Attitudes Toward Gender Parity Initiatives—A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT The struggle for gender parity (sustainable development goal 5) sustains a controversial debate among authors, leaders, and organizations. Studies connecting social dominance orientation, status threat, and attitudes towards gender parity initiatives are scant. This article investigates these relationships and their mediators, focusing on gender parity initiatives in three independent studies—Brazil, Canada, and Portugal—comparing data collected from professors and employees in public and private HEIs. Both social dominance orientation (SDO) and status threat influence employees' attitudes towards gender parity initiatives, with SDO being the most important and significant determinant. Canadian employees are more supportive of gender affirmative actions and share a preference for group‐based inequality. Employees in all three countries perceive their societies as egalitarian, with a gender parity agenda in place, and no longer requiring efforts for gender equity regardless of the respondents' gender. Intriguing insights on the perceptions and attitudes of those self‐identifying as “woman” and “man” were found.