Giving Compass' Take:

• Wike et al. break down the results of an international survey of peoples' feelings about gender equality. 

• How can funders use this information to guide effective giving for gender equality? 

• Read a guide to funding gender equality. 

There is near unanimity in each of the countries surveyed that it is important for women to have the same rights as men. Nearly all people in Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, the UK and Hungary hold this view. Even in the countries with the smallest share saying gender equality is important – Lithuania and Ukraine – roughly nine-in-ten (88%) believe this.

Although most publics think men and women having equal rights is important, the strength of this sentiment varies across the countries surveyed. At least nine-in-ten in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, France and Germany – as well as the U.S. – believe gender quality is very important.

By comparison, roughly seven-in-ten in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia say it is very important for women to have the same rights as men in their country.

The former Soviet nations of Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia are the least likely to believe gender equality is very important, though more than half in each country hold this view.

Gender equality since the fall of communism
In former Eastern Bloc nations, at least four-in-ten in each country say women have more social and legal rights now than they had under communism.

Yet, substantial minorities in several of the nations surveyed believe women’s rights remain unchanged, even though nearly 30 years have passed. Roughly a quarter or more in Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Bulgaria believe women have the same rights now as they had under communism.

Since 1991, the share of people saying women’s rights have improved since the regime change has increased significantly in every country where trend data is available. However, few people saw any improvement in women’s social and legal rights immediately following the fall of communism.

Read the full article about how people feel about gender equality by Richard Wike, Jacob Poushter, Laura Silver, Kat Devlin, Janell Fetterolf, Alexandra Castillo, and Christine Huang at Pew Research Center.