally, their father decides that Rajat should continue this studies whereas Rakhi will stay in the home and help her mother in the household chores and eventually get married.
11. If you were the head of the family, who would you have sent to the town for further studies?

Response Options:
Rajat - 1
Rakhi - 2
Borrowed money and sent both - 3
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Now we will read you a short description of a family. We will ask you a couple of questions about what you think the parents should have done. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers. Please answer each in terms of your own reactions.
Pooja, a 21-year-old girl belongs to a village in Haryana. Since childhood, she has aspirations of becoming a police officer. After graduating from college, she appears for the Haryana police examination and is offered a job as a police officer.
Her parents are worried about her job as they think that is not suitable for a woman. They also believe that it is her age to get married and they have found a prospective groom for her from a good family. Pooja, however wants to take up the job and does not wish to get married.
According to her parents, Pooja would not need to work after she gets married as her husband will take care of her. Pooja should, instead, focus on household work, help out her mother in law and eventually have children. Finally, her parents decide that instead of taking up the job, she should get married.
12. Marriage is more important for Pooja than her job.
13. Being a teacher would be more suitable for Pooja.

Response Options:
Strongly agree - 1
Agree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Disagree - 4
Strongly agree - 5
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Attitudes towards Fertility
14. Girls should attain higher education so that they find better husbands minus Boys should attain higher education so that they find better wives.

Response Options:
Strongly agree - 1
Agree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Disagree - 4
Strongly agree - 5
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

15. Suppose the first two children born to a husband and wife are both girls. Which of the following should they do? minus Suppose the first two children born to a husband and wife are both boys. Which of the following should they do?

Response Options:
Have no more children because they've reach a family size of 2 - 1
Have one more child, hoping it's a boy - 2
Have more children, until a boy is born - 3
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Gendered Behavior
16. A shy demeanor makes a boy a more suitable groom minus A shy demeanor makes a girl a more suitable bride.
17. When a girl laughs, she should cover her mouth minus When a boy laughs, he should cover his mouth.

Response Options:
Strongly agree - 1
Agree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Disagree - 4
Strongly agree - 5
Don't know - 999
Refuse to answer - 998

Scoring Procedures

The sum of all items is calculated for the measure total. Higher scores indicate more gender equal attitudes and stereotypes. The creation of the variable for each item can be found in supplemental materials from the original citation.

Original Citation

Jain, T., Dhar, D., Kapoor, V., Kapur, V., & Raj, A. (2022). Measuring gender attitudes: Developing and testing Implicit Association Tests for adolescents in India. PLoS One, 17(6), e0264077. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264077


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Formative Research

Qualitative Research

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Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

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Construct

KEY

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