The durability of gender inequality in contemporary societies raises questions about the development and diffusion of inegalitarian beliefs about the roles of men and women in politics and economics. Recent comparative research suggests the empowerment of women in politics is important for promoting egalitarian beliefs about women in authoritative political roles. This study extends on this perspective by examining how female empowerment in politics and economics interplays with beliefs about the relative competency of women in these institutions. We argue the empowerment of women in politics and economics is important for reducing inegalitarian beliefs about women in these institutions, but the prevalence of these beliefs hinders female empowerment in these institutions. We test these arguments using data on 86,324 respondents in 51 countries from the fifth and sixth waves of the World Value Survey. Estimates from hierarchal linear models show individuals possess more egalitarian beliefs about women in countries with greater female empowerment in politics and economics and this effect is amplified among male respondents. In addition, estimates from seemingly unrelated regression models show the prevalence of inegalitarian gender beliefs among both men and women is associated with lower levels of female empowerment. However, the prevalence of these beliefs among male respondents exerts the greatest effect on female empowerment in politics and economics. Overall, this study shows gender beliefs and the empowerment of women in politics and economics act as mutually constitutive forces of gender inequality and ideologies in contemporary society.

在当今社会，性别不平等的持久性引发了人们对关于男女在政治和经济学中作用的不平等信念的发展和传播的质疑。最近的比较研究表明，增强妇女在政治中的权能对于促进人们对女性在权威政治角色上的平等信念至关重要。这项研究通过考察政治和经济学中的女性赋权如何与关于女性在这些机构中的相对能力的信念之间的相互作用来扩展这种观点。我们认为，在政治和经济学中增强妇女权能对于减少这些机构中关于妇女的平均主义信念很重要，但是这些信念的普遍存在阻碍了这些机构中女性的赋权。我们使用86上的数据测试这些参数，来自《世界价值调查》第五浪和第六浪的51个国家的324位受访者。等级线性模型的估计表明，在政治和经济上女性权力更大的国家中，个人对女性拥有更多的平等主义信念，这种影响在男性受访者中得到了放大。此外，从看似无关的回归模型中得出的估计值表明，男女之间普遍存在的不平等性别观念与较低的女性赋权水平有关。然而，这些信念在男性受访者中的普遍性对政治和经济学中的女性赋权产生了最大的影响。总体而言，这项研究表明，性别信仰以及妇女在政治和经济学领域的权能是当代社会性别不平等和意识形态的相互构成力量。