Overview

To measure attitudes toward gender norms in intimate relationships or differing social expectations for men and women through two subscales: equitable and inequitable norms. The topics are on daily tasks and chores, relationships, health, and domestic violence.

Scoring and Interpretation

The scale has two subscales: an equitable and an inequitable subscale. Items are scored as 1 = agree, 2 = partially agree, and 3 = do not agree. Each item is summed by scale and the sub-scales are then summed and combined. Higher scores represent more gender-equitable attitudes. A continuous scale may be used, or the subscale scores and total score may be used as categories of low, medium, and high support for gender equity.

Citation

Pulerwitz, Julie, and Gary Barker. 2008. "Measuring Attitudes toward Gender Norms among Young Men in Brazil: Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the GEM scale." Men and Masculinities, 10( 3:) 322-338.

Contexts and Applications to Child Nutrition

Zimbabwe 

Matare, Cynthia R., Mduduzi NN Mbuya, Katherine L. Dickin, Mark A. Constas, Gretel Pelto, Bernard Chasekwa, Jean H. Humphrey, Rebecca J. Stoltzfus, and Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) Trial Team. 2021. "Maternal Capabilities Are Associated with Child Caregiving Behaviors Among Women in Rural Zimbabwe." The Journal of Nutrition 151, no. 3: 685-694.

Tome, Joice, Mduduzi NN Mbuya, Rachel R. Makasi, Robert Ntozini, Andrew J. Prendergast, Katherine L. Dickin, Gretel H. Pelto et al. 2021. "Maternal Caregiving Capabilities Are Associated with Child Linear Growth in Rural Zimbabwe." Maternal & Child Nutrition 17 (2): e13122.

Adaptations

N/A

Formative Research

Cognitive interviewing; existing literature.