Intro to the Rights Revolution

At Rights Revolution, I look at the recent global revolution in gender equality and tolerance for abortion, divorce and homosexuality.

This is raw data and analysis on the big-picture evolution of society and humankind based on Ronald Ingelhart's work. In discussing this, I'll debunk the common narratives that are currently clouding our vision. These include:

• the idea that we're living in an ever-darkening world,

• the belief that Western society is trampling on women and gays,

• the falsehood that no progress is being made.

This is key reading for anyone interested in issues of diversity and equality, and provides a haven from the shitstorm (pardon my French) dominating Western media today.

And I'll be interpreting all this work from my evolutionary perspective on humankind, which (in my humble opinion) I don't think Ingelhart had.

Let's introduce Ingelhart's research into gender equality and tolerance for gays. This is an exquisite analysis into how gender- and sexuality-related norms have changed globally in the last 40 years.  

‍

What Is Culture? The Two Crucial Value Classes

Before anything else, let's talk about Rigid norms and Freedom norms. This is how Ingelhart captured countries' levels of diversity and equality in his surveys, and they'll be crucial in this analysis.  

These two groups contain norms that go together. As you'll see, if we score highly on a Rigid norm, we're likely to score highly on the others.  

In his research, Ingelhart asked individuals to score their level of agreement with each Rigid (Pro-fertility) norm on a scale. He then used the aggregate score to decide how tolerant and open that individual was. A society's overall score is the average of all the scores of individuals in the society.
‍

As you can see, if we support Freedom norms, we value participation, equal opportunities and sexual freedom. If we support Rigid norms, we support the exact opposite.

Interestingly, there is a strong correlation (0.87) between countries' scores on Ingelhart's six-item index and their scores on the Gender Empowerment Measure, which gives his index further weight.

Now we're ready to see his six key hypotheses regarding Rigid norms and Freedom norms.

‍

Ingelhart's Six Key Hypotheses

1. Rigid norms and Freedom norms are sets of congruent values that appear together.

2. High physical and existential security is conducive to Freedom norms. Countries with high GDP, high life expectancy and low infant mortality are likelier to support Freedom norms, as are the most secure segments of a given population.  

3.Life security has risen in last 50 years in developed countries, bringing a values gap between young and old.  

4. Levels of per-capita GDP, life expectancy and infant mortality of several decades ago best predict the current level of support for new values in a society.  

5. Cultural change can reach a level at which Freedom values become the status quo. Changes promoting sexual tolerance and gender equality are no longer retarded – so rapid change comes.  

6. New norms have a major impact on society.