The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed opinions on women's rights and equality in twenty-two nations across five continents and found that overwhelming majorities in twenty-one of them supported equal rights for men and women when asked directly. Yet as Catherine Rampell and Victoria Shannon of the New York Times pointed out, that ideal is often not translated to more tangible beliefs, especially outside the West. Outside of the Americas and Europe most people in most countries agree that when jobs are scarce preference should go to men. In Pakistan, Egypt and India most believe boys more deserving of a university education and in several other countries, substantial minorities agreed.

Even in countries where support for equal rights is almost universal, most still believe that men lead better lives than women. In fact it is only in South Korea and Japan, countries less supportive of equal rights than similarly wealthy countries in the West, where most thing women lead better lives.