However, there are significant differences by sex, with 56 percent of men agreeing compared to 44 percent of women. In a clear message to rulers, Latin Americans claim that a politician's stand on women's rights, including their willingness to appoint women to positions of power, is important to their voting decisions. Changing Views on Gender Equality Public attitudes toward gender equality have changed as more women have entered into positions of power, though men are more confident of an equal society than are women. In 1996, about 40 percent of people in these countries said that men and women are basically the same. Four years later, this had grown to over 60 percent in these same three countries.
Men are more confident of women's equality than women.
The same pattern holds for views of equal opportunities. Random sampling procedures were used, and quotas were set by age, sex, education level, and head of household occupation . The margin of error for the sample is plus or minus 5 percentage points at the country level. They do not represent the cities in proportion to the national population. Where possible, trend comparisons are shown to a 1996 international Gallup study in Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico.