Loosening the GRIP (Gender Roles Inhibiting Prosociality) to Promote Gender Equality

Abstract

Prosociality is an ideal context to begin shifting traditional gender role stereotypes and promoting equality. Men and women both help others frequently, but assistance often follows traditional gender role expectations, which further reinforces restrictive gender stereotypes in other domains. We propose an integrative process model of gender roles inhibiting prosociality (GRIP) to explain why and how this occurs. We argue that prosociality provides a unique entry point for change because it is (a) immediately rewarding (which cultivates positive attitude formation), (b) less likely to threaten the gender status hierarchy, and therefore less susceptible to social backlash (which translates into less restrictive social norms), and (c) a skill that can be learned (which leads to stronger beliefs in one’s own ability to help). Using the GRIP model, we derive a series of hypothesized interventions to interrupt the self-reinforcing cycle of gender role stereotyping and facilitate progress toward broader gender equality.

University Students' Attitudes Towards Gender Roles Predicting Their Value Orientation

“…The assumption that women act in accordance with the values associated with traditional concepts of femininity and men with traditional masculine concepts may clarify the distinction of women and men in these value orientations, taking into account the positions assigned to men and women by society (Vogel, Wester, Heesacker, & Madon, 2003). In stud conducted with university students addressing traditional gender roles tendencies according to gender the results show that female students perceive gender roles in an egalitarian structure and that male students perceive gender roles more traditionally support the findings of the present study (Croft et al, 2020;Daşlı, 2019;Geçici et al, 2017;Kaplan, 2016;Öngen & Aytaç 2013;Trommsdorff & VeIwawaki, 1989;Vega, Rico, & Fernández, 2017). In their study Kimberly and Mahaffy (2002), to assess the traditional and non-traditional views of university students about gender roles, they determined that traditional gender roles were accepted by students.…”

“…In view of the research, gender attitudes vary greatly according to gender; it was observed that the degree of egalitarianism of female students is far higher than male students. We may assume that the outcomes of the current research are in line with the findings from the literature and their inclusive attitudes towards gender are strong because of the high level of education of university students (asa is the case in the studies of Alptekin, 2019;Aşılı, 2001;Aydın, Özen, Yılmaz, & Sungur, 2016;Croft, Atkinson, Sandstrom, Aknin, & Orbell, 2020;Daşlı, 2019;Geçici et al, 2017;Gui, 2019;Güzel, 2016;Hunter, Guernsey de Zapien, Papenfuss, Fernandez, Meister, & Giuliano, 2004;Kantoğlu, 2017;Kaplan, 2016;Kimberly & Mahaffy, 2002;Öngen & Aytaç 2013;Özden & Gölbaşı, 2018;Özpulat & Özvarış, 2019;Seçgin & Tural 2011;Seven, 2019;Takkin, 2020;Vega, Rico, & Fernández, 2017;Zuo, Lou, Gao, Lian, & Shah, 2018). It is understandable that the feminist mindset of women is stronger than that of men in a society where women's effectiveness in social life has increased in recent years.…”

Promoting Gender Equality by Supporting Men’s Emotional Flexibility

“…Men’s restricted access to emotional flexibility has life-threatening consequences for their own physical health and well-being, while simultaneously impeding gender equality efforts by reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes. Enabling more men to perform nontraditional roles would concurrently create space for more women to perform nontraditional roles (e.g., Croft et al, 2015, 2019, Croft, Atkinson, et al, 2020)…”

“…While previous work recommends increasing men’s engagement with specific roles and behaviors (see Croft et al, 2015, Croft, Atkinson, et al, 2020; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al, 2016; Meeussen et al, 2020), this article focuses on a broader psychological construct ( emotional flexibility ), which represents a “way of being” that transcends specific roles, behaviors, and experiences. We begin by presenting our rationale for increasing men’s emotional flexibility, then summarize cultural and psychological barriers to the development of emotional flexibility in men.…”

El impacto de los roles de género en las actitudes sexistas de los adolescentes, en el ámbito escolar

“…Los roles de género son construcciones sociales que expresan los valores, conductas y actividades que asigna una sociedad a las personas en función de si es hombre o mujer y que varían teniendo en cuenta el tiempo y las culturas (Croft et al, 2020;Eagly y Wood, 2016;Eisend, 2019). Dicho concepto no solo designa las funciones, sino también dicta las pautas sobre cómo deben ser, sentir y actuar unos y otros dependiendo del sexo al que pertenecen (Houston y Thomae, 2016) e incluye dos tipos de expectativas consensuadas: por una parte, un conjunto de experiencias descriptivas acerca de lo que los hombres y mujeres, como miembros de un grupo, hacen (Wood y Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017); y, por otra, las expectativas prescriptivas sobre lo que las mujeres y hombres, como miembros de una sociedad, deberían hacer o idealmente harían.…”