Sex Roles最新文献

Social role theory (Eagly, 1987) posits that gender differences in career interests are consistent with normative social role expectations, with men assuming more agentic roles and women assuming more communal roles. To account for historical shifts in occupations and social roles, this mixed-methods study re-examines gender differences in career interests and motivations with a sample of 501 eighth graders (52% girls; 40% White) from the U.S. Findings indicated that boys and girls had distinct career interests and motivations. Despite preferring careers that were generally dominated by their own gender, students perceived their chosen career as being more gender balanced than U.S. labor force statistics indicate. This misperception might be the result of a preference for less stereotypical occupations, and may reflect a unique characteristic of the next-generation workforce. In addition, boys were more likely than girls to indicate that salary factored into their career choice; whereas girls were more likely than boys to indicate that a desire for helping others or working with children motivated their career choice, consistent with social role theory. Some motivational factors that are typically linked with young adult career preferences were not strong factors in younger adolescents’ career interests, perhaps due to the developmental status of participants or a generational shift in values. A generational shift in values may account for the presence of a relatively understudied motivational factor, occupation creativity, which was important for both boys and girls. Addressing gender differences in the motivations and goals that affect career interests may both alleviate workforce shortages and achieve a less gender segregated work environment.

Two studies examined the effects of race on the think manager-think male effect, which has shown men in general to be viewed more similarly to successful managers than women in general. The first study directly manipulated the race of the male or female target in the think manager-think-male framework and examined the effects on two key measures of agency – competence and assertiveness – as well as on communality. Results indicated that the differences in agency characterizations between men and successful managers and women and successful managers that are emblematic of the think-manager-think-male effect were not always evident. While the think manager-think male effect was observed for men and women “in general” as well as for men and women designated as White, it did not hold for Black and Asian targets, whose characterizations were influenced not only by gender stereotypes but also by racial stereotypes. Additionally, a potential “think manager-think female” effect, as indicated by greater overlap in communality ratings between women in general and successful managers than between men in general and successful managers held for targets who were White and Black, but not for those who were Asian. A follow-up study focused on potential implications of the findings from the first study and indicated that competence was believed to be more important than either communality or assertiveness, while communality was believed to be more important than assertiveness in determining managerial success. These results raise questions about the universality of the think-manager-think-male effect and the scope of its generalizability. These findings also add to the growing concern about the precision and application of gender bias research findings when attention is not paid to crucial intersecting identities such as race.

Despite Australian and New Zealand Universities pledging to address gender inequities, the patriarchal history of universities continues to impact the careers of women in academia. Under-representation of women in senior leadership and a culture of masculinity can lead to a lack of resources for feminist leadership and a devaluing of women’s work. We investigate how women in academic leadership are playing the game differently, making strategic moves to navigate leadership in the neoliberal neopatriarchal academy. We explored the experiences of 22 women in academic leadership through online qualitative surveys and reflexive thematic analysis of the data, taking inspiration from Bourdieu’s work on habitus and doxa. Although women leaders were able to successfully make strategic moves to advance their careers, these were shaped by parenting status, race, culture, and age. The women’s leadership approaches were counter to the masculine doxa of the academic field, leading instead relationally. We do not suggest that there is a specific ‘female’ style of academic leadership, but that successful authentic leadership can be founded on a feminist ethics of care in contrast to neopatriarchy. Adoption of such approaches across the academy might unshackle academics across genders from their positioning in academic leadership hierarchies.

The present study aimed to investigate hostile and benevolent sexist experiences of women in Turkey. We translated and adapted the Experiences with Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (EASI) and the Experiences with Benevolent Sexism Scale (EBSS) to the Turkish culture, which has higher average rates of sexism than the U.S., where the scales were originally developed. Three samples of college women (Ns = 245, 455, and 555) rated the frequencies of EASI and EBSS events. We also assessed participants’ psychological well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, self-esteem, self-efficacy), aspirations, and ambivalent sexist attitudes. The findings provide preliminary support for the construct validity of the scales in a Turkish context, demonstrating that the EASI and EBSS measure benevolent experiences (i.e., protective paternalism, complementary gender differentiation, and heterosexual intimacy) and EASI also assesses hostile experiences (i.e., hostile sexism and heterosexual hostility). More frequent experiences of hostile sexism, protective paternalism, and complementary gender differentiation were related to lower levels of well-being, whereas heterosexual hostility and heterosexual intimacy were related to higher levels of well-being. Heterosexual hostility and heterosexual intimacy were also related to higher extrinsic aspirations. Participants rated benevolent experiences as more frequent but less distressing than hostile ones. Overall, these findings indicate that ambivalent sexist experiences are significant for women’s psychological wellbeing and aspirations.

There are sharp U.S. political differences in transgender attitudes, with liberals expressing much more favorable attitudes and support for trans-inclusive policies than conservatives. Transgender attitudes likely contribute to numerous public policies that are being passed or considered, including policies that impact transgender health, safety, and well-being. Thus, it is imperative to understand why vast partisan differences in transgender attitudes occur. Here we present two preregistered studies examining whether transgender knowledge (i.e., knowledge about transgender identities, experiences, causes, and health care) differs in Democrats versus Republicans, and whether knowledge mediates political differences in attitudes and policy support (N = 439, Prolific). Participants completed a transgender quiz, followed by measures of transgender prejudice and support for trans-inclusive policies. Democrats had superior transgender knowledge compared to Republicans (ds > 1.39). Further, as predicted, transgender knowledge significantly mediated political differences in transgender prejudice and policy support. Exploratory analyses found that the predicted mediation effects held when knowledge was operationalized in different ways and after adjusting for demographic covariates. These data suggest that knowledge gaps help to explain political differences in transgender attitudes and may stimulate additional work on how to improve such knowledge.

Misogynistic attitudes have surged in the past few years and the “manosphere” – an online milieu promoting toxic and rigid masculinity norms – is often seen as an arena for spreading such ideas. Within the manosphere, manfluencers (i.e., male influencers who espouse misogynistic content and beliefs) are known for trying to persuade men to view women and feminism as a threat to their masculinity and status as men. In this article, we examine how perceived threats to masculine identity as presented by manfluencers affect the formation of young men’s attitudes towards women. In an original survey (N = 2857) with Swedish men, we found that young men who follow more manfluencers are more likely to dehumanize women. In two experiments (N = 597, 630), we presented potentially threatening content from a fictive manfluencer to a group of participants and found that young men exposed to such content were more mistrustful of women and misogynistic, especially if they felt like they had been rejected by women in the past. The results highlight the importance of how social media influencers may increase misogyny among young men. This research has important implications for policymakers and practitioners, who should be made aware of the role manfluencers have in the formation of attitudes toward gender equality.

Objectification theory posits that puberty is likely to be a critical stage for experiencing body shame. Past research on experiences during puberty has largely focused on the association between pubertal timing (i.e., the onset of the process of physical maturation and sexual development) and physical and/or psychological health problems among adolescent girls, whereas less research has considered pubertal tempo (i.e., the rate of physical maturation and sexual development during puberty) among girls and boys and its association with body image variables. Using growth curve models, the present study examined whether pubertal tempo and pubertal timing predicted body shame at three equidistant data collection time-points over a two-year period in a sample of 755 early adolescent boys and girls from Spain (377 girls and 378 boys; M_age = 11.49; SD = 0.67 at Time 1). Although participants, particularly boys, showed a decline in body shame in their transition to adolescence, early maturing girls (i.e., body hair, skin changes, breast growth, and menstruation) were especially vulnerable to experiencing body shame. Boys with a slower rate of pubertal change in body hair and facial hair (beard) growth were also vulnerable to experiencing body shame. Findings showed the different role that pubertal timing and tempo appeared to have among boys and girls in predicting body shame and, in line with the gendered deviation hypothesis, suggests important gender differences in experiencing atypical pubertal development for body image.

Previous work has examined the relations between feminism, feminine gender roles, and body image concerns with inconclusive findings. The purpose of this study was to conduct an updated meta-analysis of the relation between feminist identity and negative embodiment, and to conduct new analyses to test how endorsement of femininity relates to negative embodiment. Through the technique of meta-analysis, we analyzed 80 studies (87 samples, N = 24,308) and 217 effect sizes to examine these associations. The predictor variables were measures of feminist identity and endorsement of femininity. The negative embodiment criterion variables were measures of body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, internalization of cultural body ideals, and disordered eating attitudes. Feminist identity was found to be negatively associated with negative embodiment, but only modestly, with small but significant effect sizes across most variables. Endorsement of femininity was found to be positively associated with negative embodiment, with mostly significant effect sizes ranging from small to large. These findings underscore the importance of considering the roles of feminist identity and traditional gender ideology in the etiology and prevention of women’s experiences of negative embodiment.

Protestors recently repurposed the abortion rights’ mantra, “my body, my choice,” to oppose COVID-19 mandates. But do those who oppose public health mandates fully support the right to choose? We answer this question by using exploratory analyses to identify the unique response patterns underlying support for abortion and COVID-19 mandates in random samples from the United States (Study 1; N = 2,331) and New Zealand (Study 2; N = 33,310). Latent profile analyses revealed a small subgroup in both countries (12.6% and 3.4% of the respective samples) who opposed mandates. Yet contrary to the “my body, my choice” rhetoric seen at anti-mandate protests, they also opposed abortion. Across both studies, those in the Anti-Mandate profile tended to be more religious, conservative, and distrustful of institutions. In Study 2, they were also low on cognitive consistency and high on conspiracy belief. Finally, the Anti-Mandate profile was opposed to free speech critical of both the United States and religion (Study 1), high on sexual prejudice (both studies), unsupportive of progressive protests (but supportive of reactionary protests; Study 2), and likely to vote for conservative parties (both studies). These results reveal the mobilization potential of the anti-mandate movement, uncover important contradictions within its members, and illustrate the nuanced ways in which opposition to gender policies (i.e., reproductive rights) coalesce with reactionary protests.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures changed many aspects of everyday life. Many anecdotal accounts of changes in people’s self-perceptions as they spent more time alone have been reported. To further explore these accounts, the current study investigated potential shifts between pre- and post-pandemic self-perceptions of gender, sexual, and romantic identities among university students and adults in Canada (N = 342; M age = 22.8, SD = 6.7) during the Summer/Fall 2022. Participants were recruited for a study on changes in self-perceptions, body image, eating pathology, and sexual and gender identities, during the pandemic. Approximately half of participants indicated some change in their identity during the post-pandemic period. Specifically, participants reported changes in their identities related to sexual orientation and romantic attraction orientation, as well as sexual and romantic attraction rated continuously, gender identity, and gender expression. Changes in gender expression and changes in continuously-rated sexual and romantic attraction were more common than changes in identity labels (i.e., sexual and romantic orientation labels and gender identity). Participants also were asked to describe contributors to these changes in an open-text format. Response themes included time to reflect, reduced social interaction, and increased exploration through social media. These findings increase knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on self-perceptions and how opportunities for introspection may allow individuals the space to re-conceptualize their gender, sexuality, and romantic identities.