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People often worry how others will perceive them if they socially reject others, but do women have more to fear than men? Although previous research has shown that women are perceived negatively for behaving in counter-stereotypical ways, research on backlash has focused on business settings. The present research applies backlash theory to examine how women are perceived for engaging in social rejection. The findings suggest that backlash may operate differently in social rejection because only men punish women for rejecting. Across four studies, the present research found that (1) women felt they were more likely to be penalized for engaging in social rejection than men, (2) women were less willing to endorse social rejection than men, and (3) men, but not women, viewed female rejectors in a more negative manner than male rejectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal democracy is experiencing a crisis of confidence, and recent public-opinion research from a variety of sources has added to these anxieties. Using data from Pew Research Center cross-national surveys, this article finds that while democracy is broadly popular, there is nonetheless a surprisingly high degree of openness to nondemocratic modes of governing in many nations. And even though people tend to believe it is important to live in a country where democratic rights are respected, support for these rights is often tepid. In short, liberal democracy is popular among average citizens, but their commitment to this system of government is frequently underwhelming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of sexual economics theory argue that women exchange sex for men’s resources. This idea is likely to promote a competitive view of gender relationships that undermines gender equality by characterizing women as manipulative and financially dependent on men. Heterosexual college students (N = 474) who were randomly exposed to a popular YouTube video describing sexual economics theory increased their (1) behavioral support for sexual exchange concepts, (2) endorsement of the theory, and (3) adversarial views of heterosexual relationships, compared with a control group of students. Sexual exchange theory endorsement and adversarial heterosexual beliefs positively covaried, and both attitudes were related to participants’ sexism. Reading a critique of sexual exchange theory, that emphasized mutual respect and affection as precursors to heterosexual intimacy, counteracted the consequences of exposure to the theory. The findings provide evidence that disseminating sexual exchange theory via video on the Internet negatively affects young adults’ views of gender relationships. Educators, and others who wish to explore sexual economics theory through the use of this video, should also include a discussion of the countervailing evidence available. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender inequality is embedded in men's greater labor force participation and women's greater assumption of domestic roles. These inequalities are at the same time rooted in people's projections about their future lives, which influence future behaviors and values. The current research analyzes factors that influence these projections about the gender division of labor. A sample of 230 male and female Spanish university students reported their expectations about gender equality in their own future life. Data are also presented from 113 female university students from the United States, who completed the same measures. In an experimental design, these participants were also assigned to envision a possible future self as a married parent who was employed full-time, part-time, or not at all and whose educational attainment was a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. When reporting expectations for their own future lives, more female than male Spanish participants expected part-time work, marriage, and parenthood. In most aspects, the experimental conditions, with their assignments to particular future situations, yielded the same expectations for the male and female participants. Notably, as hypothesized, participants of both sexes estimated that greater employment would enhance their attainment of career and respect goals but compromise family goals. We discuss the effects of employment expectations on the division of labor and gender equality, and additionally provide a cross-cultural interpretation of the differences observed between Spain and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are less likely than men to engage in sexually agentic behavior (e.g., initiating sexual encounters), despite the benefits associated with sexual agency (Kiefer & Sanchez, ). Two studies examined possible explanations, related to person perception, for gender differences in sexually agentic behavior. In Study 1, participants viewed the dating profiles of targets who were either high or low on sexual agency and rated sexually agentic targets as more desirable but also riskier sexual partners (i.e., having more previous sexual partners), as well as more selfish partners overall. Participants believed the agentic female targets to be the most desirable but also to have the highest number of previous sexual partners. In Study 2, female participants weighed the importance and consequences of sexual agency differently than male participants. Based on the two studies, we suggest that although men and women are judged similarly for sexual agency, women may refrain from sexual agency because they view the traits and characteristics that are perceived to go hand in hand with sexual agency more negatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on relative resources and gender construction theories, we examined economic and psychological factors that affect married parents' domestic labor. Married parents from the United States ( N = 801) reported whether they earned less, equal, or more income than their spouses, as well as the proportion of housework and childcare they performed. In line with a relative resources perspective, participants reported doing less domestic labor as their relative income increased. Yet, in line with gender construction theories, women reported doing more domestic labor than their spouses, regardless of their relative income. Moreover, support for traditional gender roles mediated the effect of income on domestic labor for women, but not men. In contrast, perceived domestic entitlement (feeling justified doing less domestic labor than one's spouse) mediated the effect of income on domestic labor for men, but not women. The implications for the future of gender equality are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study reported here, data from implicit and behavioral choice measures did not support sexual economics theory’s (SET’s) central tenet that women view female sexuality as a commodity. Instead, men endorsed sexual exchange more than women did, which supports the idea that SET is a vestige of patriarchy. Further, men’s sexual advice, more than women’s, enforced the sexual double standard (i.e., men encouraged men more than women to have casual sex)—a gender difference that was mediated by hostile sexism, but also by men’s greater implicit investment in sexual economics. That is, men were more likely to suppress female sexuality because they resisted female empowerment and automatically associated sex with money more than women did. It appears that women are not invested in sexual economics, but rather, men are invested in patriarchy, even when it means raising the price of sexual relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the first examination of the accuracy of metaperceptions of sexism among White, Asian, and Black women and men (N = 308), results showed that regardless of ethnicity, both genders were similarly inaccurate, but in opposing ways. Women overestimated men’s hostile sexism (HS) and underestimated men’s benevolent sexism (BS), whereas men overestimated women’s BS and underestimated women’s HS. Further, metaperceptions of HS were negatively related to metaperceptions of BS, for both genders. Individual differences in sexism informed metaperceptions only for men (not women). In concert, the findings support an illusion of antagonism between HS and BS. Viewing HS and BS as oppositional is an illusion because, cross-culturally, they are positively correlated in men and women alike (e.g., Glick et al., 2000), and both forms of sexism reinforce the gender hierarchy (Rudman & Glick, 2008). Therefore, disarming the illusion of antagonism is an overlooked key to advancing gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined young women's expectations about gender equality in their future careers and marriages. The study implemented a possible selves method in which 114 undergraduate women from a Midwestern university in the United States were randomly assigned to envision themselves as married mothers employed either full-time, part-time, or not at all and possessing either an advanced degree or a bachelor's degree. Participants indicated their expectations for gender equality by estimating their own and their future husbands' expected salaries and hours per week of housework and employment. They also evaluated their possible selves and estimated their emotional well-being and likely attainment of several important life goals. Greater employment produced greater expected gender equality, although in all conditions participants expected to have lesser salary and more domestic work than their husbands. With employment, compared with no employment, and with an advanced degree, compared with a bachelor's degree, participants rated their possible selves more positively and estimated that they would have greater emotional well-being and attainment of life goals related to respect and finances. However, employment negatively affected participants' anticipated relationships with their children. Thus, our participants' reactions displayed a tradeoff between satisfying their employment goals and their goals for their relationship with their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors summarize how their research undermines the central tenets of sexual economics theory (SET) namely that women are responsible for suppressing female sexuality because women are more invested in sexual exchange than men and that men like sex more than women giving women a bargaining chip. They cite their findings that men were more likely to discriminate against women when giving sexual advice, choose jewelry advertisement promoting sexual exchange and endorse hostile sexism.

For the sake of gender equality, it is vital to determine why husbands who relieve their wives' domestic burden are stigmatized as "unmanly" (Brescoll and Uhlmann in Psychol Women Q 29(4):436-445, 2005; Rudman and Mescher in J Soc Issues 69(2):322-340, 2013). We used biographical vignettes to examine whether masculinity penalties stem from not earning income (a male prescription) or performing domestic labor ("acting like women"). In Experiment 1, we held husbands' domestic labor constant but manipulated how much income they earned from home; in Experiment 2, we held husbands' earnings constant but varied their domestic labor. In Experiment 1, only low-income husbands were stigmatized (e.g., viewed as weaker than comparable wives); successful husbands working from home were spared penalties. In Experiment 2, husbands who performed 50 or 30% of the domestic labor were viewed similarly and more favorably than husbands who did 70%. Thus, across two experiments, men can relieve women's domestic burden without penalty provided they also earn some income and do not shoulder domestic inequality themselves. These findings are optimistic for domestic and gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociocultural and biological frameworks suggest a Sexual Advice Double Standard (SADS; wherein heterosexual men are encouraged to have causal sex more than heterosexual women are) motivated by intransigent factors (e.g., patriarchy or evolved dispositions). Alternatively, people generally perceive casual sex as riskier for women, who may be discouraged from sex to protect them from stigma and danger (Rudman et al. 2013). If so, manipulating perceived risk to reduce or reverse the costs of casual sex for men and for women should eliminate or reverse the SADS, respectively. Results investigating American adults ( N = 180) supported risk assessment's explanatory power. When costs to both partners were mild, the SADS was eliminated, but when costs to men were higher, women were urged to have casual sex more than men were. The SADS emerged only when costs to women were higher. The findings have implications for gender equality and sexuality theories, but also practitioners (e.g., therapists, sex educators, and physicians). The SADS is far from intractable, but believing in rigid sexual double standards creates psychological conflict in women caught between motives to be seen as moral and sexually desirable, which negatively impacts their sexual health (e.g., Katz and Farrow 2000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]