Ideological consensus in gender relations.

Abstract

In this study, I probe the nature and meaning of ideological consensus between American men and women in their attitudes toward gender stratification using public opinion data. The ideology, or system of attitudes and beliefs, which surrounds gender relations plays a critical part in shaping gender inequality. A thorough examination of that ideology offers insights into the relationship between men and women as two social groups and into the more general issue of the role of ideology in relationships of inequality. Previous studies of gender relations which rely on attitudinal data tend to focus on gender roles, and the findings of such studies have sometimes been accepted as evidence of a spontaneous consensus between the sexes. However, such conclusions fail to take into account that analysis of gender-role attitudes alone does not capture the full extent of attitudes toward gender inequality and that agreement between unequal parties must be interpreted cautiously (as it may reflect the ideological power of the dominant group rather than reflecting a spontaneous agreement between groups). I use data from four probability samples of the United States population to document levels of consensus between the sexes across seven attitudinal domains and to explore how consensus is conditioned by social and demographic factors (including race, class, education, employment status, marital status and the presence of children). These variations offer crucial information about the nature of gender ideology and about the dynamics of consensus between the sexes. As women's power, status, and independence from men increase, so does their tendency to differentiate themselves from men ideologically. But there are also clear limits to the development of ideological disagreement between the sexes. To a great extent, men and women share a similar gender ideology and women show a particularly strong aversion to any uniquely subordinate consciousness around issues of collective action and group-based interests. The high degree of agreement evident in gender ideology, along with the patterns of variation in that agreement which I document, indicate that ties of intimacy and dependence with dominants can discourage group consciousness among subordinates and thereby restrain challenges to inequality.