Attitudes towards Women and Values in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report results from an exploratory, empirical research study that describes personal values and attitudes toward women, two themes that strongly impact employment relations and a wide variety of management issues. Design/methodology/approach: Well-established measures for the major themes for this paper were used in constructing a questionnaire. Data collection instruments were vetted for content, translated and back-translated, and applied by native researchers, who also contributed local expertise to the paper. Findings: Female respondents across all four countries were more egalitarian in their attitudes towards women in the workforce than were men. Additionally, Colombian respondents had more egalitarian attitudes towards women scores, followed by Brazilians and Argentineans; Mexicans exhibited the least egalitarian attitudes toward women. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study that links two well-validated constructs (personal values and attitudes toward women) in samples from the largest Latin American countries.