Forerunners of change in nontraditional gender ideology

American society has witnessed a clear ideological shift to less traditional, more egalitarian gender attitudes. In this paper we draw on Mannheim's theory of social change and examine forerunners of the change: men and women who are much less traditional than their parents' generation and their own generation. Specifically we explore how forerunner parents and children's own contemporary experiences shape the probability that the children will become forerunners and agents of change. Drawing on interview data from a national longitudinal study of parents and their offspring, we find that contemporary, experiential factors are more important for forerunner socialization of daughters, whereas parents' forerunner status underlies sons' becoming forerunners. We argue that these sex differences in socialization effects explain in part why men's gender ideology and behaviors lag behind those of women.