Sex Roles最新文献

One way that benevolent sexism contributes to gender inequality is by offering wellbeing benefits to women and men who fulfil idealised gender roles, such as taking on differentiated parenting roles and priorities. Yet, how benevolent sexism relates to parenting outcomes has received little attention. Extending a pre-pandemic study of heterosexual couples with young children (N = 175 dyads), we provide initial tests of the associations between benevolent sexism, parenting strain, and psychological distress. We assess whether benevolent sexism predicted parenting strain and psychological distress during two lockdowns at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (Lockdown 2020) and 17 months later (Lockdown 2021). Accounting for pre-pandemic psychological distress, actors’ and partners’ higher pre-pandemic benevolent sexism was associated with lower psychological distress, and these associations were accounted for by lower parenting strain during lockdowns. However, the associations between mothers’ benevolent sexism and parenting outcomes dissipated at Lockdown 2021, suggesting that any protective benefits benevolent sexism offers to women are precarious. These results provide novel, preliminary evidence for the palliative function of benevolent sexism in the parenting domain, and advance understanding on why benevolent sexism is appealing and helps sustain gender inequalities.

This mixed-methods study explored the centrality and meanings of men’s and women’s parental and work-related identities by comparing semi-traditional, equal-sharing, and role-reversed couples. Quantitative analysis involved 2,813 British parents (1,380 men, 1,433 women) who were primary caregivers, primary breadwinners, or equal sharers with at least one child aged 11 or under. Qualitative analysis drew on 60 in-depth interviews with 10 couples from each of the three groups. Results indicated that the centrality of parental and work identities varied by role rather than gender, as both male and female caregivers reported less central work identities and more central parental identities compared to breadwinners and equal-sharers. Equal-sharers and role-reversers were characterized by women’s central work identity and men’s low centrality of work identity. In these couples, a `half and half` parenting ideology underlined the construction of mothering and fathering as equivalent interchangeable identities, each forming only one half of a child’s parenting. Intertwining their maternal identity with an equivalent construction of their partners’ identity allowed women to reconcile a good mother ideal with central work identities, by redefining mothering as a responsibility for only half of the caregiving.

The master narrative of gender within contemporary U.S. culture is that there are two mutually exclusive categories of men and women. This leaves transgender individuals with the precarious position of creating alternative narratives in response to that master narrative. The current qualitative research study was undertaken to better understand the varieties of alternative narratives transgender individuals create for themselves. Thematic life story interviews were conducted with 19 American transgender emerging adults, asking them to reflect on their experiences with gender throughout their lives. A discursive thematic analysis resulted in three themes: persistence of the binary, rejection of the binary, and pressures of transnormativity. Binary expectations persisted through gender binary policing, binary requirements of passing, and a lack of options within the binary. Participants rejected the binary by discovering transgender concepts and role models and subverting other people’s binary expectations. Participants also felt pressure to follow a particular alternative narrative, transnormativity, from gatekeepers both within and outside the trans community. However, despite the cultural power of these master and alternative narratives persisting, our participants demonstrated a wealth of creativity and strength by searching for information that fit their gender experiences, creating supportive communities with caring others, and disrupting this cultural power by flourishing as their full gendered selves.

The preference for reduced work hours is well-known to be associated with various social ramifications, but research on the determinants of workers’ preference is generally limited to investigating individual and job characteristics. Building on the paradigm of the social construction of gender, the life-course perspective, and scholarship on welfare policy, we examine the relationships between heterosexual dual-earner couples’ work hour arrangements and men’s and women’s own preferences for reduced work hours, as well as their desire for their spouses’ reduced work hours in 19 countries. This study contributes to the literature on gendered work hour preferences by theorizing and analyzing two gendered family-centered contexts: couples' adaptive strategies and work-family policy regimes as two main theoretical frameworks. Thus, our approach allows examining which couple-level strategies and policies can combat hours’ mismatch, given the gendered structure of work opportunities and gender norms. Second, we offer the first examination of the role that defamilization policies play in shaping preferences for reduced hours at the couple level. Using the 2010 European Social Survey, this study documents a pervasive preference for reduced work hours for men and women in dual-earner couples. Multilevel models indicate that, regardless of dual-earner couples’ work hour arrangements, individuals generally report preferences for working hours for themselves and their spouses that conform to a modified male breadwinner-female homemaker model. Moreover, individuals in dual-earner couples in countries with less developed work-family policies feel more pressed for time.

While scholars have extensively studied rape myth acceptance, less is known about these myths within hypermasculine environments and among women within these environments. One hypermasculine environment in which rape myth acceptance remains understudied is the United States Air Force Academy, which is characterized by the hypermasculinity that is often found in military environments and is an academic institution prone to high levels of sexual assault like most college campuses. Indeed, a top priority at the Air Force Academy is lowering sexual assault rates. This paper analyzes the hypermasculine environment found at the Air Force Academy and examines rape myth acceptance among female cadets. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of the Enhanced Access, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance training program in reducing acceptance of rape myths by female cadets. Using survey data from the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale and the Perceived Causes of Rape Scale, we find that the program was effective in reducing rape myth adherence overall, which is consistent with other studies measuring the effectiveness of the EAAA program. Further, a more granular examination of the surveys revealed changes to specific rape myth beliefs within the unique context of the military academy’s hypermasculine environment. Implications for sexual assault prevention programs in hypermasculine environments such as military settings are discussed.

Iran's cultural, social, and historical characteristics contribute to different experiences for Iranian trans women and trans men compared with their peers in other countries where gender diversity and trans rights are acknowledged. We conducted an emergent fit analysis based on past grounded theory studies of Iranian trans women's and men's identity development to explore and compare the diverse gender developmental milestones of these groups and the underlying causes and mechanisms associated with any observed differences. In this study, emergent fit analysis revealed that trans women's and trans men's experiences are comparable across several general categories, but markedly diverge in many specific emergent details, including different child-parent relationships, school years experiences, peer and romantic relationships, social policy implications, gender taboos during different developmental stages, their experiences after transition/surgery, and legal and social status. Policymakers, academics, clinical associates, and medical professionals not specifically trained in working with gender-diverse populations and those who may not be familiar with Iran’s cultural context can use these findings to enhance their professional knowledge and, as a result, implement policies and practices that acknowledge and support the diverse gendered experiences of trans people.

Research has only recently begun to explore narcissism in women using gender-inclusive assessments that move beyond traditional male-centric frameworks associated with grandiosity. Such work indicates gender differences in the onset and expression of narcissism, and risk factors of partner violence perpetration. The pathways to offending in narcissism may therefore be gendered but have yet to be tested. In this study, we investigated the mediating role of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism in the association between childhood exposure to maltreatment and later partner violence perpetration in adulthood, and the moderating role of gender in these associations. Participants (N = 328) completed scales of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, perceived parenting styles, and physical/sexual and psychological abuse perpetration. Results indicated gender differences in grandiose (men higher) and vulnerable (women higher) narcissism. Retrospective reports of having mothers who were caring was negatively related to grandiose narcissism for men and vulnerable narcissism for women. Father overprotectiveness was positively related to grandiose narcissism in men. Self-reported vulnerable narcissism was related to greater perpetration of physical/sexual and psychological IPV in women, whereas grandiose narcissism was associated with greater perpetration of psychological IPV in men. For women, but not men, mother care was associated with reduced psychological IPV via lower vulnerable narcissism levels. These findings inform gendered risk markers of narcissism and perpetration of violence for intervention efforts.

The increased visibility, legal protections, and the affirmative paradigm of care have changed the living conditions of transgender people in liberal areas in the United States. Grounding our investigation in an intersectional framework (Ben Hagai et al., 2020), we ask how transgender people of different generations describe their gender identity, experience of oppression, and engage with community support. An in-depth analysis of 28 interviews with racially diverse, predominantly low-income, transgender participants living in the San Francisco Bay Area indicates a shifting understanding of trans identity across generations. Transgender participants who are part of the Baby Boomer generation described their gender as a journey that begins with gender dissonance and ends with an expression of one’s true gendered self. The participants of the Millennial generation used a narrative in which their gender was a space to be explored without a particular desired endpoint. Participants of both generations reported transphobic abuse, but those of the older generation experienced more violence and felt less agency combating family abuse; older participants tended to engage with the LGBTQ + community more than younger participants who relied on peer support. These findings can assist therapists, doctors, and educators in better serving trans people by providing inclusive care that affirms different ways of being trans across generational cohorts.

An increasing number of people identify as feminists, but there is disagreement about whom and what feminism should be fighting for. Using a multi-method approach, across three studies (total N = 3,387), we examine (1) disagreements in today’s feminist movement and how these disagreements come together to form different ideological groups as well as (2) psychological variables associated with different feminist beliefs and ideologies. In doing so we establish a nuanced picture of contemporary feminism in the UK and the US. Study 1 used open-response data to identify topics on which today’s feminists disagree. Study 2 used exploratory factor analyses to examine how views on these topics hang together, resulting in eight feminist beliefs scales. Finally, Study 3 used cluster analysis to determine what ideological groups of feminists exist in quasi-representative samples from the US and the UK and explored the associations of these beliefs with relevant psychological constructs. Transgender issues, sex work, and the importance of marginalized perspectives were the most polarizing issues across studies, highlighting that feminists are more divided on the issue of who feminism should fight for, than what feminism should fight for. These studies show the heterogeneity of feminist ideologies and the continued barriers to a truly inclusive and intersectional feminist movement.

The literature on bullying perpetration is underpinned by gendered undertones, commonly portraying men as bullies given men’s greater tendency to exhibit stereotypically masculine and overtly grandiose features of narcissism. Due to the lack of gender-sensitive inventories employed, the association between narcissism and bullying perpetration among women remains understudied. Using an all-women sample (N = 314), the current study explored grandiose narcissism (overtly immodest and domineering) and vulnerable narcissism (hypersensitive and neurotic), the latter being more prevalent among women, in relation to bullying peers. Correlation analyses showed that vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with verbal, physical, and indirect bullying. At the subscale level, contingent self-esteem, devaluing, and entitlement rage were positively associated with all three types of bullying. Grandiose narcissism was positively associated with physical and verbal bullying, as was grandiose fantasy at the subscale level, and exploitativeness was positively associated with all three types of bullying. When grandiose and vulnerable narcissism were simultaneously entered into a regression model, only vulnerable narcissism emerged as a positive predictor of physical and verbal bullying. At the subscale level, devaluing positively predicted verbal and indirect bullying, whereas hiding the self negatively predicted indirect bullying. Expressions of vulnerable narcissism, more so than grandiose narcissism, may be relevant for bullying perpetration among women. Implications for anti-bullying interventions are discussed.