The term misogyny comes from the Greek word μισογυνισμός that translates as hatred of women. Very few would deny that gendered stereotypes and prejudices exist in the western world, but are our societies characterized by hatred of women? Is misogyny the main thing holding women back? A closer look at the data paints a more complicated picture.
Even though western societies are male dominated, in the sense that most of those in positions of power are male, people are more likely to have a positive view of women than of men. According to Alice Eagly and Antonio Mladinic, both men and women are more likely to assign positive characteristics to women (although women have a stronger in-group bias). Other studies have found that people automatically prefer their mothers to their fathers and that they tend to associate the male sex with violence. This phenomenon is often called the women are wonderful effect. How is it possible for a misogynist society, a society that hates women, to have more positive stereotypes about women?
Recently, a British judge garnered media attention when she said that serial drunk-driver Victoria Parry would have ended up in jail if she were a man. A lot of people don’t know that this kind of paternalistic leniency is quite common in the justice system. Multiple studies of both the UK and the US have found that women are more likely to receive lenient sentences, even when previous convictions are taken into account. These disparities often exist because women are more likely to have to take care of kids and the elderly, so the justice system treats them more leniently to allow them to fulfill their role as caretakers. However, gender stereotypes may also play a role. People are more likely to see men as violent. Women are often viewed as peaceful, nurturing creatures, who can’t do any real harm, therefore they receive lighter sentences even when they do commit crimes.
These attitudes are also often reflected in how we treat domestic violence. Even though the rates of domestic violence against men are high, there have been very few attempts to raise awareness about the phenomenon and many find it hard to believe that a woman would be able to cause serious emotional and physical damage to a man. According to Denise Hines, men who call domestic violence hotlines and shelters often receive little to no help. One abused man said “They laughed at me and told me I must have done something to deserve it if it happened at all.”
In a misogynistic society, the lives of women would be valued less than those of men. However, a recent study suggests the opposite. People are actually more willing to sacrifice men than women. The media also tends to focus disproportionately on white female victims, rather than male or non-white victims, a phenomenon that social scientists have named the missing white woman syndrome. According to a meta-analytic review of social psychological literature on helping behavior, women help strangers less often than men, but receive help more often than them. Finally, a few studies indicate that people who victimize women tend to receive harsher sentences than those who victimize men.
Why would a woman-hating culture care more about the safety and protection of women, treat female offenders more leniently and associate more positive stereotypes with women? While misogyny exists, western culture is not defined by it. Instead the western world appears to be more benevolently sexist than genuinely misogynist.
Benevolent sexism or attitudes that favor women over men are much more socially accepted than hostile sexism or misogyny. For example, according to a recent study, women, including feminists, prefer men who believe that women should be put on a pedestal. However, benevolent sexism is harmful to the goal of gender equality and the paternalism it often promotes is arguably holding women back. Women are less likely to choose independence and self-reliance if they feel that it would be easier to count on male protection.
Much of the public discourse around the gender pay gap is centered on the implication that women get paid less than men for exactly the same work because of discrimination. However, a closer look at the data paints a more complicated picture. If you compare people working in the same profession and for the same number of hours, the gender pay gap drops significantly. The research on discrimination against women in science also provides complex results: some studies agree that women are discriminated against in hiring, while others show the opposite.
Discrimination against women does exist, but the main reason for the gender pay gap seems to be that women tend to choose different jobs from men and also often work fewer hours. Why do women make different choices from men? One potential explanation is that women prefer working with people, while men prefer working with things. This could explain why there are fewer women in STEM, especially in more gender egalitarian countries where women have greater freedom to choose. Another explanation is that women don’t enter high-paying fields because they feel that they don’t need to. Men are more likely to provide for their female partners than the other way around. Men make more money than women, yet around 80% of purchases are made by women. Having a partner with a steady job is also more important to women than it is to men. As long as many men are willing to pay for women and adopt the provider role, women will be less motivated to choose a high-paying job.
Some evolutionary psychologists believe that women evolved to seek partners with provider potential. However, even if such a predisposition exists, it doesn’t mean that it cannot be minimized. Many women have shown willingness to become the breadwinners themselves when the right motivations exist.
Western society does not appear to be primarily defined by misogynistic attitudes towards women, but by benevolent sexist ones. People who are committed to gender equality ought to consider how the benevolent paternalistic norms of male protection and provision might be leading to an infantilization that is holding women back.
26 comments
The opinion piece lacks any statistical research on for instance the number of women who commit crimes compared to men. It would help if the author used Pew Research Center statistics to back up, give a more clear reality.
From what is personally observed in commentary sections of Areo is the many down votes a woman author or a female name commentary receives.
It’s ironic and also appears many who read Areo articles and might post negative, angry comments or take advantage of selecting the thumbs down numerous times are men harboring a misogynist attitude.
Despite all our faults, women love and give back in such a way that statistics will show they much more than men are the main caregivers in society. Women are the ones there for you much more than men wiping tears and bums from birth until death and saving the economy billions of dollars.
“Is Misogyny Holding Western Women Back?”
Protip:
No, what is holding women back is their inability to accept responsibility for their own faults, failings, and poor decisions in favor of using accusations of misogyny to blame shift the consequences onto men.
Here in India, we have 85% representation of women in the Human Resources function, the DIE( diversity, Inclusion , Equality) departments in MNCs & Indian Corporates are up to 90% women staffed( these data points are easily available, but taboo to talk about on Linkedin).
And these are the very departments that vociferously peddle the line; that misogyny is holding Indian women back. I’ve asked them to provide any evidence – and it’s always feelings based and anecdotal. An overwhelming number of Indian women graduate from Engineering colleges, but after a few years of work experience – put in a application for a transfer to Human Resources department.
Even if I do not judge by western yardsticks , something does’t seem right. Whether it’s a developed economy , a middling one, or a developing one- the gripe is excruciatingly similar.
The left suffers from a supply and demand problem. There is a huge demand for racist and sexist behavior but simply not enough supply. In order to fill that supply they have gone and created out of whole cloth new grievances to be offended by such as implicit biases, microaggressions, subtle sexism, and of course benevolent sexism. The better question is why they feel the need to continue to perpetuate these false grievances. What is causing so many on the left to embrace this victim hood culture at a time when all available data shows there has been tremendous positive changes in attitudes in the country around race, gender, and sexual orientation. I would love to see the author delve into this topic and really examine the causes and possible remedies to breaking this obviously counter-productive movement that is sweeping through the left and poses a real danger or undoing the progress that we have made as a society.
‘Western society appears to be primarily defined by benevolent attitudes towards women.’
There, fixed that first sentence in the last paragraph. 😉
“Benevolent Sexism.”
A term created by feminists in order to make anti-male discrimination all about women. “Why are men treated worse than women in Family Courts? Well, it can’t be that men are seen as less competent, less reliable, and less worthy as parents. Must be that *women* are seen as better, and that’s discrimination against women!”
How dare anyone actually suggest that men are being discriminated against.
Anyone else smell the irony?
I’d like to introduce the author to the concept of ‘gynocentrism’. Been there, done that. This was all figured out long ago.
You make the comment “Even though western societies are male dominated,…” I think a case can be made that every “society” in history, east and west, could have been described as “male-dominated.” But this is not as ominous as it sounds. Human societies come in two forms, and each of us interacts with both: OUR SOCIETY and OUR FAMILY.
Historically, social life (life outside the home) was dominated by males and “family life: (like inside the home) was dominated by females. This is still largely the case. And since we spend much more of our time involved with “family” than “society” being lorded over by women is a common experience for all of us.
Wives and mothers tell us where we sleep what we will eat, where to put our shoes, and how to act around others.
The preoccupation with political equality makes it appear that females are somehow at a disadvantage in the world, while common experience often shows how this is not the case.
The female IMPACT in society cannot be over-stated as she shapes and molds each of us … is is SHE who teaches us our language, how we dress in our culture, who we worship, what foods to eat, and common manners.
The mythology of the oppressed woman is not going away any time soon, but even a cursory look into how real lives are really lived negates this.
Ask any woman: “If, after you die, you were reborn again as a human being, would you want to come back as a MAN or as a WOMAN?”
And see how they answer.
The author does not mention some of teh other obvious areas where women are treated prefferentially in society.
Girls generally do better at school than boys yet there are a huge number of initiatives to help girls educationally especially in STEM and essentially none for boys.
Women have a longer live expectancy then men yet even excluding pregancy related expenditure spening and research on women specific condition s is massively greater than that on male specific conditions.
Men and boys are far more likely to suffer from violence than women and girsl yet there is a VAWG policy/campaign and nothing for men and boys.
Society is massively gynocentric the idea that it is misogynistic is completely against the evidence. There is however a lot of misandry.
Isn’t the real issue behind misogyny the value placed on what women bring to the table and not whether women get help changing a flat tire? Women are not men, and despite decades of trying to mold ourselves into the perfect clone, we are still not equal because men don’t value what women have to offer. That’s what’s holding women back. Men hold the decision making power, the resources, and the ability to put in place arbitrary barriers based on false narratives. It’s insidious and not unlike racism. The key is for men to morph and evolve and see the potential in a future designed by both men and women. Why won’t they do that?
Assuming you live in a democratic-based western society, women are free to vote, run for office, and pursue any careers they want. What arbitrary barriers and false narratives are you referring to? What exactly do men need to morph into?
Is that really the standard by which people want to judge equality? That we have it better than non-Western societies? There are actually many ways the US lags behind other countries on women’s rights; like political representation, corporate power, and parental leave. These issues have been deemed unimportant by men. And we are still discriminated against politically and culturally. We do not get the benefit of the doubt or credit. We are an after thought. Women are still attacked, raped, trafficked (sexually and otherwise), paid less than men, objectified, and denied our legal (as in CONSTITUTIONAL) rights to abortion. I mean, we’re still debating access to birth control in the US. Why aren’t men fighting for these things with us? Why is gender still used as an excuse to deny equal?
What I’m saying is that in western societies women are free to obtain decision-making power (in the form of political office) and resources (via high-paying professions) if they wish to pursue these things. As the article notes, women are already responsible for 80% of purchasing decisions. What evidence do you have that women are discriminated against politically and culturally? Actually, men are more frequently the victims of violent crime than women (as well as rape, if you count prisoners, which you should unless you consider them to be sub-human). And women are not paid less than men when the data are adjusted for job type and number of hours worked. Women are more likely than men to become parents. Men also die younger on average and have four times the suicide rate of women. I don’t blame these things on misandry, however. They are the consequences of different choices made by men and women, in general.
Most of these differences are biologically determined. Males are cheaper.
I calmly accept the fact that my life is less valuable than the life of my wife, and I do not suffer from it. Honestly, in the bowels of the soul, my wife also understands this and does not suffer from it.
Biologically determined in the sense that male psychology differs on average from female psychology due to different evolutionary pressures placed on the two sexes, leading men and women to make different life choices in general. The different evolutionary pressures ultimately being a consequence of human reproductive strategy.
And this is a norm, not a deviation. I’m from Hy-Tech, and I always say that we, men, are only beta versions and the task of women is to decide who deserves release 🙂
I don’t know about men in general being beta (versions), but you certainly are.
I hope one day that you realise the value men bring to the world.
As Camile Paglia put it “If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.” p38. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990).
“I calmly accept the fact that my life is less valuable than the life of my wife, and I do not suffer from it.”
You shouldn’t. Not anymore. There was a time when there was reciprocity in this arrangement but it’s gone now.
At the very heart of the men’s rights movement is the notion that a man’s life should be worth as much as a woman’s life.
“Why is gender still used as an excuse to deny equal?” – Because we are not “equal”!
We are different. We are not the same and never will be. Feel the difference.
“Is that really the standard by which people want to judge equality? That we have it better than non-Western societies?”
I hear this argument all the time and it is complete BS. We are comparing America to actually existing countries. YOU are comparing America to an imaginary Utopia that exists only in your head and will never exist in reality.
“And we are still discriminated against politically and culturally.”
Things have never been better for women than in any time in American history, and yet still all we hear from feminists is a constant stream of complaints about how we haven’t gotten to Utopia yet. Gosh, it’s grating to never have your titanic accomplishments acknowledged. Except, of course, in a sentence that ends with “and yet we are so deficient there is so much more to do.”
I was raised in a very liberal area, and my experience was that most people who identify as feminists are quite capable of articulating a variety of problems they’re having and proposing solutions to them that chiefly involve men changing their behavior.
“However, benevolent sexism is harmful to the goal of gender equality and the paternalism it often promotes is arguably holding women back. Women are less likely to choose independence and self-reliance if they feel that it would be easier to count on male protection.”
Why is this considered to be holding women back if they are making choices that they are happier with?
Because it harms the cause of feminism if women are allowed to choose their own path in life.
“No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children…because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.”
— French feminist Simone de Beauvoir
That’s what I’m always talking about – modern feminism is a pure misogyny
Do you get a lot of flak for such opinions in your sociology classes? Genuinely curious.
I personally haven’t encountered such problems and I hope that things will remain that way. 🙂