Chivalry and Gender Stereotypes

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Chivalry and Gender Stereotypes

• T. William Altermatt, Ph.D.
• Hanover College

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• Last wireless message transmitted by the Titanic
  Have cleared boats and filled them with women
  and children
• Reactions in the newspapers mixed
• Praising the heroism of the men

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and criticizing feminism

• Quote fromeditorialIt was not a question of
  Votersfirst, but the cry allover the ship was
  Women first! In acquiescing to that cry the
  women admitted that they were not fitted for
  mens tasks
• Reactions reflect opposing beliefs about chivalry

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Chivalry

• A norm advocating that men protect and provide
  for women.
• Debate over chivalry
• Those in favor...
• Gesture of respect
• Acknowledgement of feminine virtue
• Those opposed...
• Womans role in chivalry passive recipient
• Undermines womens independence

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Or maybe theyre both right
Chivalry
Stereotypes about Women
Positive Women are superior to men in VIRTUE
Negative Women are inferior to men in AGENCY
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Hypothesis 1

• Individuals who endorse chivalry also believe
  that women are more virtuous and less agentic
  than men are.
• Co-occurrence of belief
• Direction of causality unknown
• Chivalry is not only consistent with belief in
  womens relative virtue and lack of agency, but
  the three beliefs tend to be found together.

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Study 1 Questionnaire

• 410 Participants
• Questionnaire assessed two issues
• Chivalry
• Sex stereotypes
• Virtue
• Agency

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Chivalry Scale

• 10 items, ? .87 (N 571)
• Sample items
• A man has an obligation to protect a woman who
  is in danger.
• A man should give up his seat to a woman if the
  bus is crowded.
• When a man and a woman are together, the man
  should always offer to pay the check.

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Sex Differences in Virtue

• 11 items, ? .78 (N 407)
• Subscales
• Moral Virtue (5 items, ? .64)
• Women have a finer moral sense than men do.
• Sexual Virtue (6 items, ? .67)
• Women arent as interested in sex as men are.

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Sex Differences in Agency

• 12 items, ? .90 (N 410)
• Women should be more submissive than men.
• Men understand the complexities of the political
  world better than women.

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Chivalry and sex stereotypes
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Hypothesis 2

• If you think that women are more virtuous than
  men, what happens when you encounter a woman that
  you do not consider virtuous?
• Pope Urban II women of noble birth should enjoy
  his special care (11th century)
• Hypothesis Chivalry is not for all women but
  only women who appear high in virtue and low in
  agency.
• Must women act a certain way in order to receive
  chivalrous treatment?
• Challenges the view of chivalry as
  indiscriminately altruistic toward women

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Study 2 Laboratory Experiment

• Every hour 3 participants, 3 confederates
• Stage 1 impression formation
• Virtue clothing, memorable event from last
  summer, most embarrassing photograph
• Agency eye contact, initiative, posture, year,
  major, plans for future, trivia game

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Stage 2 courteous / helpful behaviors (DV)

• holding door
• retrieving dropped envelope
• donating to charity
• picking up pencils

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Results of Study 2
Helping behaviors averaged together and
standardized to form DV 0 is average helping.
High top-33Low bottom-33
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Hypothesis 3

• Receiving chivalrous treatment makes women appear
  less agentic.
• Chivalry manipulated rather than treated as an
  individual difference
• Most directly addresses the question Does
  chivalry undermine womens independence?
• Produced video of couple out to dinner
• Two versions, exactly the same except for 6
  points
• Six opportunities for chivalrous behavior
• All six High chivalry. None Low chivalry

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Sample behaviors for male actor
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Measures

• After watching video, participants rated each
  actor on 11 traits.
• Traits averaged to form scales
• Agentic Intelligent, Competent, Ambitious,
  Assertive (alpha.86)
• Warm Warm, Kind-hearted, Respectable (alpha
  .88)
• Independent (single item)

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Study 3 Female Character
p lt .05
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Study 3 Male Character
Each comparison p lt .01
May explain why chivalry is not dead It makes
men look better.
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Summary

• Chivalry is related to two stereotypes about
  women
• Women are more virtuous than men (explains why
  women are thought to deserve chivalry)
• Women are less agentic than men (explains why
  women are thought to require chivalry)
• Future directions
• Video Study 2 independently manipulating
  courtesy and payment (and adding a female
  chivalry level)
• Relation between chivalry and paternalism
  treating women as if they were children.

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Auxiliary Slides
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The link between Chivalry and sexist attitudes is
the Agency stereotype
.03
Moral Virtue
.76
TraditionalGenderRoles
.95
Chivalry
Agency
.57
.78
Distrust ofWomen
Sexual Virtue
.40
-.03