Inverse gender gap in Germany: Social dominance orientation among men and women.

Autor/inn/en	Küpper, Beate; Zick, Andreas
Titel	Inverse gender gap in Germany: Social dominance orientation among men and women.
Quelle	In: International journal of psychology, 46 (2011) 1, S. 33-45Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-7594; 1464-066X
DOI	10.1080/00207594.2010.491121
Schlagwörter	Sozialer Wert; Altersunterschied; Geschlechtsspezifischer Unterschied; Interkulturelle Differenz; Soziales Verhalten; Dominanz; Präferenz; Status
Abstract	Across cultures, studies show that men score higher on social dominance orientation than women. This gender gap is considered invariant, but conflicting explanations are discussed: Some authors refer to evolutionary psychology and perceive the gender gap to be driven by sociobiological factors. Other authors argue that social roles or gender-stereotypical self-construals encouraged by intergroup comparisons are responsible for attitudinal gender difference. In Study 1 the authors analyzed sex differences in social dominance orientation in 3 German probability surveys (each n ) 2,300). Unexpectedly, the analyses yielded an inverse gender gap with higher values for social dominance orientation in women than in men. Interactions with age, education, political conservatism, and perceived inequity indicated that the inverse gender gap can be mainly attributed to older, conservative, (and less educated) respondents, and those who feel they get their deserved share. In Study 2, the well-known gender gap was replicated with men scoring higher than women in social dominance orientation among German students. Results are interpreted on the basis of biocultural interaction, which integrates the sociobiological, social role, and self-construal perspectives. These unusual findings seem to reflect a struggle for status by members of low status groups who consider group-based hierarchy the most promising option to improve their status. While younger women take advantage of a relational, feminine self-construal that leads to lower social dominance orientation in young women than in young men, older women are supposed to profit from an agentic self-construal that results in stronger social dominance orientation values. Specific characteristics of the culture in Germany seem to promote this strategy. Here, the authors discuss the female ideal of the national socialist period and the agentic female social role in the post-war era necessitated by the absence of men. (ZPID).
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie, Trier
Update	2012/2