Evidence for an Association between Men’s Spontaneous Objectifying Gazing Behavior and their Endorsement of Objectifying Attitudes toward Women Abstract Despite growing scientific interest in the sexually objectifying male gaze, the relation between men’s gazing behavior and their sexually objectifying attitudes has not yet been examined. The present study addressed this gap in the literature. Sixty-one heterosexual Israeli men viewed photographs of female targets while their spontaneous eye movements were monitored to detect the amount of time they spent looking at the target’s sexual body parts versus face. They also completed a self-report measure of Men’s Objectification of Women. Consistent with feminist theorizing about the objectifying gaze, we found moderate associations between men’s gaze behavior and endorsement of sexually objectifying attitudes. These findings establish the construct validity of the measure of the objectifying gaze as the time spent staring at women’s bodies versus faces, which has been commonly used in previous research based on its face validity—yet without empirically testing whether it measures the theoretical construct of interest. Our findings contribute to the literature about the relations between attitudes and behaviors by shedding light on the association between explicit, self-reported versus more subtle, behavioral manifestations of men’s sexual objectification of women. Practically, they suggest that interventions to reduce sexual objectification should target both explicit attitudes and gaze behavior.

Feminism and Couple Finance: Power as a Mediator Between Financial Processes and Relationship Outcomes Abstract Feminism is rarely used as a theoretical framework for couple finance research. The purposes of the present paper are (a) to discuss couple finance research in the context of feminism to encourage more frequent and explicit use of feminism in couple finance research, (b) to present a gender and couple finances model, and (c) to test this model with longitudinal dyadic data. Using actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) and data from 327 U.S. mixed-gender couples, relational power was explored as a potential mediator between four couple financial processes (earners of money, access to money, management of money, and conflict about money) and two relationship outcomes (relationship quality and relationship stability). Results suggest that couple financial processes are associated with relationship outcomes and with joint management as well as low conflict being key longitudinally. Additionally, although power may not play a mediating role, it appears to be connected to couple financial processes and relationship outcomes concurrently. Gender differences as well as both actor and partner effects are explored. This research has implications for researchers, clinicians, and educators. For example, clinicians may want to encourage their clients to use joint bank accounts, manage their money jointly, and minimize financial conflict. Gender, and therefore power, are inseparably tied to couple finances. When both spouses are involved in financial processes, partners tend to be more empowered, and relationship quality and stability tend to be higher.

Homosexuality as Haram : Relations among Gender, Contact, Religiosity, and Sexual Prejudice in Muslim Individuals Abstract Most research on sexual prejudice has focused on Western and Christian samples. Using the framework of social identity theory, we investigated the relations among gender, contact, religiosity, and sexual prejudice in a sample of 166 heterosexual Muslim individuals (70.7% from Saudi Arabia) residing in the United States. Consistent with prior research, men reported higher levels of prejudice than women did, especially toward gay men. Higher levels of religiosity predicted higher levels of sexual prejudice for both men and women, but the association was stronger for women. Additionally, more frequent and positive contact with friends and/or family members who were lesbian or gay predicted less sexual prejudice. However, contact was more strongly associated with less sexual prejudice in women than in men. Exploratory analyses revealed that more time spent in the United Sates predicted lower levels of sexual prejudice, and participants from Saudi Arabia reported more sexual prejudice than Muslims from other countries. The current research contributes to the understanding of factors that influence sexual prejudice within Islam and sheds light on the heterogeneity of attitudes within this group of individuals. Furthermore, our findings may help inform efforts to decrease sexual prejudice and increase awareness, advocacy, and future research within Islamic cultures.

Are Women More Likely than Men Are to Care Excessively about Maintaining Positive Social Relationships? A Meta-Analytic Review of the Gender Difference in Sociotropy Abstract Sociotropy is defined as the tendency to overemphasize maintaining positive social relationships (Beck 1983). Although the stereotype that women care more about interpersonal relationships than men do is well-documented (Cross and Madson 1997), the literature provides mixed support as to whether women are more sociotropic than men are. This is important to establish because sociotropy consistently correlates positively with depression (Robins et al. 1994) and thus a gender difference in sociotropy could contribute to the well-documented gender difference in depression (Girgus and Nolen-Hoeksema 2006). The present meta-analysis asks whether the gender difference in sociotropy exists, and if so, at what magnitude, by aggregating 108 independent effect sizes from 90 papers (n = 30,372 participants). The average weighted effect size of the gender difference was d = .34, with women scoring higher than men on sociotropy. Culture was a significant moderator: The gender difference in sociotropy was significantly smaller in research from collectivist countries, where interpersonal harmony and cooperation are emphasized for both genders, than in research from individualistic countries, where men are supposed to be independent and agentic and women are supposed to be communal and concerned with relationships. Further research is needed to explore the development of this gender difference and its relationship to the gender difference in depression.

Chased by the Past: The Relation Between Childhood Maltreatment and Fear of Childbirth Abstract Although childbirth is a normative physiological experience, it may be challenging for some women and especially for those who were exposed to childhood maltreatment. The aim of the study was to examine a model underlying the development of fear of childbirth among pregnant women who were exposed to childhood maltreatment. Given that abusive acts are often directed at and experienced through the victim’s mind and body, we proposed a dual-path model, suggesting that these relations are mediated by both self-objectification and a serial mediation of disrupted body boundaries and body shame. A sample of 470 Israeli pregnant women filled out a battery of questionnaires assessing their history of childhood maltreatment, self-objectification, disrupted body boundaries, body shame, and fear of childbirth. Results from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that self-objectification and the combination of disruptions in body boundaries and body shame significantly mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and fear of childbirth. These findings stress the integrative experience and consequences of childhood maltreatment among pregnant women. The roles of the two paths in understanding the detrimental long-term effects of childhood maltreatment and in designing effective interventions are discussed.

Moving from Rural to Urban China: How Urbanization Affects Women’s Housework Abstract The present study explores within-gender differences in domestic labor by studying housework variations across five different groups of women in contemporary China. We defined five groups of women according to their urbanization status in general and hukou (i.e., household registration) in particular. (a) Rural natives are women with rural hukou who have stayed in rural areas, (b) rural migrants are women with rural hukou who have migrated to an urban area but have not obtained an urban hukou, (c) policy-based converters are women with rural origins who have converted to being urban residents due to policy privileges, (d) merit-based converters are women with rural origins who have converted to urban residents because of their merit (i.e., education), and (e) urban natives are those who are born urban hukou holders. Multivariate results on a national dataset with 2186 partnered women (aged 18–60) revealed that among women with rural origins, converters spent the least time on housework, rural natives the most, and rural migrants fell in between. Successful converters, particularly merit-based converters, expressed the strongest desire to pursue gender equality and deliberately devoted less time to domestic work. Additional Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis that compared women who have migrated to cities with women who have stayed in rural areas provides evidence that moving to urban areas has a negative association with women’s housework time, irrespective of their official household registration status, no matter whether they are migrant women who are not officially recognized or are successfully converted urban women.

Gender Difference of Chinese High School Students’ Math Anxiety: The Effects of Self-Esteem, Test Anxiety and General Anxiety Abstract The present study aimed to explore gender differences in, and the effects of, self-esteem on math anxiety. A total of 751 (450 young women) junior and senior high school students (12–18 years-old) from China were recruited and requested to report their math anxiety, self-esteem, control beliefs, test anxiety, and general anxiety. Results revealed that young women showed a higher level of math anxiety compared with young men; no gender difference was found in math performance. Further, the pathway from self-esteem to math anxiety was different for young men and young women. For young men, apart from a direct effect on math anxiety, self-esteem had an indirect effect on math anxiety as mediated by control beliefs, test anxiety, and general anxiety. For young women, self-esteem only had an indirect effect on math anxiety as mediated by test anxiety and general anxiety. Our results indicated that improving self-esteem, test anxiety and general anxiety would be helpful for students’ math anxiety.

Perceived Men’s Feminization and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality: Heterosexual Men’s Reactions to the Decline of the Anti-Femininity Norm of Masculinity Abstract One of the central dimensions of traditional masculinity is men’s renunciation of the feminine (i.e., the anti-femininity norm), and men’s endorsement of this norm constitutes one of the strongest predictors of negative attitudes toward homosexuality. However, egalitarian societies are undergoing a significant change: Gendered roles, stereotypes, and norms are evolving. Accordingly, many believe that men are becoming more feminine than before, and this change might have consequential effects. Across two studies conducted in Western countries, we investigated heterosexual men’s reaction to the perceived decline of the anti-femininity norm of masculinity on their attitudes toward homosexuality. The results consistently showed that perceived men’s feminization increased negative attitudes toward homosexuality (Study 1, n = 220), specifically among those participants who most strongly endorsed the anti-femininity norm (Study 2, n = 156). Furthermore, this pattern was driven by participants’ discomfort with homosexuality rather than by their motivation to reinstate the challenged gender dichotomy. We discuss the relevance of these findings for both the gender and sexual prejudice literatures.

Man Talk: Exploring Sexual Communication Between Fathers and Sons in a Minority South African Community Abstract Much of what is known about father-child sexual communication is based on studies conducted in North America and more research into under-represented groups is needed. Our exploratory study therefore investigated sexual communication within father-son dyads belonging to a minority group in South Africa. We used a qualitative research design, and a total of 30 in-depth individual interviews were conducted with the members of 15 father-young adult son dyads. Thematic analysis of the data indicated that although both fathers and sons believed that fathers have an important role to play in the sex education of sons, the sexual communication in these dyads were mostly indirect, singular, and father-centered warnings, jokes or speeches. The men in our study would therefore benefit from interventions that equip them with knowledge and skills to function as more effective sexual communicators and educators. Furthermore, we found that limiting hegemonic masculinity ideas underpinned father-son sexual communication, which implies that interventions to empower fathers as effective sex communicators should also challenge and expand ideas and practices involving masculinity and fatherhood. We also identified context-specific issues (e.g., being mindful of how the idea of explicit sexual communication fits with local constructions of respectful father-son relationships) that need to be attended to in such interventions.

Two Sexes, Two Genders Only: Measuring Attitudes toward Transgender Individuals in Poland Abstract Transphobia is an under-examined but important type of prejudice to study in Polish culture. Poland is a country where a majority of transgender people feel discriminated against. There is a need for a more evidence-based measures for researchers and practitioners to better understand transphobia. The main purpose of the present three studies (n = 300 participants for each study) was to validate the Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS; Hill and Willoughby 2005) and the Transphobia Scale (TS; Nagoshi et al. 2008) in Polish culture and to identify the possible psychological and demographic factors that matter in forming attitudes toward transgender individuals. The results confirm that Polish versions of both the GTS and the TS are reliable instruments to measure attitudes toward transgender individuals. Moreover, the studies revealed that both traditional and modern homonegativity, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, religious fundamentalism, attitudes toward gender roles, and biological and cultural beliefs about the origins of gender differences were significant predictors of transphobia. As in previous studies, men were more prejudiced toward gender nonconformists in comparison to women. These studies contribute well-adapted tools for measuring transphobia and data-driven collection of significant predictors of transphobia.