Measuring Gender Role Attitudes in Japan

Abstract

What explains gender discrimination in Japan? While Japan ranks near the worst among advanced democracies in nearly all cross-national gender equality rankings, we know little about the attitudes that drive disparate outcomes between men and women. To address this need, the authors develop, introduce, and validate the first measure of gender role attitudes in Japan, the Gender Role Scale. Using data from a large, national, quota-based sample of 2,389 Japanese conducted in March 2020, the authors visualize the subcomponents of Gender Role Scale, showing cross-gender differences in attitudes. The findings extend the large literature on politics and gender and provide a measure for reuse in Japan and for extension to other countries that lag behind in women’s empowerment.