Gender Norms and Sexuality: Observing Social Reactions

Introduction: Gender Roles and Social Expectations

Though some people suggest that men and women have achieved de facto equality, most social science researchers continue to believe that one's behavior is heavily shaped by gender. Gender roles and norms exert a strong influence on how people behave. Men and women are expected to act in ways that reflect broad-based gender stereotyping. For example, men are expected to be direct and assertive, while women are expected to use indirect tactics to achieve their goals. "Thus, on the basis of culturally defined gender roles, men and women are expected to behave in certain ways; when they violate these expectations, others may evaluate them negatively" (Aguinis & Henle, 2001).

Although engaging in obviously gender-incongruent behavior may seem unusual, the fact is that women who wish to succeed in business are often called upon to behave in ways that defy gender stereotyping. Unfortunately, behaving in a successful and assertive way may actually make women appear less credible. In a study determining the effect of non-verbal cues on a woman's perceived authority, Aguinis and Henle discovered that:

The participants rated the female employee as having a negative source of power when she engaged in a nonverbal behavior incongruent with gender role expectations (i.e., direct eye contact). In addition, they evaluated her as having less power when she engaged in a nonverbal behavior congruent with her social role but incongruent with the managerial role (i.e., a relaxed facial expression). Alternatively, the results of the study involving a male employee (Aguinis et al., 1998) indicated that direct eye contact led to higher credibility ratings than did indirect eye contact. In addition, Aguinis et al. (1998) found that a relaxed facial expression, as compared with a nervous facial expression, enhanced perceptions of reward power, legitimate power, expert power, referent power, and credibility, but not of coercive power. Thus, in comparison, the present study found quite the opposite impact of nonverbal behavior on power perceptions — that is, the female employee's direct eye contact did not increase participants' perceptions of her credibility but, rather, led to perceptions of her coerciveness.

Also, the relaxed facial expression, as compared with the nervous facial expression, decreased, rather than increased, the participants' perceptions of the power of the female employee. (Aguinis & Henle, 2001).

Gender Norms in the Workplace and Sexual Behavior

The impact of gender norms and sex roles is not limited to employment; it also shapes social behavior, specifically risk-taking behavior. Studying risk-taking behavior in a sexual context, O'Sullivan et al. (2006) discovered that men were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior than women. They believed this behavior was the result of sexual scripts, which incorporate gender role stereotypes:

The traditional sexual script designates men as initiators and aggressors in heterosexual relations with women, pressing for sexual access both within and beyond the relationship boundaries, even to the point of coercion. In line with this model and the behavioral findings, men were less likely than women to view sex as significant to establishing intimacy with a partner and were less invested romantically in their primary relationships. Further, men endorsed stronger traditional beliefs about gender roles in sexual relationships. Men also reported engaging more often in sex that they did not want than did women. Men may view refusing sexual opportunities with women as antithetical to scripts dictating appropriate "masculine" forms of sexual behavior. Other studies have found that men are reluctant to admit to engaging in unwanted sex with a woman for fear of appearing unmasculine, a situation that may lead them to pursue sexual opportunities they might otherwise judge as unsafe. (O'Sullivan et al., 2006).

It is clear that gender norms can have a significant impact on people. First, gender norms dictate how people perceive behavior. The exact same behavior can be construed in very different ways depending on the gender of the person engaging in it. This would seem obvious for overt behaviors, but even behaviors as subtle as body language can trigger gender stereotypes. Furthermore, gender norms help drive behavior. For example, because men are expected to engage in more sexual activity, they appear to engage in riskier sexual activity. More significant than the risky element of male sexuality, however, is the fact that men reported engaging in more unwanted sexual behavior than women, suggesting that men felt compelled to engage in sexual behavior in order to fulfill a gender norm (O'Sullivan et al., 2006).

Many behaviors that are considered masculine are also behaviors that society regards as risky. These include chewing tobacco in public, joining a group of males to play football, and working on an automobile while a male companion stands by and does nothing. All of these behaviors carry some type of risk. Therefore, in order to study how peers would react to gender-incongruent behavior, the author chose to engage in each of these behaviors and observe the reactions of bystanders.

Methods

The author, an adult female, chose to engage in a variety of traditionally masculine behaviors to determine how society reacted to her participation in those activities. In addition to selecting behaviors traditionally designated as masculine, the author chose behaviors generally considered somewhat risky, since men are broadly expected to engage in risky behavior while women are expected to be more cautious. The author selected a male companion as an observer, who accompanied her for each experiment, with the purpose of recording public reaction to her gender-incongruent behavior.

The first experiment was for the author to chew tobacco in public. The author went to an ice house where she had previously observed a substantial number of males chewing tobacco. To ensure that the behavior was noticed, the author put the tobacco in her mouth at the ice house and made sure to spit into a Styrofoam cup in front of others. To ensure that multiple people observed this behavior, she put new chewing tobacco in her mouth every fifteen minutes and spit every five minutes. This experiment lasted one hour.

The second experiment was for the author to join a male-only group for a pick-up football game. The author went to a nearby park where pick-up football games were regularly played. After observing the activity, the author left her male observer and approached groups to ask to join their games. The observer watched to see whether she would be accepted and, if so, whether the style of play changed once she began participating.

The third experiment was for the author to change the tire on her car while the male observer stood by and watched. This experiment was conducted on a well-traveled road with substantial shoulder room, outside of rush-hour traffic, though traffic remained constant. The observer watched the faces of people in passing cars and made notes about those who stopped to offer assistance.

Conclusion

Women may not be as openly discouraged from defying gender norms as men are, but that does not mean that gender roles for women are any less rigid and unforgiving than those for men. The absence of overt hostility should not be mistaken for acceptance. The subtle restructuring of behavior by others — changing the game, stopping to help, chastising the male bystander — reflects the quiet but persistent enforcement of gendered expectations in everyday social life.

References

Aguinis, H., & Henle, C. (2001). Effects of nonverbal behavior on perceptions of a female employee's power bases. The Journal of Social Psychology, 141(4), 537–539.

O'Sullivan, L. F., Hoffman, S., Harrison, A., & Dolezal, C. (2006). Men, multiple sexual partners, and young adults' sexual relationships: Understanding the role of gender in the study of risk. The Journal of Urban Health, 83(4), 695–708.