The structural fit of personal gender beliefs: A cross-national analysis of its implications for life satisfaction

Gender is essential for understanding the causes and consequences of life satisfaction in our societies. Although there is growing interest in the cultural analysis of the relationship between gender beliefs and subjective well-being (SWB), previous studies have not examined how this relationship depends on the predominant gender norms and gender equality at the country level. This study aims to explore the implications of the fit between (1) personal gender beliefs and public gender norms, and (2) personal gender beliefs and societal gender equality for life satisfaction. Utilizing data from the joint EVS/WVS 2017–2022, the results indicate that a structural fit in both cultural and objective aspects of the social structure is related to levels of life satisfaction. These findings provide significant empirical and theoretical contributions, offering substantive implications for the literature on gender, cultural sociology, and subjective well-being. • This study aims to understand how the fit between an individual's personal gender beliefs and their country's dominant gender norms and level of gender equality affects their happiness. • This study extends sociopsychological and sociological frameworks by incorporating gender norms in the person-environment fit literature and proposing the concept of structural fit, which includes both cultural fit and resources/opportunities fit, as two aspects of social structures. • Our analyses, utilizing data from 72 countries , show that people tend to have higher levels of well-being when their personal gender beliefs align with public gender norms and the level of gender equality in their country. • Our findings also suggest that the cultural fit has a stronger association with life satisfaction than the objective fit.