Individualism, institutions, and patriarchal attitudes

Abstract This study examines how individualism influences patriarchal gender norms across 93 countries, using data from the Integrated Values Surveys. We hypothesize that individualism, emphasizing personal autonomy and egalitarian values, reduces patriarchal attitudes directly and indirectly through formal institutions. Our findings reveal a robust negative association between individualism and patriarchal attitudes, with a one-standard deviation increase in individualism linked to a 0.78 standard deviation decrease in patriarchal attitudes. This association holds across various controls and instrumental variable techniques addressing endogeneity. Mediation analysis shows that institutions, particularly liberal democracy and legal gender parity, mediate 5% to 37% of this association. These results underscore individualism’s role in promoting egalitarian gender norms and suggest that culturally aligned institutional reforms, such as strengthening women’s economic rights or democratic participation, can amplify these effects.