Gender and environmentalism: Results from the 1993 General Social Survey

Objective. This research tests the proposal that women will be more concerned about the environment than men because of their socialization to the caregiver role and because of their structural position relatively outside the labor market and in the home. Previous research has produced mixed results. Methods. We employ data from the 1993 General Social Survey to explore the issue of gender differences in environmental concern in more depth. The 1993 survey includes over forty items measuring environmental beliefs, attitudes, and reported actions, from which we derive ten environmental orientation indexes. We look specifically at effects of social status, knowledge, trust in science, and religiosity. Results. We find that while women do tend to show somewhat more personal concern than do men, they are no more likely to engage in environmental action than are men. Women (and men) of higher social status, with more knowledge, and with greater trust in science are more likely to engage in proenvironmental action, not less. Further, we replicate some findings of adverse effects of homemaker status and parenthood on environmental orientations. Conclusions. While there appear to be a few gender differences in environmental orientations, these are not strong or consistent, and they do not extend to actions.