How does the attitude towards gender equality at work and at home influence the person’s income? Do sexists earn more or less than the proponents of gender equality?
An interesting study conducted by American scientists has been written about in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The experts decided to study the thickness of the Americans’ wallets and its impact on the understanding of gender roles. They have attracted to the study twelve and a half thousand citizens of both sexes who had to be interviewed for 25 years (the age of the participants at the beginning of the experiment was ranging from 14 to 22 years).
In each survey, the volunteers were asked about their views on gender roles at work and at home, and in such a way it was possible to determine how the participants defined the place of a woman in society – whether she had to rely on no one but herself while reaching her goals, whether or not women had to make a career and whether or not a woman had only to take care of the children and the house.
The experts most of all wondered how life position of the respondents was related to their income. The study revealed that outspoken sexists who thought that a woman’s place was at the stove earned on average as much as eight and a half thousand dollars more than their counterparts who favored gender equality.
But in the case of women the situation was the opposite. Those ladies who hurried home after work to deal with children and household duties earned about fifteen hundred dollars less than those who equated themselves with men in terms of their rights. In addition, the researchers found that the difference in income between spouses in the families where “the husband was more important than the wife” was eight times bigger than among the supporters of equality.
It is curious that at the beginning of the experiment, at a young age, the participants had a more relaxed attitude towards gender equality. But with the experience, their position turned more and more radical: for example, religious married people proved to be most intolerant towards socially active women, the journal informs.
Source of the image: Photl.
