Promoting Gender Equality by Supporting Men’s Emotional Flexibility

Abstract

Progress toward gender equality has slowed or stalled in recent years, primarily because gender stereotypes and roles are changing more quickly for women than men. Women are increasingly free to behave more like men, whereas a similar freedom for men (to behave more like women) has been slower to emerge. Expectations governing men remain rigid: They are discouraged from showing weakness/vulnerability and encouraged to assert masculinity by demonstrating strength/toughness. These expectations undermine men’s emotional flexibility, which not only harms their physical health and well-being but also systematically impedes gender equality efforts. We summarize both the direct and indirect consequences of men’s relative emotional inflexibility, as well as cultural and psychological barriers to men’s emotional flexibility development. We then provide empirically based policy recommendations for cultivating emotional flexibility in men, which could in turn foster their physical and mental health, undermine traditional gender stereotypes, and promote broader gender equality in the United States.

Gender bias in academia: A lifetime problem that needs solutions

“…Notably, the concern and interest around the topic of women's underrepresentation in STEM has not been matched by a similar concern about men's underrepresentation in healthcare, early education, and domestic roles (Block et al, 2019;Croft et al, 2015;Meeussen et al, 2020). However, gender experts are now pointing at men and men's representation as a key component to advance women's place in society (Block et al, 2019;Croft et al, 2021). Gender equity will benefit men by freeing them from societal biases.…”

Perfectionistic Self‐Presentation and Psychopathology: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…2003) have shown that women scored lower than men on the Nondisclosure of Imperfection subscale, thus suggesting that women are more willing to verbally express concerns and admit mistakes to others, perhaps because of social rules and expectations. Indeed, it has recently been argued that expectations governing men remain rigid across time, in that men are discouraged from showing weakness/vulnerability and encouraged to demonstrate strength (Croft, Atkinson, and May 2021). This might explain why the link between the avoidance of imperfections and psychopathology is weaker in samples mainly composed by women and seem to support previous evidence suggesting how dominant norms of masculinity can result in harm.…”

Exhibiting emotional flexibility to alleviate employee hateful emotions and elevate their justice perceptions

“…Female supervisors might be considered more emotionally flexible than their male counterparts (Rogier et al , 2019). They would demonstrate more flexibility in performance review meetings for longer (Croft et al , 2021). Managers from Asian cultures might be more emotionally flexible than Western ones (Ford and Mauss, 2015), with unique emotional regulation models.…”

“…Power dynamics in a performance management situation are one-directional; the manager may hold all six power bases: expert, referent, legitimate, reward, informal and coercive. It might even get more complicated if there is a female supervisor (Croft et al , 2021) and a male employee in the performance review. Similarly, an employee belonging to individualistic culture might hate the Asian female supervisor when she provides negative feedback, considering it an offender’s hurt (Croft et al , 2021; Ford and Mauss, 2015).…”

“…It might even get more complicated if there is a female supervisor (Croft et al , 2021) and a male employee in the performance review. Similarly, an employee belonging to individualistic culture might hate the Asian female supervisor when she provides negative feedback, considering it an offender’s hurt (Croft et al , 2021; Ford and Mauss, 2015).…”