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The Towards Gender Harmony (TGH) project began in September 2018 with over 160 scholars who formed an international consortium to collect data from 62 countries across six continents. Our overarching goal was to analyze contemporary perceptions of masculinity and femininity using quantitative and qualitative methods, marking a groundbreaking effort in social science research. The data collection took place between January 2018 and February 2020, and involved undergraduate students who completed a series of randomized scales and the data was collected through the SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics platforms, with paper surveys being used in rare cases. All the measures used in the project were translated into 22 languages. The dataset contains 33,313 observations and 286 variables, including contemporary measures of gendered self-views, attitudes, and stereotypes, as well as relevant demographic data. The TGH dataset, linked with accessible country-level data, provides valuable insights into the dynamics of gender relations worldwide, allowing for multilevel analyses and examination of how gendered self-views and attitudes are linked to behavioral intentions and demographic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested whether differences in cultural beliefs about manhood can explain the large cultural variability in attitudes and social policies regarding sexual and gender minorities. If people believe manhood is an easily threatened, precarious social status (Vandello et al., 2008), then LGBTQ + groups may be targets of derogation as symbolic threats to masculinity and men's distinctiveness. In a large pre-registered cross-cultural study of 62 countries, we tested whether country-level precarious manhood beliefs were associated with more negative attitudes, fewer rights, more restrictive laws, and less safety toward LGBTQ + groups. Hypotheses were largely supported, and these negative relationships generally held when controlling for religiosity, cultural tightness, traditional and security-related values, gender inequality, and sexism. Results suggest that the fates of societies' most vulnerable gender and sexuality groups are related to societies' beliefs about manhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precarious manhood theory posits a double standard in gender rules such that prescriptions ("shoulds") and proscriptions ("should nots") are endorsed more strongly for men than for women. Here, we tested this hypothesis by asking whether people view agency as more desirable in men than communion is in women, and weakness as less desirable in men than dominance is in women. Data from college undergraduates in 62 countries (N = 27,343) indicated that: (1) measures of agency, communion, weakness, and dominance are psychometrically comparable across countries; (2) prescriptions (agency for men, communion for women) are variable across countries, whereas proscriptions (weakness for men, dominance for women) appear universal; (3) double standards in prescriptions (men's agency as more desirable than women's communion) are larger in countries lower in gender equality and human development, whereas double standards in proscriptions (men's weakness as less desirable than women's dominance) do not covary with country-level factors; and (4) these patterns are moderated by participant gender in nuanced ways, and are robust to control by individual-level gender beliefs. Discussion considers the theoretical and practical significance of these findings for understanding how young adults – as cultural agents of gender socialization – hold men to asymmetrically rigid gender rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic work has gendered meaning and content of both masculinity and femininity is strongly embedded in the cultural context. In our article, across three studies we analyse the perception of household duties and their division between partners in two countries differing with regard to gender equality levels: Norway and Poland. In our Study 1, Polish (N = 64, 40 women, Mage = 19.97) and Norwegian (N = 45, 27 women, Mage = 24.46) students rated the typicality of domestic duties for women and men in Poland and in Norway. Our results show that feminine-typed or masculine-typed household duties are perceived as less gendered in Norway than in Poland. In the second Study, using a sample consisting of students and internet users from Poland (N = 207, 92 women, Mage = 27.15) and Norway (N = 126, 85 women, Mage = 26.84 (SD = 10.87), we investigated whether there are Polish-Norwegian differences with regard to willingness to be more involved in household obligations. Overall, Norwegian men and women were more willing to perform household tasks. This result also found confirmation in results obtained with larger representative samples in Study 3. Using European Social Survey records of 889 Poles (429 women, Mage = 47.02) and 990 Norwegians (452 women, Mage = 49.38) we compared data concerning men's and women's perception of their and their partners' contribution to housework. Our results show that cultural context can relate to the perception of household duties that are perceived more gender-neutral in Norway than in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender stereotypes serve as psychological tools that justify and maintain social inequality and reinforce the widely recognized status quo. Agency and anti-femininity are two widely prescribed qualities for men across cultures, leading them to refrain from engaging in household duties and parental roles (also referred to as communal roles). Several studies have documented backlash against men who engage in communal roles, but little attention has been given to the cultural and contextual cues influencing the perceptions of men who violate gender-norm prescriptions. Our study was conducted in two countries differing with regard to gender equality indices relating to extent to which men are allowed to manifest gender atypical behavior and influencing mate preferences of women. Polish (N = 106) and Norwegian (N = 77) female students were first presented with information which either a) threatened the stability of their country or b) highlighted the prosperity of their country. The participants were then asked to rate their romantic interest in the dating profiles of agentic (gender typical) and communal (gender atypical) men. Polish women who were provided with system-prosperity information found communal men to be more attractive than agentic men. This effect was not observed in the Norwegian sample; however, when provided with system-threat information, Norwegian students preferred agentic men over communal ones. Our results indicate that there exist certain contextual cues that might change perceptions of gender typical and gender atypical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]