Differences in perceptions of gender equality among Icelandic year 10 adolescents: Population studies 1992, 2006, and 2014 [Poster presentation]

Background: It came as a surprise when research revealed that Icelandic 10th graders in 2006 held less egalitarian views on gendered division of labor than did the their coevals in 1992, suggesting that Icelandic youth in 2006 held more traditional attitudes towards housework than did their counterparts in the 1990s.

Objective(s): Adding evidence from a 2014 survey to examine these trends further among Icelandic 10th graders.

Method: Data from three Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) surveys in 1992, 2006, and 2014 for year 10 students in Iceland were examined. The sampling proportions, 85.1% in 1992, 43.2% in 2006, and 77.9% in 2014, suggest that the results reflect population values rather than sample values.

Results: The percentage of boys who rate the different jobs as being equally for men and women has increased from 1992 to 2014 despite a dip in 2006, with large increases in equality for ‘minor house repairs’ and ‘car maintenance’. The changes from 1992 to 2014 are mixed for girls. Girls report higher equality in jobs such as getting up at night to tend to young children and car maintenance, while there was an increased view among girls that cooking is a man’s job.

Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that Iceland has distinguished itself as a safe haven of gender equality. Attitudes towards gender equality are moving in the right direction in Iceland with girls tending to have more gender equal attitudes than boys.