Gender Differences in Sustainable Consumption: Perceived Purchasing Criteria and Pro-Environmental Attitudes Among Polish Consumers

Research on sustainable consumption has identified gender-related differences in environmental attitudes and consumer preferences, yet evidence regarding the magnitude and consistency of these differences remains mixed across cultural contexts. Poland provides a relevant context for examining these patterns in a Central European consumer market undergoing environmental and energy-related transitions. This study examines whether women and men differ in the perceived importance of purchasing criteria and in selected pro-environmental attitudes related to energy-efficient and environmentally friendly everyday products. The CAWI survey was conducted among 1068 adult respondents recruited by an external research provider, using a non-probability sample with equal representation of women and men. Gender differences were initially assessed using the Mann–Whitney U test with Holm’s correction and effect size estimation, supplemented by multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and Spearman’s rank correlation. Price and ingredient quality received the highest ratings in both groups, indicating significant similarity between women and men. After Holm’s correction, four gender differences remained statistically significant in unadjusted comparisons. Additional robustness analyses, controlling for age group, financial situation, employment status, and place of residence, showed that only two associations remained statistically stable: women reported greater concern about climate change and attributed greater importance to cruelty-free products. Overall, the observed gender differences were small and selective, and gender accounted for only a very small part of the multivariate response structure. The results therefore suggest that the overall similarity between women and men is greater than the magnitude of the observed differences and caution against treating gender as a strong, stand-alone basis for explaining or segmenting consumer environmental preferences.