Benevolence toward Men and Political Conservatism among Married and Never-Married Women

Research indicates that sexism allows women to justify men’s privileged status; indeed, sexism has predicted women’s conservative vote choice (Cassese & Barnes, 2018). Less is known about how women’s attitudes towards men affect political preferences. Benevolent attitudes toward men (BM) are based in beliefs about women and men’s interdependence (Glick & Fiske, 1999). Married women may experience greater interdependence and may desire to preserve beneficial structural power systems and their benefits. The present research examined the relationship of BM to political conservatism among married and never-married women. We expected that married (vs. never-married) women would more strongly endorse BM and be more politically conservative. We also expected that the relationship between BM and conservatism would be more positive among married than never-married women. Married and never-married women were recruited from Prolific Academic for an online study about perceptions of social issues. Participants completed a measure of political conservatism and the 10-item BM scale (Glick & Fiske, 1999). Consistent with previous research, the results indicated that married women were more conservative than were never-married women and expressed stronger BM. Further, married (vs. never-married) women and women who had more (vs. less) BM exhibited greater conservativism. However, as expected, the association between BM and greater conservatism was stronger for married than for never-married women. These conclusions remained when age and race were controlled. The political role of gendered attitudes typically focuses on attitudes toward women, but women’s attitudes toward others appear to separately influence political views