THE SOCIAL BASES OF FEMINISM IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Although several studies explore the political environmentsand institutional features of Western European women's movements,few have examined the mass attitudinal bases for feminist politicsin Europe. This article extends the study of feminist politicsby testing models of feminist attitudes developed in the UnitedStates with data collected in the European Community in 1983.We explore the connections between the support of feminist goalsand measures of marital status, female employment, socioeconomiclevel, age, religiosity, place of residence, and political partyidentification, focusing on differences in the predictors ofmale and female attitudes. Consistent with studies of the UnitedStates, we find that women's labor force participation fostersfeminist attitudes among themselves and their husbands. Age,education, religiosity, and partisanship are also found to bepredictors of feminist support. In contrast to studies of Americanwomen and men, we find that marital status has no effect inEurope. Our conclusions have implications for the future offeminist politics in Europe.