Abstract
Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 231-258 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Journal | Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2021 |
Keywords
- ambivalence toward men
- ambivalent sexism
- precarious manhood beliefs
- psychometric isomorphism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Cultural Studies
- Anthropology