Gender Equality and Women’s Absolute Status

Abstract

Feminist theory predicts both a positive and negative relationship between gender equality and rape rates. Although liberal and radical feminist theory predicts that gender equality should ameliorate rape victimization, radical feminist theorists have argued that gender equality may increase rape in the form of male backlash. Alternatively, Marxist criminologists focus on women's absolute socioeconomic status rather than gender equality as a predictor of rape rates, whereas socialist feminists combine both radical and Marxist perspectives. This study uses factor analysis to overcome multicollinearity limitations of past studies while exploring the relationship between women's absolute and relative socioeconomic status on rape rates in major U.S. cities using 2000 census data. The findings indicate support for both the Marxist and radical feminist explanations of rape but no support for the ameliorative hypothesis. These findings support a more inclusive socialist feminist theory that takes both Marxist and radical feminist hypotheses into account.

Gender Equality and Violent Behavior: How Neighborhood Gender Equality Influences the Gender Gap in Violence

“…Consistent with prior studies (Martin et al, 2006), gender equality is measured using three socioeconomic items from the 2000 census STF3A: (a) the female-to-male ratio of those 25 years and older with 4 or more years of college education; (b) the female-to-male ratio of those 16 years and older employed in management, professional, and related occupations; and (c) the female-to-male ratio of income levels. We standardized and then summed these items to form an index of neighborhood gender equality.…”

“…Moreover, several empirical studies have provided evidence that societal gender equality is linked to gender variations in violence, sexual violence, gendered homicide, and domestic violence (Martin et al, 2006; Straus, 1994; Whaley & Messer, 2002). Thus, there is growing evidence that gender equality at the neighborhood level could play a central role in understanding gender differences in violent behavior.…”

“…For instance, although gender inequality may alter expressions of masculinity, some studies indicate that men maintain hegemonic masculinity and power through violence even when residing in gender egalitarian societies (DeWees & Parker, 2003; Martin et al, 2006; Whaley & Messner, 2002). However, it is unclear how these processes may operate at more localized levels because no study has been conducted testing the ameliorative perspective using neighborhood level measurements.…”

“…Although researchers have provided evidence that men are more likely than women to report violence, this difference is less pronounced in gender-egalitarian societies (Goodkind, Wallace, Shook, Bachman, & O'Malley, 2009; Lauritsen & Heimer, 2008; Lauritsen, Heimer, & Lynch, 2009; Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2006; Steffensmeier, Schwartz, Zhong, & Ackerman, 2005). For example, cross-national studies have demonstrated that variations in gender equality across countries are associated with gender differences in rates of physical assault, sexual violence, and/or domestic violence (Martin, Vieraitis, & Britto, 2006; Straus, 1994; Whaley & Messner, 2002). Although such studies suggest that the geographic gender equality can help explain the gender gap in violent behavior, researchers have largely ignored neighborhood contexts as an important source of variation between women and men and their violent behavior (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Fagan & Wright, 2012; Zimmerman & Messner, 2010), and no studies to date have investigated the association between gender equality in residential neighborhoods and gender differences in violence.…”

What Accounts for Men’s Hostile Attitudes Toward Women? The Influence of Hegemonic Male Role Norms and Masculine Gender Role Stress

“…Feminist sociocultural models posit a socially constructed path to men's aggression toward women (Baron & Straus, 1987; Brownmiller, 1975; Martin, Vieraitis, & Britto, 2006; Russell, 1975; Whaley & Messner, 2002). Specifically, rape is a product of men's extreme adherence to a masculine gender role that encourages men to be dominant and “manly” and women to be passive and “feminine” (for a review, see Murnen, Wright, & Kaluzny, 2002).…”