Does Interacting with Women Encourage Civic and Prosocial Attitudes? Evidence from Simulated Contact Experiments in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Abstract

Research suggests that interacting with women may encourage civic and prosocial attitudes, yet findings to date have been limited to democracies notable for their egalitarian norms. Using simulated contact experiments under controlled conditions, this article tests hypotheses for the first time in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, arguably “hard cases” given persistent norms of patriarchy and gender segregation. Yet, despite stronger contexts for male dominance, results suggest that interacting with women may indeed steer Saudi and Kuwaiti men toward more civic and other-regarding orientations, including aspects of tolerance, egalitarianism, openness, and community rule-following. These findings add much-needed comparative perspective to experimental research on mixed-gender dynamics and align with broader work highlighting the benefits of diverse interactions for groups and nations.

Attitudes towards women in the military and their relation to both quantity and quality contact with female leaders

“…Research has demonstrated that board gender diversity is related to performance when there is contact between men and women ( Havrylyshyn et al, 2023 ). Increasing contact with women can increase openness and prosocial attitudes in patriarchal cultures with strong gender segregation ( Jones, 2023 ). Mazurana (2003) noted that, In all of these operations, “women police peacekeepers were seen by locals as less threatening, more willing to listen, and better able to diffuse potentially violent situations.” (p. 67) Furthermore, “compared to their male colleagues, women police officers have significantly lower rates of complaints of misconduct, improper use of force, or inappropriate use of weapons.” (p. 65) Having women in the military is crucial as having more women in male-dominated disciplines can help signal to other women that they are welcome ( Olsson and Martiny, 2018 ; Porter and Serra, 2020 ; Soules, 2020 ).…”