Women and Men: Egalitarianism at an Existential Level and Collision of Worldview

The article is based on empirical research from the European Values Study, an international study which was carried out in Croatia in 1999 & 2008. The article examines relationships between men & women through theoretical review & empirical results. After the introduction in which particular focus is given to feminist criticism of relationships between men & women, particularly with regard to theological tradition, the article examines whether Croatians continue to tend to choose traditional forms of family & marriage; it looks at whether, fifteen years after the end of the war, & coming out of the trauma of war, stabilization is occurring in respect of relationships between men & women; whether "egalitarian" & "traditional" dimensions of gender roles are developing, & whether there are statistically significant differences between them. On the basis of the results obtained, it can be concluded that after the trauma of war, stabilization is occurring in Croatian society with respect to gender roles, & according to many indicators Croatia continues to be a predominately traditional European society. Significant differences in the assessment of male & female roles in society were obtained at the level that the authors identify as "worldview" while at an "existential" level, such differences between gender roles were not identified, which leaves room for new evaluation & study of the observed phenomenon. Adapted from the source document.