Gender Inequality, Homophobia and Violence: the three pillars of patriarchal norms and attitudes and their relations

This research studies how attitudes to gender (in)equality, heteronormativity and various types of violence are related. It also investigates possibilities to change patriarchal attitudes towards gender, heteronormativity and violence, making them more egalitarian. The results of the research are presented in three separate (journal) articles.
The first article, “Gender equality, attitudes to gender equality, and conflict”, looks at the relationships between attitudes to gender equality, and the levels of gender equality, the presence or absence of (internal) armed conflict and general levels of violence. The results show a significant association between attitudes toward gender equality and levels of gender equality, absence or presence of armed conflict and general levels of violence.
The second article, “Don’t be gay: homophobia, violence and conflict”, investigate if intolerance of homosexuality could be linked to other types of violence than interpersonal violence – for example armed conflict - just like gender inequality. The findings indicate that countries with low levels of tolerance of homosexuality tend to have high general levels of violence and high levels of armed conflict on their own territory, while countries with high levels of tolerance of homosexuality tend to have low levels of violence at home but intervene militarily abroad.
The third article, “Young men and gender trainings: What happens to attitudes to violence when attitudes to patriarchal norms on masculinity change?”, examines how attitudes to gender norms, including sexuality, and various types of violence are related to each other. It finds that young men who had a training on gender/masculinities and sexuality changed a number of their attitudes to gender equality, gender-based violence and homosexuality from more patriarchal to more egalitarian ones. They also became less approving of violence against women and homosexuals. Most important was that they also changed attitudes towards types of violence not discussed during the training: torture, collective and military violence, showing that attitudes to gender and sexuality are related to attitudes to violence, including state and interpersonal violence.
Three findings should be highlighted: the interconnectedness of gender, sexuality and violence thus contributing to the deeper understanding of their relationships; that attitudes towards gender, sexuality and violence are related to levels of gender equality, sexual rights and violence in societies; that it is crucial to take patriarchal norms and attitudes towards gender, sexuality and violence into account when addressing violent conflict.