El papel de los hombres como aliados contra el sexismo

Resumen

Gender inequality is still a pervasive problem in our societies; even though evident progress has been achieved, there is still a long way to go (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018). The fight against this and other inequalities has been traditionally focused on the targets of discrimination, because they are the ones concerned with improving their positions in society (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Wright et al., 1990). However, during the last decades the relevance of advantaged group members who fight against inequality is gaining attention in our field. In the context of gender inequality, more and more voices encourage men to become women’s allies against sexism. But there are also voices that oppose it or express reluctance. Although confronting sexism offer men a good opportunity to become allies (Drury & Kaiser, 2014), the intergroup relations literature confirms the need to be cautious when incorporating them in the fight against gender inequality. Although members of dominant groups can act on behalf of disadvantaged people, it does not guarantee to achieve social change. On the contrary, they may even reinforce inequality and undermine disadvantaged group members resistance, especially when they ignore power asymmetries that define intergroup relations (Nadler, 2002; Saguy, Tausch, Dovidio, & Pratto 2009; Wright & Lubensky, 2008). Nevertheless, if advantaged groups members are aware of power relations and clearly oppose to them, they can be supportive for disadvantaged groups and become really helpful to promote social change (Droogendyck, Louis, & Wright, 2016). In this doctoral dissertation, we study which conditions must be fulfilled for men to become women’s allies against sexism and promote real social change. To answer this question, we have set three specific objectives: (1) To understand why men get involved in confronting sexism; to this aim, we analyze different motivational processes that lead men to confront a sexist situation. (2) To study the consequences of different types of male sexism confrontation for women’s well-being and empowerment. (3) To analyze when women perceive men as allies, the implications of such perceptions in interpersonal and intergroup terms and their underlying mechanisms. This thesis is structured in six chapters. The first chapter provides a review of the most relevant theoretical concepts to contextualize the empirical work that we will develop later. Specifically, we contextualize gender inequality and analyze the most common forms of resistance against it. First of all, we review the role of sexism as an ideology that legitimizes inequality and the potential of feminism as a delegitimizing ideology to challenge it. Then we address the concept of social change by extending its limits beyond collective action and highlighting the importance of confronting sexism as a form of resistance. We also address the literature most directly relevant for the main aim of this thesis: the role of men as women’s allies against sexism. First, we analyze how social psychology explains the involvement of members of privileged groups in the fight against inequality. Next, we review some of the risks of incorporating members of advantageous groups in this endeavour from the disadvantaged groups perspective. Then, we discuss the concept of "ally", highlighting the importance of uncovering the underlying motivations in order to distinguish allies that promote social change from those that perpetuate the status quo. Next, we review the role that ideologies can play in driving men to confront sexism (feminism and benevolent sexism) and we argue about the egalitarian and paternalistic motives that are triggered by such ideologies and mobilize specific reactions to sexism. Then, we highlight the importance of knowing the consequences of different types of male sexism confrontation (feminist vs. non-feminist) on women, at the individual (empowerment and well-being) and interpersonal level (future intentions to confront sexism). Finally, we point out the need to consider to what extent women perceive men as allies, what are the mechanisms underlying that explain it (highlighting the role of motivations attributed to the confronters and the perceived power difference between target and confronter) and its implications on interpersonal and intergroup gender relations. Chapter 2 summarizes the main goals of this thesis above mentioned: why men confront sexism; what are the consequences of such male confrontation on women; and when do women perceive men as allies. The empirical part of this thesis consists of seven studies organized in three papers. They conform Chapters 3-5. Chapter 3 includes three studies conducted with men, that confirm the existence of two different paths that can lead them to be involved in sexism confrontation: a feminist and a paternalistic one. Men high in benevolent sexism are more willing to confront sexism for paternalistic reasons, whereas men high in feminist identification are more likely to confront sexism for egalitarian reasons. Further, in this paper we show the potential of the feminist path beyond the paternalistic one in predicting men’s initiatives for social change such as collective actions and interest and involvement in Men for Equity movement. These findings, therefore, show the importance of considering the underlying motivations of men to confront sexism in order to identify the true allies. In Chapter 4, we report three empirical studies conducted in Spain, Germany and Mexico in order to know the consequences for women of men confronting sexism in a feminist vs nonfeminist style. In these three different cultural contexts, female participants experienced more empowerment and well-being (more happiness and less anger) after being exposed to men’s feminist versus nonfeminist sexism confrontation. At the intergroup level, the more empowerment that women experienced after male feminist confrontation the more they express future intentions to confront sexism. Surprisingly, we also found that women’s anger after men nonfeminist confrontation also lead them to express greater intentions to confront in the future, what might be interpreted as resistance toward paternalistic allies. So, after these three studies, we suggest that male feminist confronters are good allies for women, because they not only empower women but also motivate them to keep fighting. Chapter 5 includes two empirical studies conducted with female participants to analyze when they perceive men as allies, depending on their type of confrontation. The results of both studies showed that women perceived feminist (vs nonfeminist) men confronters as better allies. They also expressed more desire to be socially close to them and expect from them more collective action intentions against sexism. Besides, we showed that the perception of confronters as allies was one of the causal links that explains why women express more social closeness to and anticipated more collective action intentions from feminist than non-feminist confronters. Further, this work revealed the prominent role of attributed egalitarian motivations and reduced power difference in the perception of feminist confronters as allies. Thus, we conclude that ally perception has important implications for gender relations not only at an interpersonal but also at an intergroup level. These findings also offer a new perspective from which intergroup allyship must be approached: the target’s perspective. Finally, in Chapter 6 we summarize the main findings of this thesis, we discuss them in the context of previous literature; we also make some reflections about the implications of our findings and the limitations of our work, and propose some ideas for future research.