The End of the Gender Revolution? Gender Role Attitudes from 1977 to 20081

• Published in: The American journal of sociology Vol. 117; no. 1; pp. 259 - 89
• Main Authors: Cotter, David, Hermsen, Joan M., Vanneman, Reeve
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chicago Press 01-07-2011
• ISSN: 0002-9602; 1537-5390
• DOI: 10.1086/658853

After becoming consistently more egalitarian for more than two decades, gender
role attitudes in the General Social Survey have changed little since the
mid-1990s. This plateau mirrors other gender trends, suggesting a fundamental
alteration in the momentum toward gender equality. While cohort replacement can
explain about half of the increasing egalitarianism between 1974 and 1994, the
changes since the mid-1990s are not well accounted for by cohort differences.
Nor is the post-1994 stagnation explained by structural or broad ideological
changes in American society. The recent lack of change in gender attitudes is
more likely the consequence of the rise of a new cultural frame, an
"egalitarian essentialism" that blends aspects of feminist equality
and traditional motherhood roles.