For Better or for Worse? Gender Ideology,Religious Commitment,and Relationship Quality

Few studies have considered how religion moderates the ways gender ideology influences heterosexual relationship outcomes. Drawing on a national random sample of American adults who report being married or living as married, we focus on the extent to which religious commitment moderates the link between gender ideology and reported relationship satisfaction, and whether this moderating effect varies across gender. We find that gender traditionalism is negatively associated with relationship satisfaction; however, interaction effects reveal that religious commitment moderates the effects of gender ideology such that the negative effects of gender traditionalism on relationship satisfaction only apply to people who are less religious. Gender traditionalism, by contrast, is not negatively related to relationship satisfaction for the highly religious. Splitting the sample by gender reveals that this moderating relationship is significant for women only. Thus, while gender traditionalism is negatively related to relationship satisfaction in the main, this effect is contingent on both gender and religious commitment. Religious commitment appears to mitigate negative effects of gender traditionalism on relationship outcomes, particularly for American women.     

Male and Female He Created Them: Gender Traditionalism,Masculine Images of God,and Attitudes Toward Same‐Sex Unions

Prior research demonstrates that religion and gender traditionalism are associated with less favorable attitudes toward same‐sex unions because of its deviation from customary religious doctrine and traditional patterns of gender behavior. This study examines the link between religion, gender traditionalism, and attitudes toward same‐sex unions by utilizing a novel measure of gender traditionalism that is distinctly religious as well. Recent work on images of God reveals that individuals’ views of the divine provide a glimpse of their underlying view of reality. The results suggest that individuals who view God as a “he” are much less favorable toward same‐sex unions than those who do not view God as masculine, even while controlling for gender traditionalist beliefs and other images of God. Individuals who view God as masculine are signaling a belief in an underlying gendered reality that influences their perceptions of the proper ordering of that reality, which extends to marriage patterns. These findings encourage future research to identify innovative measures of religion that incorporate aspects of other social institutions to account for their interconnected nature.     

Religious Homogamy and Marital Satisfaction in South Korea: Exploring Variations across Religious Groups

This study examines whether and how the association between religious homogamy (i.e., whether spouses have the same religious affiliation) and marital satisfaction varies across religious affiliations by utilizing a unique context that four large religious groups (i.e., Buddhists, Protestants, Catholics, and religious nones) coexist in South Korea. Our results show that while religious homogamy has a positive relationship with marital satisfaction among Protestants and Catholics, there is no such association among Buddhists. This study also reveals that higher levels of religious attendance intensify the positive relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction only among Protestants. Moreover, religious heterogamy is positively associated with marital relationships among religious nones compared to religious homogamy. However, this pattern held only for religious nones who married Buddhists or Catholics. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on religion and marriage from cross-cultural perspectives.     

Gender Differences in Happiness: the Effects of Marriage,Social Roles,and Social Support in East Asia

Studies in Western countries and cross-national comparisons have shown that there are several important factors contributing to the level of happiness of individuals. Utilizing the East Asian Social Survey Health Module (2010), the present study examines this relationship in four East Asian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. East Asian countries are an interesting case for this inquiry, due to the cultural contexts such as traditional gender relations. Therefore, we focus on gender differences in predictors of happiness of individuals and attempt to answer four questions: (1) Do gender differences in happiness exist in East Asian countries? (2) Does marriage still serve as the norm and thus contribute to individual’s happiness? (3) Does conforming to traditional gender roles (i.e., employment and parenthood) contribute to individual’s happiness? (4) Is the availability of social support (i.e., emotional, financial, and instrumental) positively associated with individual’s happiness? We find that there are gender differences in the determinants of happiness in East Asian countries. The result also indicates that marital status is a strong indicator of happiness in East Asian countries, especially for men but not necessarily for women. In addition, full time employment is positively associated with men’s happiness in China but negatively associated with women’s in Japan. Finally, social support is positively associated with individual’s happiness, especially for women.     

Korea and the Gender Construction of Female Marriage Immigrants

The purpose of this article is to explore the way gender has been constructed in relation to the recent number of international marriage immigrants in South Korea. In particular, it looks at how the construction of gender at work in this context has been used to create a place and status for these women in Korean society which largely understands itself to be homogeneous. The author argues that nationalistic and patriarchal discourses have served to construct the foreign women’s gender through the roles of wife, mother, and daughter-in-law in particular ways that serve the interests of Korea as a nation.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Religion,Gender Norms,and Sexual Decision-Making within African American Faith-Based Communities

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a prominent health and social justice issue, especially for African American communities in the Southern United States. Gender role norms, specifically within faith-based communities in the South, pose challenges to empowering women to make safer sexual health decisions. To explore perceptions of gender norms and sexual health, 42 qualitative interviews were gathered from female members of 16 predominantly African American churches in Atlanta, GA. Constructs from the theory of gender and power and the social ecological model were used to guide coding and analysis. Participants discussed their experiences with gender norms and gender-based power differentials at the institutional (i.e., church), familial, and interpersonal (i.e., intimate relationship) levels. Because of the attitudes and beliefs held by their religious communities and families, many participants recalled struggling to assert themselves in sexual relationships and recalled engaging in risky and unwanted sexual behavior, especially during their young adult years. However, as the participants matured, they worked to overturn traditional gender norms, empowering both their children and women in their religious communities to make healthy, autonomous sexual decisions. Moving forward, participants want their churches and members of their faith communities to play an active role in the empowerment of African American women and provide them with the confidence and education necessary to negotiate sexual decisions with their partners.

     

Re‐construing politics: The dual impacts of abstraction on political ideology

The influence of construal level on political ideology is unclear. Some research says that abstraction polarizes political attitudes by making liberals more liberal and conservatives more conservative. Other research instead argues that an abstract construal causes people to exhibit similar political attitudes as each other. The current research presents two experiments in which abstraction polarizes political attitudes on issues of social inequality. However, abstraction also increases traditionalism, and so it increases a preference for maintaining the societal status quo, such as by increasing one's disagreement with or opposition to homosexuality. The dual impacts of abstraction parallel the two distinct dimensions of political ideology (i.e., acceptance of social inequality and preference for the status quo), both of which prior research on construal level has not yet considered. Overall, the current findings indicate that the effects of construal level and the dimensions underlying political ideology need to be teased apart to fully understand the exact relationship between the two.     

Deliverance and Submission: Evangelical Women and the Negotiation of Patriarchy in South Korea

Kelly Chong’s Deliverance and Submission: Evangelical Women and the Negotiation of Patriarchy in South Korea studies the complex conversion experiences of women, who, despite being the driving force behind the rise and maintenance of Korean evangelicalism, have been largely neglected in understanding the expansion of Christianity in South Korea. In particular, the book examines why educated middle-class Korean women would convert to a conservative evangelical faith that submits them to a traditional patriarchal order. Reviewing the book’s important contribution to the fields of gender and religion, this article raises questions for Chong and others in the field of pastoral psychology on how conversion can or should change the gender and familial dynamics in and outside of the Christian community.     

Gender Schematicity,Gender Identity Salience,and Gender‐Linked Language Use

Using self‐categorization theory, the effects of sex, chronic gender accessibility (i.e., gender schematicity), and gender identity salience on gender‐linked language use in e‐mail are examined. Results confirmed interactive effects only. Gender schematic men and women whose gender was salient used typical gender‐linked language (e.g., men used male language). With low gender salience, schematic men and women used countertypical gender‐linked language (e.g., men used female language). The language of nonschematics varied minimally. Results are discussed regarding previous research on gendered language, the nature of gender identity salience, and examining gendered language in computer‐mediated communication.     

Animalizing women and feminizing (vegan) men: The psychological intersections of sexism,speciesism, meat,and masculinity

Images of sexualized women depicted as animals or alongside meat are routinely used in advertising in Western culture. Philosophers and feminist scholars have long theorized that such imagery reflects the lower status of both women and animals (vs. men) in society and argued that prejudiced attitudes towards women (i.e., sexism) and animals (i.e., speciesism) are interconnected, with meat-eating as a core symbol of masculinity. Addressing these key ideas from ecofeminist theory, we review the psychological evidence on the associations between sexism, speciesism, meat, and masculinity. Research on the animalistic dehumanization of women provides evidence that sexism and speciesism are psychologically entangled and rooted in desires for group-based dominance and inequality. Furthermore, research on the symbolic value of meat corroborates its masculine value expressing dominance and power, and suggests that men who abstain from meat consumption (e.g., vegans) are feminized and devalued, particularly by those higher in sexism. We conclude that a greater recognition of the interconnected nature of patriarchal gender relations and practices of animal exploitation, including meat-eating, can help in efforts to improve the status of both women and animals.     

Sexual equality,male superiority,and Korean women in politics: Changing gender relations in a “patriarchal democracy”

As a newly industrialized country Korean society may be characterized as a patriarchal democracy, where the Western democratic principle of sexual equality and the traditional Confucian ideology of male superiority contradict each other and complicate the behavioral rules for gender relations. This paper explores the processes of social change in gender relations by examining organizational patterns of social actions of individuals in male-female interactions in South Korea, with a focus on the experiences of women in politics. The analysis suggests the emerging pattern of gender relations in Korean society is a compartmentalized gender schema that is fluid and situationally defined by the individual's nunch'i (tact or savoir-faire).The research on which this paper is based was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the East-West Center. I am grateful to the two institutions. Special thanks are also due to Jerry Boucher, Jon McGee, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on early versions of this paper.     

Why are Women More Religious than Men? Do Risk Preferences and Genetic Risk Predispositions Explain the Gender Gap?

Risk preference theory argues that the gender gap in religiosity is caused by greater female risk aversion. Although widely debated, risk preference theory has been inadequately tested. Our study tests the theory directly with phenotypic and genetic risk preferences in three dimensions—general, impulsive, and sensation-seeking risk. Moreover, we examine whether the effects of different dimensions of risk preferences on the gender gap vary across different dimensions of religiosity. We find that general and impulsive risk preferences do not explain gender differences in religiosity, whereas sensation-seeking risk preference makes the gender gap in self-assessed religiousness and church attendance insignificant, but not belief in God, prayer, or importance of religion. Genetic risk preferences do not remove any of the gender gaps in religiosity, suggesting that the causal order is not from risk preference to religiosity. Evidence suggests that risk preferences are not a strong predictor for gender differences in religiosity.     

Patriotism, Nationalism, and Internationalism Among Japanese Citizens: An Etic–Emic Approach

The present study examined national attitudes among Japanese citizens. A National Identity Scale was developed and administered to a non–student sample (n = 385) and an undergraduate sample (n = 586) in a metropolitan area of Japan. The results revealed aspects that are common (i.e., etic) to different nationalities and those that are indigenous (i.e., emic) to Japanese people. Factor analyses identified etic factors of patriotism (i.e., love of the homeland), nationalism (belief in superiority over other nations), and internationalism (preference for international cooperation and unity). Attachment to the ingroup and ethnocentrism were thus shown to be separate dimensions. Distinct from these factors, commitment to national heritage emerged as an emic component of Japanese national identity. The discriminant validity of these factors was demonstrated in differential relationships with other variables, such as ideological beliefs and amount of knowledge. Commitment to national heritage was associated with conservatism, whereas internationalism was related to liberal ideology, a high level of media exposure, and knowledge of international affairs. Implications for the study of intergroup and international relations are discussed.     

Where Men Appear More Religious Than Women: Turning a Gender Lens on Religion in Israel

Past research, typically focused on Christians in Christian nations, has found that women tend to be more religious than men. This study uses original nationally representative data (N = 5,601) with strategic oversamples of minority groups to examine variation in how religion and gender intersect across ethnoreligious identities in Israel. We demonstrate that Israel diverges from the typical pattern of women appearing more religious than men. In fact, Israeli men are consistently more religious than Israeli women on commonly used measures and frequently more religious on a broader set of questions specific to Judaism and Israel. Subgroup analyses highlight the intersectional nature of gender and religion, showing that men's greater religiosity in Israel is limited to Jews, and, more specifically, nonsecular Jews. We suggest that gender gaps arise, at least in part, because religions are gendered institutions with gendered norms, expectations, and incentives, and that these norms, expectations, and incentives vary from religion to religion.     

Gender Ideology and Motherhood: The Consequences of Race on Earnings

Using a nationally representative US sample, this study explores the relationship between gender ideology and the earnings of African American and white mothers over a 10-year period (1988–1998). We further investigate how factors related to fertility (i.e., age at first birth and the number of children) impact earnings for these mothers. Findings show, that regardless of race, a conservative gender ideology reduces women’s earnings but less so for African Americans compared to whites. With regard to fertility, the number of children is detrimental to the earnings of white mothers, but has no effect on the African American mothers in our sample. However, early childbearing does depress the earnings of African American women more so than for their white counterparts.     

Masculinity,Femininity, and Reported Paranormal Beliefs

Previous research has found that women are more likely than men to report belief in nonmaterial paranormal phenomena (e.g., psychics). There are inconsistent findings about whether men are more likely than women to report belief in material paranormal phenomena (e.g., bigfoot/sasquatch), and no prior survey research has examined gender expression (as masculine or feminine) as it relates to paranormal beliefs. This paper asks: How do gender identity and gender expression relate to reported paranormal beliefs? It answers this question using a large sample (n = 2504) of Canadians. Femininity helps explain differences between cisgender women and men on reported beliefs about foreseeing the future and telekinesis, but less so about reported belief in ghosts. Intriguingly, reported gender atypicality is associated with reported belief in all paranormal phenomena among cisgender women and among cisgender men. The results highlight the importance of measuring gender expression for beliefs that science cannot verify.     

Revealing Gender Double Standards in the Parenthood Norm Depends on Question Order

Becoming a parent has been described as a dominant social norm, especially for women. Though some research has indicated changes toward more flexible gendered parenthood norms, methodological issues may be masking the continued presence of a gender double standard. In line with the condition for activation of double standards, we postulated that endorsement of the parenthood norm would vary depending on the response context. Our aim was to analyze the parenthood norm for women and for men taking into account the response context in a quantitative survey. In a French nationally-representative sample, more than 4,000 female and male adults were asked whether a woman/man can have a fulfilled life without having children in two questions presented in a random order. Based on the literature on question-order effects, the answer to the first question should be influenced by the participant’s personal background (e.g., gender, parental status), i.e., the personal background context, whereas the question asked second should be influenced by the comparison with the first question, i.e. the social relational context. In the personal background context, the own-gender parenthood norm was endorsed more strongly than the other-gender parenthood norm by both female and male participants. In contrast, in the social relational context, the parenthood norm for women was endorsed more strongly than the parenthood norm for men by both female and male participants. Our results showed a strong gender double standard observed only in the comparative context and illustrates the need to use appropriate survey methodology to examine the presence of gendered social norms.

     

Endorsement of sexist ideology in Taiwan and the United States: Social dominance orientation,right‐wing authoritarianism,and deferential family norms

Despite close relationships between men and women in daily lives, gender inequality is ubiquitous and often supported by sexist ideology. The understanding of potential bases of sexist ideology is thus important. According to Duckitt's dual‐process model (2001), different worldviews may explain different types of sexist ideology. Individuals who hold a “competitive world” worldview tend to endorse group‐based dominance. This lends itself to the endorsement of hostile sexism, because hostile sexism is an obvious form of male dominance. Conversely, individuals who hold a “dangerous world” worldview tend to adhere to social cohesion, collective security, and social traditions. This lends itself to the endorsement of benevolent sexism, because benevolent sexism values women who conform to gender norms. As predicted by Duckitt's model, research has shown that social dominance orientation, a general orientation towards the endorsement of group‐based dominance, is closely associated with hostile sexism. Furthermore, right‐wing authoritarianism, which measures adherence to social traditions, is closely associated with benevolent sexism. Due to the interdependent nature of gender relationships, the current research proposed that a relationship‐based belief in hierarchy, deferential family norms, and norms depicting proper manners among family members should predict the endorsement of hostile and benevolent sexism, after controlling for social dominance orientation and right‐wing authoritarianism. As predicted, according to student samples collected in Taiwan and the US, the endorsement of deferential family norms predicted the endorsement of hostile sexism and of benevolent sexism, respectively. In addition, among men and women, social dominance orientation predicted hostile sexism more strongly (as opposed to benevolent sexism), whereas right‐wing authoritarianism predicted benevolent sexism more strongly (as opposed to hostile sexism). Implications regarding relationship norms, social dominance orientation, right‐wing authoritarianism, and sexist ideology are discussed.