braun & scott_fin

Abstract Considering issues of the functional equivalence of the gender role battery of ISSP, across time and space, we consider whether the apparent trend reversal in egalitarianism is artefact or real. The paper analyzes the change of gender role attitudes from 1988 through 2002 along two dimensions: the consequences of female labor force participation for the children and a general gender role ideology. Each dimension is measured both by two core items which can be regarded as equivalent across countries and by an index consisting of three items one of which shows considerable problems of equivalence. We focus on those countries for which we have data for all three points in time (1988, 1994, and 2002), i.e. Austria, western Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Hungary. While in countries that have established long time series for gender role attitudes a liberal trend could be demonstrated to operate at least from the 70ies through the 90ies, scholars are discussing a possible trend reversal in more recent times. Using the two-item index, what is revealed is less a trend reversal than a leveling off of the liberal trend. This is particularly true of Great Britain and the United States, which were already characterized by less traditional attitudes; whereas in most of the countries with more traditional attitudes, the liberal trend is continuing (in particular: Austria and western Germany). However, using the three-item index, a marked trend reversal is revealed in many countries. This trend reversal, however, is not real but a methodological artifact. Though internationally comparative research is seen as an excellent possibility to promote theoretical and methodological progress in the social sciences (e.g