Perpetuating Difference: How Relationship Inequality Trumps Egalitarian Goals

• In Event: 2351 - Section on the Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 6. Gendered Romantic and Sexual Relationships.

Abstract

Current research shows that young adults express support for gender equality. Yet we also know that the gender revolution remains "stalled and incomplete" as people are more likely challenge gender inequalities in the workplace than in heterosexual romantic relationships. One explanation for this is structural - workplaces refuse to enact family friendly policies thus preventing people from enacting their egalitarian relationship desires. On the other hand, there is evidence that people are more committed to challenging gender inequalities at work because those connect to access to status and upward mobility, but are less committed to contesting gender inequality for its own sake. At the same time, in spite of expressed support for gender egalitarianism, other research demonstrates that people continue to hold gender essentialist beliefs about the roles of men and women in the home.
This research looks at how heterosexual men and women build gender inequality into their romantic relationships in spite of an expressed commitment to gender egalitarianism. Drawing on interviews with 65 self-declared egalitarian heterosexual young adults, I show that the majority continue to engage in relationship practices that reflect perceived gender differences, indicating that there is still strong support for essentialist beliefs about gender. Heterosexual men and women believe that they have different interests, different skills, and different availability for their personal lives. These assumptions of "difference" limit their ability to question and challenge these preferences and arrangements and they perpetuate gender inequality in their relationships in the process.

Author

• Ellen Lamont, Appalachian State University