How Sexist Men Profit

Sept. 24, 2008— -- Sexism really does pay.

Researchers at the University of Florida have found that men who believe the place for women is in the home, make substantially more money than men who think women are as welcome in the workforce as they are at the hearth. And despite new laws against gender discrimination and various attempts to guarantee equal pay for equal work, the wage gap persists, partly because of what the researchers call "gender orientation."

In a detailed study published in the September issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, Timothy Judge and Beth Livingston contend that the wage gap is partly the result of self-fulfilling prophesies. If a man thinks his role is to bring home the bacon every night, and the woman's role is to cook it, he is more likely to be committed to his job, and place more emphasis on his work than if he thinks men and women should be equal, both on the job and in the home. So, he works harder, and makes more money than his egalitarian co-workers.

Debatable, to be sure, but statistics compiled by Judge and Livingston suggest that, in some cases, it pays to be an alpha male. But it doesn't work the other way around. Women who hold more "traditional" views (the woman's place is in the home) earn a little less than women who believe the genders should share equally in work and family.

The researchers studied records compiled since 1979 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, called the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Interviews were conducted four times, most recently in 2004-2005. In 1979, 12,686 individuals were in the survey, ranging in age from 14 to 22. About 60 percent are still in the study, and they are now 40 to 50 years old.

Differences in income are much more than chump change. Men with "traditional gender role attitudes" averaged $8,500 more annually than those with less traditional, or more egalitarian, attitudes, according to the study.

Although the researchers believe attitudes change over time, and more men would probably be classified as egalitarian today than in decades past, the attitudes that mark a person as "traditional" still cut a wide swath through American society.