This article examinesattitudes related tofeminism and gender equalityby evaluating the trends in, and determinants 0[, women and men's attitudes from 1974 to 1998.Past accounts suggest two clusters of explanations based on interests and exposure. Using these, we examine opinions on abortion, sexual behavior, public sphere genderroles, and family responsibilities. We find that attitudes have continued to liberalize and converge with the exception of abortion attitudes. The determinants offeminist opinion varyacross domains, but havebeen largely stable. While not identical, thepredictors of men and women's opinions aresimilar. The results suggest the needfor moreattention to the mechanisms underlying the production offeminist opinions and theoretical integration ofboth interests and exposure in adynamie process.The roles associated with women in D.S. society and attitudes about these roles have experienced continued change in recent decades. A strong movement for gender equality, the increased presence of women and especially mothers in the public workforce, shifting demographics of family and parenthood, and more open laws and norms regarding birth control, sexuality,and abortion have all contributed to a dramatic and widespread liberalization of gender role attitudes. In turn, these attitude changes have implications for individual behaviors and opportunities, and for the functioning of society. Indeed, ferninist opinions and gender role attitudes have been connected to marital happiness (Amato & Booth 1995; Kaufman 2000), * We thank Erie Plutzer for supplying information about variable eonstruetion and SASCode and loan Aldous, the members of the Notre Dame Working Group on Politics and Movements, and the anonymous reviewers for eomments on earlier versions of the article. Direet eorrespondenee to Catherine

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We investigate gender gaps in political participation with 2004 ISSP data for 18 advanced Western democracies (N: 20,359) using linear and logistic regression models. Controlling for socio-economic characteristics and political attitudes reveals that women are more likely than men to have voted and engaged in ‘private’ activism, while men are more likely to have engaged in direct contact, collective types of actions and be (more active) members of political parties. Our analysis indicates that demographic and attitudinal characteristics influence participation differently among men and among women, as well as across types of participation. These results highlight the need to move toward a view of women engaging in differing types of participation and based on different characteristics.

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Whereas research on political participation typically investigates a variety of socio‐economic and attitudinal characteristics, this cross‐national study focuses on the relevance of norms when explaining political participation. We examine respondents' normative beliefs about the importance of various measures of ‘good citizenship’, and their relationship to three modes of political engagement (activism, party membership and voting). We find assigning higher importance to paying taxes/obeying the law is negatively linked to all forms of participation, whereas the opposite is true for norms about the importance of voting and being active in associations. Greater emphasis on norms about understanding others and shopping politically is positively associated with political activism but not with more institutional forms of participation. The relationship between norms and participation differs somewhat across nations, with the most differences between Eastern European respondents and those from Western European and Western non‐European respondents. In line with theories on democratic learning, we find that the relationship between citizenship norms and participation is often weakest among Eastern Europeans. Conclusions about the subjective and variable nature of democratic citizenship are discussed.