Societies where Inequality is Dominant

A study revealed that in societies where inequality is dominant, people from lower classes behave more prosocially than people from higher classes, especially when that behavior does not occur in public, with others to observe it (Manstead, 2018). Another study found various mixed results concerning whether family income and socioeconomic status affect a child's gender role attitude. This main study conducted numerous surveys and found some surveys revealed that this factor is not significant in predicting gender egalitarianism in children. Some surveys revealed that socioeconomic status and family income did significantly predict gender role attitudes toward work and social life, but not for family life.

Some found traditional families related to lower family income (Halimi, Consuegra, Struyven, & Engels, 2016).

Another study (Singh, Verma, Barker, 2013) was conducted on populations in Brazil, Chile, India, Croatia, Mexico, and Rwanda. The results indicated that older, married men with higher educational attainment had more equitable attitudes, while females had the most gender equitable attitudes. To shed further light on this phenomenon and to test empirically whether these trends hold up, variables such as age, marital status, education level, and socio-economic status will be included in the study.

Contrasting results have been found based on the factor of marriage. A study by Desai, Chaugh, and Brief, in 2014 showed that men in traditional marriages tend to view the presence of women in the workplace unfavorably, perceiving that organizations with a higher number of female employees operate less smoothly.

Another factor that influences gender equitable views is the mother’s education and employment status. Interestingly, contrasting views on this were also found, as a study by Sieverding, Roushdy, and Gadallah (2017) in Egypt showed that mothers working in the private sector of regular and irregular wage jobs are likely to increase sons' and daughters' egalitarian attitudes towards women’s roles in the public sphere. However, this does not have the same effects on views regarding household gender role dynamics. In contrast, working mothers in the public sector are associated with more conservative attitudes on household gender dynamics for young men.

Halimi, Consuegra, Struyven, & Engels (2016) conducted a study and found that most surveys revealed that more educated mothers have offspring who hold more egalitarian views, while some found no significant influence of parental education on children’s gender role attitudes. Many surveys found that maternal employment has a positive relationship with a child's egalitarian gender role attitudes. Children with mothers who have chosen professions have more egalitarian attitudes than children with mothers who are unemployed or employed due to economic reasons. However, some surveys did not find any relationship between maternal employment and gender role attitudes.

Another factor that is likely to influence gender equitable views is the intake of fiction. This belief is based on Transportation Theory, which suggests that when people read fiction, they are emotionally transported into the story, and their empathy increases (Bal and Veltkamp, 2013). An experimental study (Bal and Veltkamp, 2013) was conducted to see whether fiction reading would increase readers' empathy compared to nonfiction reading. The results of this study stated that highly transported readers (readers who became highly involved in the text) of fictional text scored higher on empathy, while highly transported readers of nonfictional text scored lower on empathy.

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