A Large-Scale Test of the Reality Constraint and Ingroup Bias Accounts of Women's Support for Male Privilege

Abstract

Why do women sometimes support systems of male privilege that clearly undercut the interests of their gender group? According to some explanations from the social identity model of system attitudes, they do so: (a) due to a preference for their country's ways of doing things (i.e., a bias in favor of their superordinate ingroup) and (b) because the incontrovertible reality of gender inequality in their society makes it difficult to challenge it (i.e., social reality constraint). Using a nationally representative dataset of 157,019 women from 91 nations that spanned close to four decades, we found supportive evidence for these two propositions. Moreover, both explanations interact, in that the superordinate ingroup bias explanation was visible only when social reality constraints were weak. Additionally, even women with nontraditional worldviews increased their support for male privilege when the constraint imposed by the gender reality in their society was high. In short, women support male privilege to the extent that (a) they feel proud of their society's traditions, and (b) it is the reality in their country. These findings are useful for activists because they shed important light on the psychological and systemic barriers to overcome when seeking women's participation in rallies against gender inequality. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843231176222 .