Gender differences in environmental related behaviour

Abstract

This report discusses gender differences in the data collected in the OECD household survey on environmental behaviour. The survey asked a sample of 10 000 respondents from 10 countries (Norway, Sweden, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Australia and Korea) concerning household behaviour with respect to five areas: recycling, energy and water saving, organic food consumption and transportation. This report identifies and describes gender differences in behaviour, in underlying preferences and in household characteristics in this data. We use regression analyses to identify and test for significant gender differences in preferences, and we use differences in means to test for gender differences in background variables and the total effect of gender on behaviour. In our estimations, where we test for significant gender differences in preferences, we find many significant differences with respect to several of the explanatory variables affecting behaviour. However, there was no clear pattern for most of these gender differences. The only systematic gender difference we found in the estimations was that the belief that they can actually contribute to a better environment seems to be a more important motivator for environmental friendly behaviour for men than it is for women. There are also many significant differences between the genders in the distribution of key background variables, in particular with respect to income, car ownership, participation in the workforce, education and choice of residence. ____________Denne rapporten diskuterer kjønnsforskjeller i et datasett samlet inn på et OECDprosjekt om miljøvennlig atferd i husholdningene. Undersøkelsen omfattet 10 000 respondenter fra 10 ulike OECD-land (Norge, Sverige, Canada, Frankrike, Italia, Nederland, Tsjekkia, Mexico, Australia og Korea), og kartla miljørelatert husholdningsatferd for fem områder: Resirkulering, energi- og vannsparingstiltak, konsum av økologiske matvarer og transport. Målet med denne rapporten er å identifisere og beskrive kjønnsforskjeller i atferden, underliggende preferanser og viktige bakgrunnsvariable i dataene. Vi bruker regresjonsanalyser for å identifisere og teste for kjønnsforskjeller i preferansene, og en sammenligning av gjennomsnitt og fordeling for å teste for kjønnsforskjeller i bakgrunnsvariable og atferd.