Employment and Social Developments in Europe Egalitarian, traditional or neither? Gender attitudes towards work across EU Member States

This paper provides a detailed mapping of gender attitudes towards work across the European Union. Using latent class analysis, the paper shows that most of the EU population supports gender equality in the labour market and within households. 

A third has mixed attitudes, holding egalitarian beliefs in some areas only, and the remaining tenth has traditional views that fully support the male-breadwinner model. The aggregate picture should not obscure considerable geographical variation - while egalitarian attitudes are widespread in some Member States (notably in northern EU), they are much less common in others. 

The attitudes also vary across population groups, with egalitarian beliefs considerably less common among those without tertiary education and on low incomes (especially if they are men), as well as those with right-wing preferences and religious beliefs.