More British women than men think a wife's role is to 'look after her husband'

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Women in Britain think a wife’s main role is to ‘look after her husband’ a major new study has found.

The research, by YouGov, surveyed 42,000 people in 24 countries on their attitudes to gender equality. It is the first time the market reserach company has collated public opinion data on the subject.

One of the statements posed was that ‘a wife’s first role is to look after her husband’. In European countries, between seven and 18 per cent of people agreed, while in Indonesia and Malaysia more than two-thirds of the online respondents concurred.

1950s housewife Betty Draper in Mad MenCredit:
AP

Britain was the only country where more women (17 per cent) than men (16 per cent) agreed with the statement. It was also one of only two countries where more women believed the statement ‘a woman’s place is in the home’ (10 per cent, compared to eight per cent of men). The other was the US.

Seventy-one per cent of Brits thought ‘men should spend more time doing housework’ compared to 78 per cent of respondents in Middle East and north African nations (a group of 18 nations known as MENA and including Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Yemen).

Overall, the survey found a startling disparity in how the world views gender equality. In Denmark, 85 per cent agreed that men and women are of equal intelligence. In MENA nations that number was just 48 per cent.

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YouGov

Nordic countries had the most gender positive attitudes, with Sweden, Denmark and Finland outperforming the other nations questioned.

Britain ranked seventh, although YouGov pointed out that “there are two attitudes in which Britain falls behind”.

These are the statements: ‘in the world as a whole women are an oppressed group’ and ‘creating more opportunity for women should be one of the world’s top concerns’. On the latter, Britain scored higher than only Morocco, Jordan, Thailand and Algeria with just 56 per cent of respondents agreeing.

Added YouGov: “While Britain has a fundamentally progressive outlook to traditional gender roles around the home and in society, the issue is not thought of as such a high priority as it is in other developed countries, either for at home or abroad”.

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YouGov

Ninety-two per cent of British women thought the sexes should get equal pay, compared to 86 per cent of men. While 30 per cent though it would ‘cause problems if a woman earns more money than her husband’, compared to 18 per cent of British men.

The statement “it is unattractive for women to express opinions in public” was disagreed with by 90 per cent of British women and 86 per cent of men – but almost a third (29 per cent) of women in France concurred with the statement. This figure was roughly one in 10 throughout the rest of Europe.

In China, Indonesia and Thailand, more respondents agreed that ‘men and women are equal’ (84, 80 and 89 per cent respectively). In Britain, just 73 per cent agreed, although this can probably be explained by the differing standards of ‘equality’ in each country.

Fifty-eight per cent of those in China thought the pop singer Beyonce was a positive role model.

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YouGov

Worldwide, women earn 33 per cent less than men; 700 million women are victims of physical or sexual violence every year; and men own and manage around 70 per cent of all business. Of the 774 million illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.

In Britain, the overall pay gap is around 19 per cent and two women are killed each week by a partner or former partner.