Sexist Men Earn More

by Jessica

That man who expects his wife to stay home tending to the pot roast and the toddlers? He’s raking in more dough than you.

In the most aggravating news of the week, the BBC reports men who believe a woman’s place is in the home, and that women who work cause higher rates of juvenile delinquency, earn an average of $8,500 a year more. (That’s, like, three cruises to the Bahamas.)

According to the Journal of Applied Psychology, in 1979 researchers at the University of Florida asked over 12,000 men and women between the ages of 14 and 22 about their opinions on “traditional” and “untraditional” roles for women. (Of course, middle- and lower-class women have always worked a job or two, in addition to raising kids, but still the idea that it is “tradition” for women to be stay-at-home moms persists.) Researchers checked in with their study subjects three times in the ensuing two decades and found that men, more often then women, held “traditional” ideas about women working outside the home but also that these men tended to earn more. The (slightly) good news? Women with “untraditional” views earn $1,500 more than women with “traditional” views, but that’s a small consolation. (That’s, like, one new MacBook laptop.)

It’s really difficult to parse apart why some people earn more than others, but here are some theories: Maybe these men seek out “traditional” relationships and therefore have a wife who handles the lioness’ share of the chores, freeing the man up to work longer hours. Or maybe men with more “traditional” views also possess more traditional notions of masculinity, such as being assertive and competitive, which serve well in high-paying business fields. Or maybe these guys believe they are better than women, perhaps even better than all people in general who they work alongside, and they fight harder in the workplace for promotions and bonuses. Of course, institutional sexism in the workplace and the sad statistic that women earn 77 cents to a man’s dollar is at play here, too.

The upshot? If you are a stay-at-home mom married to one of these fellows, I guess this study is good news for your bank balance. But to everyone else, it sucks to be us.