The effect of perceived men's standards of injustice on women's responses to inequality

Abstract

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. Posthoc 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.