THE SOCIAL BASES OF FEMINISM IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Although several studies explore the political environments and instit utional features of Western European women's movements, few have exami ned the mass attitudinal bases for feminist politics in Europe. This a rticle extends the study of feminist politics by testing models of fem inist attitudes developed in the United States with data collected in the European Community in 1983. We explore the connections between the support of feminist goals and measures of marital status, female empl oyment, socioeconomic level, age, religiosity, place of residence, and political party identification, focusing on differences in the predic tors of male and female attitudes. Consistent with studies of the Unit ed States, we find that women's labor force participation fosters femi nist attitudes among themselves and their husbands. Age, education, re ligiosity, and partisanship are also found to be predictors of feminis t support. In contrast to studies of American women and men, we find t hat marital status has no effect in Europe. Our conclusions have impli cations for the future of feminist politics in Europe.