Gender Intersections and Environmental Concern

The work presented here provides an exploration into the complexities of gender when considered in conjunction with other socio-demographic variables. Our goal is to look at how gender moderates several socio-demographic characteristics (age, race, class, education, political orientation, residence, marital status, number of children, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge) as these characteristics predict several measures of environmental concern. Previous researchers suggest that inconsistencies in findings regarding gender as a predictor of environmental concern are largely due to differences in question wording and the various types of environmental concern that can be measured. We do not disagree that the framing of environmental problems is extremely important; however, explanations involving question wording are overly simplified. Our exploration of moderating effects provides greater insight into the complexities of the relationship between gender and environmental concern. We find that lived experiences lie at the intersection of multiple socio-demographic identities. Thus, exploring differences between different types of women’s and different types of men’s environmental concern helps to further elucidate our understanding of the demographic correlates of environmental orientations.