Normative attitudes to family and gender: Russian-speakers in Latvia and Estonia in a comparative perspective (based on the 2018 surveys)
Abstract
The article presents the results of a comparative study of the level of traditionality/modernity of normative gender attitudes in the Russian-speaking population of Latvia and Estonia. The research hypothesis is that Russian-speakers hold an intermediate position between the relatively more traditional Russians and the relatively more modern non-Russian-speaking populations of Latvia and Estonia. To test the hypothesis, we used survey data of the 2008 wave of the European Values Study including seven indicators of family and gender attitudes. The results obtained proved Russian-speakers in Latvia and Estonia to hold more traditional views compared to the non-Russian-speaking population of these countries. At the same time, Russian-speakers in Latvia, as hypothesized, appeared to be more modern in their views than Russians. Russian-speakers in Estonia, however, were found to be similar to Russians in their views and much more traditional than Russian-speakers in Latvia, while non-Russian-speakers in Estonia, on the contrary, presented more modern views than their counterparts in Latvia. The results obtained confirm the theoretical proposition that social identity may affect even normative attitudes substantively unrelated to the criteria on which this identity is based and that this impact is mediated by the general level of traditionality/modernity ascribed to a culture by its representatives as actual and/or desirable. No differences in the power and direction of influence of sociodemographic variables were found across samples: in all the five groups, more traditional views are espoused primarily by older respondents and those legally married. At the same time, education and income levels were found to have no significant impact, and no significant differences between men and women and between first and second generation immigrants vs. not immigrants were discovered.
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