Gender Equality and Sustainable Societies: The Role of Identity Salience, Ideological Beliefs, and Support for Feminism

Ana Belén Fernández-Torres (), Margarita Martí-Ripoll and Josep Gallifa ()
Additional contact information
Ana Belén Fernández-Torres: Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
Margarita Martí-Ripoll: ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull, 08172 Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain
Josep Gallifa: Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull, 08022 Barcelona, Spain

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: The pursuit of gender equality and inclusive societies—key goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda—depends in part on public alignment with feminist movements. This study examines associations between ideological beliefs, gender identity salience, and identification across multiple social categories and support for feminism in Spain. Drawing on a nationally representative sample ( N = 3928) from the 2024 CIS survey, we assess whether individuals who view gender as their most salient identity report higher support for feminism, and whether progressive ideological orientations—such as left–right political positioning, environmental values, and lower moral conservatism—as well as broader single-axis identifications across social domains, are linked to feminist alignment. Results from descriptive and regression analyses indicate that support for feminism is strongly associated with ideological and environmental values, while gender identity salience shows no independent association once these beliefs are taken into account. Analyses conducted separately for women and men suggest different patterns: among women, feminist support aligns with progressive values and broader identifications; among men, greater gender salience coexists with some marginalized identifications but is not positively linked to feminist alignment. These findings highlight that value-oriented and multi-identity approaches are more effective in fostering feminist engagement than appeals based solely on gender salience. The study outlines implications for inclusive policy, civic education, and cross-sector strategies to advance SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

Keywords: gender identity salience; ideological beliefs; identification across social categories; sustainability; environmental values; SDG 5; gender equality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/9/552/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/9/552/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:552-:d:1750726

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().