Gender and highbrow cultural participation in Europe: The effect of societal gender equality and development

Abstract

Existing individual-level research links women’s higher participation in high-status cultural activities to their position in work and family spheres. This article studies how cross-national variation in women’s and men’s cultural participation relates to societal care- and work-related gender equality and development. Multilevel analyses on Eurobarometer data (2013) indicate that male engagement in the feminine domain of care and societal development stimulates frequent participation in highbrow culture, but more for men than for women, thus partly explaining gender gap variation in highbrow cultural participation across European Union countries. We conclude that men play an important but underestimated role in the explanation of the gender gap.