The Effect of Perceived Men's Standards of Injustice On
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED MEN’S STANDARDS OF INJUSTICE ON WOMEN’S RESPONSES TO INEQUALITY By Elle A. Moore The present study investigated the effects of perceived men’s standards of injustice on women’s responses to the inequality of the gender wage gap. Men’s standards of injustice (i.e., outgroup standards of injustice) are defined as the amount of evidence men require to conclude that the existing gender economic inequality is unfair to women (Miron, Branscombe, Kulibert, Moore, & Agnello, in preparation-a; Miron, Branscombe, Moore, & Kulibert, in preparation-b). Work by Miron and colleagues (Miron et al., in preparation-a; b) indicated that women overestimate men’s standards of injustice (e.g., women believe men require more evidence of the gender wage gap to conclude it is unfair in comparison to the amount of evidence that men themselves report requiring). The current study tested 109 female participants and manipulated women’s perception of men’s standards of injustice in order to test the applicability of the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe et al., 1999) to women’s experiences with the gender wage gap. Specifically, the current experiment examined the complex relationship between perceived men’s standards of injustice and women’s gender identification, self-esteem, and willingness to reduce inequality. Results were consistent with elements of the Rejection-Identification Model. Women who were informed that men require a low amount of evidence reported stronger identification with their gender group. Furthermore, women’s standards mirrored the manipulated men’s standards. Post- hoc regression analyses indicated that increased gender identity predicted greater willingness only in the high standards and no information conditions. Moreover, high within-group correlations between women’s own standards and manipulated men’s standards in the low standards condition indicated that women feel free to determine for themselves the amount of evidence they need in order to recognize the gender wage gap as unfair when they perceive men as being in solidarity with women. These results also support the notion that solidarity between genders can be an important factor when the goal is reducing gender inequality. Nevertheless, these findings require further replication. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 Social Identity Theory .................................................................................... 2 Prejudice and Inequality ................................................................................ 3 Perceiving Inequality ......................................................................... 3 Injustice Standards and the Gender Wage Gap ...................... 4 Psychological Consequences of Perceiving Prejudice ........... 6 Responses to Prejudice and Inequality .................................. 7 Coping Mechanisms ................................................... 7 Rejection-Identification Model .................................. 8 The Proposed Process Model ................................................. 9 The Current Study .......................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER II: METHOD .......................................................................................... 14 Participants ..................................................................................................... 14 Measures ........................................................................................................ 14 Experimental Manipulation ............................................................... 14 Gender Identity Scale ......................................................................... 16 Self-esteem Scale ............................................................................... 16 Willingness to Reduce Inequality ...................................................... 16 Emotion Checklist .............................................................................. 17 Condition Identification ..................................................................... 17 Standards of Injustice ......................................................................... 17 Demographic Questionnaire .............................................................. 18 Exploratory Questionnaires ............................................................... 18 Procedure ....................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER III: RESULTS ......................................................................................... 20 Data Cleaning ................................................................................................. 20 Manipulation Check ....................................................................................... 20 Gender Identity .............................................................................................. 21 Self-esteem ..................................................................................................... 22 Willingness to Reduce Inequality .................................................................. 23 Additional Analyses ....................................................................................... 23 iii Standards of Injustice ......................................................................... 23 What Predicts Willingness? ............................................................... 24 CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSION .................................................................................. 26 Gender Identification ..................................................................................... 26 Women’s Resilience in the Face of Prejudice ............................................... 27 Women’s Standards of Injustice .................................................................... 28 When Are Women More Willing to Reduce Inequality? .............................. 29 Limitations, Considerations and Future Directions ....................................... 31 Conclusions .................................................................................................... 33 TABLES .................................................................................................................... 35 FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 37 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 39 APPENDIX A: Informed Consent Form ...................................................... 39 APPENDIX B: Gender Wage Gap Information ........................................... 41 APPENDIX C: Gender Identity Scale .......................................................... 45 APPENDIX D: Flourishing Scale ................................................................. 47 APPENDIX E: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale .............................................. 49 APPENDIX F: Willingness to Reduce Inequality ........................................ 51 APPENDIX G: Emotions Checklist ............................................................. 53 APPENDIX H: Condition Identification ...................................................... 56 APPENDIX I: Estimated Outgroup Standards of Injustice .......................... 58 APPENDIX J: Standards of Injustice ........................................................... 62 APPENDIX K: Demographic Questionnaire ................................................ 66 APPENDIX L: Debriefing Form .................................................................. 70 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 73 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Predictions for each experimental condition with simple planned contrast coding ................................................................................... 35 Table 2. Means and standard deviations for index scores by experimental condition ............................................................................................ 36 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. The Rejection-Identification Model ................................................... 37 Figure 2. The Proposed Process Model ............................................................. 38 vi 1 Chapter I Introduction The gender wage gap, in which women’s earnings are approximately equal to 80% of men’s earnings (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2017), holds true across a variety of occupations. For example, women earn 91% of men’s earnings for construction and extraction jobs, though only 56.7% of men’s earnings in legal positions (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). However, men and women perceive the social inequality of the gender wage gap differently, likely due to the differing amounts of evidence that men and women require to conclude that the existing economic inequality is unfair to women (i.e., injustice standards), with men requiring significantly higher amounts of evidence to recognize this injustice in comparison to women (Miron, Warner, & Branscombe, 2011). Interestingly however,