Sex Roles, Vol. 53, Nos. 9/10, November 2005 ( C  2005) DOI: 10.1007/s11199-005-7740-4 Are Gender Differences in Basic Human Values a Generational Phenomenon? Sean Lyons, 1 Linda Duxbury, 2,4 and Christopher Higgins 3 The Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) was administered to 979 Canadian knowledge workers to determine whether differences in value priorities between men and women differed signif- icantly between members of the Baby Boomer generation and members of Generation X. Multivariate analysis of covariance controlling for education, income, and scale use revealed a significant gender-by-generation interaction, which signifies that the patterns of differences between men’s and women’s value priorities were different for Baby Boomers and Genera- tion Xers. Four of the 10 SVS value types (i.e., power, tradition, universalism, and achieve- ment) were associated with both gender and generation. A number of other value types were associated solely with generation. The findings suggest that both gender and generation are important variables in the study of values and should not be considered in isolation of each other. KEY WORDS: gender; human values; generation. Human values are a core element of human psy- chology and are therefore key to the understand- ing of both individuals and social groups (Mayton, Ball-Rokeach, & Loges, 1994). It therefore makes inherent sense that values should be considered a fundamental construct in the study of psycho- logical gender differences. In the 30 years since the publication of Rokeach’s (1973) groundbreak- ing work on values, a number of researchers, includ- ing Rokeach himself, have endeavored to determine whether there are identifiable gender-related pat- terns in basic human values. Though early studies in this area with the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) (e.g., Feather, 1984; Rokeach, 1973) showed promisingly consistent results, recent research with the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) (e.g., Feather, 2004; Schwartz et al., 2001) has not shown consistent gender pat- terns. It is likely that the inconsistency of these re- 1 St. Francis Xavier University. 2 Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. 3 University of Western Ontario. 4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada; e-mail: Linda Duxbury@carleton.ca. sults is at least partly attributable to the different measurement approaches employed in the RVS and the SVS (the former is a ranking measure and the latter a rating instrument). Nonetheless, both instru- ments aim to identify the value priorities held by in- dividuals and groups. As these two measures share 25 value items in common, one would expect that any gender-related differences in value priorities that ex- ist should be observed as significantly higher ratings or rankings by one gender or the other if both mea- sures are valid. Another possible explanation for the inconsis- tency of these findings is that changes in society over the past 30 years have resulted in a shift in the value priorities expressed by men and women from one generational cohort to the next. Given the in- creased educational and occupational opportunities afforded to the younger generation of women and the continued evolution of gender roles in both the realms of work and family (Orenstein, 2000), it is no longer considered taboo for women to hold and express traditionally masculine value priorities such as achievement and power. Similarly, it is becoming increasingly acceptable for men to hold and express 763 0360-0025/05/1100-0763/0 C  2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.