Sexist Men Earn More Money: Study

Everyone's heard about a gender wage gap, where men earn more than women. But what about a sexism wage gap? 

According to a new study, published by the Journal of Applied Psychology, men who hold traditional views of women earn more than men with more egalitarian views — a lot more.

Researchers from the University of Florida analyzed interviews conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1979 to 2005 of nearly 13,000 men and women.  The participants were interviewed four times over the course of 25 years about their views on gender roles in the workforce and at home.  Researchers looked at this data as a predictor of earnings and found that men who said they had more traditional gender role attitudes made on average $11,930 more annually than men in comparable jobs who had less traditional attitudes. 

"We weren't surprised there was a difference, we were surprised by the magnitude of the difference," said Timothy Judge, an organizational psychologist at the University of Florida and co-author of the study.

When it comes to women, the situation is reversed but the difference is much smaller.  The study found that women with less traditional views about gender roles made on average $1,052 more per year than women with more traditional views in similar jobs. 

"What really surprised us is when you start to control for input factors that you think might explain this, like does the woman work outside the home, how many hours does she work, what sort of occupation does she work in, how many children if any does she have, that had very little effect on the magnitude of the difference" says Judge. 

The greatest difference was found when comparing salaries of men and women with traditional gender role views in similar jobs: that gap is $14,404 on average.  When men and women with egalitarian views in similar jobs are compared, the average difference is just $1,422.

"Our results clearly show if everyone were egalitarian, the gender wage gap would be a lot smaller than it is," said Judge.

If the data controls for variables such as occupation, location, education, religion and hours worked, how can the gap be explained?  The study did not research this specifically, but Judge says one possible explanation is salary negotiation.

"Men who see themselves as the primary wage earner, who tend to identify themselves as the wage earner in the family, they may be particularly aggressive in how they negotiate," said Judge.  He added the reverse may be true for women with traditional views on gender.

The study also found over time both men and women become more egalitarian.  Men generally hold more traditional gender role attitudes than women, according to the study, but men's views change the most over time.

To view the complete study, click here.

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