Gradational gender identification across European gender regimes

By using mostly binary measures of individuals’ sex or gender category, most existing quantitative social science literature has underestimated variations in gender self-concepts among cisgender individuals as well as increasing transgender or non-binary identifications. Some recent mostly non-representative studies from the US, Germany and Sweden have proposed novel gradational measures based on self-rating of masculinity and femininity. We extend these studies by systematically exploring how gender identification and self-perceived (non-)conformity relate to gender socialisation and performance in different domains as well as to gender equality in political, economic and normative dimensions across European regions. We draw on European Social Survey data collected in 2023/24 and apply multi-level regression models for 37,587 individuals across 199 regions of 26 European countries. The results show the expected associations of gender identification and non-conformity with bodily characteristics and personality traits, regional gender regimes and partly with relationships but not with labour market- and care-related aspects. We find some systematic variation in these associations across gender regimes pointing to altered meanings of masculinity and femininity. On the whole, gradational measures of gender identification are promising to include in future quantitative studies to complement gender category and domain-specific beliefs but contextual comparisons require adjustments to improve comparability.