The politics of men’s and women’s traditional masculinity ideology in the United States.

Abstract

Little is known about how men's and women's traditional masculinity ideology (TMI; patriarchal beliefs about the norms for men's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) relates to political ideology in the United States. The present study used bifactor modeling to examine the relative contributions of seven norms of TMI, as measured by the Male Role Norms Inventory-Short Form (MRNI-SF), as predictors of conservative political ideology (CPI). Structural equation modeling in a sample of 1,136 U.S. participants (78% women) revealed that a general factor representing the shared variance among avoidance of femininity, toughness, restrictive emotionality, and importance of sex norms of TMI was positively associated with CPI. Of the two TMI norms that were relatively independent of the TMI general factor (i.e., self-reliance through mechanical skills and negativity toward sexual minorities), only the negativity toward sexual minorities norm predicted variation in CPI above and beyond the TMI general factor. The model explained 51% of the variation in CPI for men and 33% for women. Measurement and structural invariance analyses revealed that there were no significant differences between men and women in the meaning of TMI or CPI or the strength of the relationships between these variables. Consistent with prior research, men scored significantly higher than women on TMI items. Men and women reported an equal level of CPI. These results suggest that men's and women's CPI may share common variance with two core aspects of TMI: antifemininity and negative attitudes toward sexual minorities. Public Significance StatementPolitical ideology is an important aspect of American life. Several scholars have speculated that conservative political ideology (CPI) may be aligned with traditional masculinity ideology (TMI), but few researchers have tested this assertion. Our results suggest that some men's and women's TMI and CPI may be explained via a confluence of antifemininity and antisexual minority beliefs. Additionally, men and women appear to be more similar than different with respect to the links between TMI and CPI.

Men’s and women’s endorsement of hegemonic masculinity and responses to COVID-19

“…Unexpectedly, when we included political ideology (rather than party), the effects of HM on evaluations of political leaders’ responses to COVID-19 were minimized (see Supplemental materials). In addition, recent research has shown a strong association between traditional masculinity and conservativism (McDermott et al, 2021). Although beyond the scope of the present data and analyses, it is possible that evaluations of political leaders’ responses to COVID-19 were confounded with participants’ general political beliefs.…”

Extending the gender role strain paradigm to account for U.S. males’ gun violence.

“…Various categories of adherence to gender norms (e.g., belief endorsement, behavioral conformity) are individual difference variables that are also linked with many other demographic variables and aspects of identity. For example, the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology is inversely related to socio-economic status (SES; Wimer & Levant, 2013) and positively correlated with political ideology (McDermott et al, 2021), among other correlates with other demographic variables (see Levant & Richmond, 2016, for a review). Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that boys from more politically conservative homes and those lower in SES would be more strongly socialized to conform to masculine norms.…”

Hegemonic Masculinity Predicts Support for U.S. Political Figures Accused of Sexual Assault

“…Republicans (vs. Democrats) and men (vs. women) were also more likely to believe that America is growing ''soft and feminine'' (i.e., gendered nationalism), and this belief led to a greater likelihood of voting for Trump in 2016 (Deckman & Cassese, 2019). In addition, and consistent with the notion that masculinity functions as a cultural ideology, men and women who define themselves using more masculine (vs. feminine) personality traits more strongly identify with the Republican party (McDermott, 2016) and endorsement of masculine ideology is associated with conservatism for both men and women (McDermott et al, 2021).…”