Hmmm…the details of this survey are here. In short, men who expressed sexist views earned more than women. It’s a big survey (over 12,000 men and women interviewed), and spans almost 30 years, including several sets of interviews with the same set of participants (as far as I can tell). Most interesting to me is that sexist attitudes stated by participants seemed to have almost a predictive capacity in terms of earning more.
Dr Magdalena Zawisza, a psychologist from Winchester University, said that there were a number of theories which might explain the difference.
She said: “It could be that more traditionally-minded men are interested in power, both in terms of access to resources - money in this case - and also in terms of a woman who is submissive.
“Another theory suggests that employers are more likely to promote men who are the sole earner in preference to those who do not - they recognise that they need more support for their families, because they are the breadwinner.”
However, no big surprises here for me.
And just to be my own snarky self, Zawisza means “hypothesis” or “hypotheses” and not “theory” or “theories.”
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
I question the “spans 30 years” part- is that valid? Society has changed an awful lot in the last 30 years- things commonly accepted then are actually illegal now.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
It would be interesting to find out more. It seems like the first interviews were conducted when participants were adolescents and young adults.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
I’m not surprised. I just wonder at what point self-fulfilling prophecy becomes reality.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
The article seems to neglect the idea that if a man is more “traditionally-minded,” then he will take that attitude home, and will also believe that he has less responsibilities at home.
Modern man takes off time to go to Junior’s basketball game, does not work until 9 o’clock, because he has work to do at home as well. Traditional man doesn’t take off for family, does work late most nights, etc.
Not unlike the Working Mom vs. Working Childless woman. It’s been shown countless times that working mom pays an economic price. So, maybe working dad also pays an economic price. (As opposed to Working Dad who doesn’t act like he’s a dad, or at least not during work time.)