All is nice and well unless she outshines him: Higher social status benefits women's well‐being and relationship quality but not if they surpass their male partner

Abstract

In two studies, we find that climbing the societal ladder has positive associations with women's well-being and relationship outcomes but can also have negative consequences when women surpass their male partners in status. In Study 1 (N = 314), we found that women who reported having higher personal status also reported several positive relationship outcomes (e.g., higher relationship quality than women with lower personal status).However, these associations reversed for women who surpassed their partners in social status. In Study 2, a diary study (N = 112), we show how women's implicit endorsement of gender stereotypes qualifies the negative associations of surpassing one's partner in status. Among women with higher status than their partner, traditional women intend to adjust their behavior to fit the gender norm (e.g., thinking about reducing work hours in favor of their time at home), whereas egalitarian women did not, but felt guilty toward their partner. We show how the relationship dynamics of women who have surpassedThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Relational consequences of stigma: Bridging research on social stigma with relationship science

“…Throughout the research in this special issue, the role of policy in shaping relational outcomes for members of stigmatized groups has been highlighted. Eliminating discriminatory policy, such as marriage bans (Frost & LeBlanc, 2023), prohibitions on gender‐affirming care (Lewis et al., 2023), and forced relocation of people experiencing homelessness (Rea, 2023), as well as introducing policy aimed at remediating social inequalities, such as universal basic income (Petsnik & Vorauer, 2023), multicultural immigration policy (Froehlich et al, 2023), and adequate parental leave (Vink et al., 2023), will be vital to ensuring not only physical and mental health equity, but also equity in social health between members of stigmatized and dominant groups (Doyle & Link, 2022). It is our aim that this special issue points toward a framework for scholars to further push the boundaries in understanding the social consequences of stigma.…”

“…Finally, because the context in which close relationships, particularly with family members, are lived and experienced tends to be quotidian in nature, relationship science researchers have been integral to the development of daily diary methods (Bolger et al., 2003; Laurenceau & Bolger, 2005). In this special issue, daily diary methods were used to further elucidate the daily influence of stigma on social relationships (Debrosse et al., 2023; Vink et al., 2023). Beyond this special issue, we recommend that investigators interested in the social sequelae of stigma continue to employ dyadic and social network analysis techniques as well as daily diary methods, in addition to other cutting‐edge methods being used in relationship science (e.g., machine learning; Joel et al., 2020).…”

“…Finally, Vink et al. (2023) introduced the idea that although increased personal status—for example, through prestigious job roles or a high salary—generally benefits women, when it comes to how this affects heterosexual relationships this depends on whether women's status is higher than that of their male partner. The authors introduced the idea that women who earn more than their male partners are stigmatized and found that although women's personal status was associated with positive relational outcomes, this reversed when women's personal status was higher than that of their male partner.…”

Penalized for Challenging Traditional Gender Roles: Why Heterosexual Relationships in Which Women Wear the Pants May Be More Precarious

“…Despite changing gender dynamics in Western countries, gender stereotypes prescribing men to prioritize breadwinning and women to prioritize caregiving persist and are quite resistant to change (Haines et al, 2016;Morgenroth & Heilman, 2017;Park et al, 2010). Some studies show that couples in relationships with these traditional gender roles reversed (e.g., couples in which women are the main provider or in which men are the main caretaker) experience negative relationship outcomes (e.g., decreased marital satisfaction, increased chance of divorce, lower relationship quality; Bertrand et al, 2015;Vink et al 2022a;Wilcox & Nock, 2006;Zhang, 2015). Furthermore, role-reversed couples are more likely to experience negative relationship outcomes (e.g., lower relationship satisfaction) in countries that strongly endorse traditional gender role expectations (Vink et al, 2022b).…”

“…Focusing on relationships in which the woman has surpassed her male partner in social status, we draw on the status incongruity hypothesis (Rudman et al, 2012) to argue that these relationships may be more precarious because of the negative perceptions and expectations that people have about the status divisions that run counter to traditional gender norms in role-reversed relationships. The extent to which women and men are penalized for status violations in role-reversed relationships may explain why role-reversed relationships are less socially accepted (Hettinger et al, 2014;MacInnis & Buliga, 2020) and experience more difficulties than traditional role relationships (Bertrand et al, 2015;Vink et al, 2022a;Wilcox & Nock, 2006;Zhang, 2015), and thus may operate to preserve the gender hierarchy.…”