Gender Ideology and Marital Dissatisfaction: A Multicounty Study

Nandeen Bhattacharyya, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The global decline in marital satisfaction has led to a rapid dissolution of traditional marriages. Although research on gender norms and marital dynamics has grown, most studies focus on regions with high-quality family data. Given the worldwide shift in gender ideology and its varied impact on individuals' decision-making and lived experiences, this study examines how gender ideology influences marital dissatisfaction across different countries and regions. Using data from the ISSP 2012 module “Family and Changing Gender Roles,” we investigate whether individuals with differing gender ideologies exhibit distinct patterns of marital dissatisfaction. This study’s global perspective, covering 41 countries, adds novelty to the existing literature by offering a broader analysis. We first conducted bivariate analysis to explore gender-based differences in marital dissatisfaction by gender ideology, followed by multinomial regression to estimate dissatisfaction across three categories: dissatisfied, neutral, and satisfied. To facilitate interpretation, multinomial regression coefficients were converted into adjusted percentages using Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA). The findings reveal a significant global association between gender ideology and marital dissatisfaction, showing that egalitarian individuals, particularly women, are more likely to report dissatisfaction in marriage compared to those with traditional gender ideologies. Multiple robustness checks have been performed further to validate the hypothesis.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Families, Unions and Households, Qualitative data/methods/approaches

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