Chivalrous sexism is a thing
Men will help women in need, but only as long as it doesn't challenge their hegemony.
Psychologists have coined a new term - ‘chivalrous sexism’ - to describe the behaviour of men happy to help women in need, but only so far. According to researchers at Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion universities, two out of three men (62%) will readily come to the aid of a woman whose house has burned down, but fewer (45%) would donate money to a female-run business that was torched.
The chivalry referred to is a manifestation of the archetypal male role of helping a damsel in distress, say the psychologists, while the sexism reflects an unwillingness to allow women to challenge male dominance in society. In short, if help will empower women, men will be less willing to give it.
The study1 of 566 men and women from the US involved giving token cash prizes, and asking the participants whether they would donate a sum to a man whose house burned down, to a woman whose house burned down, to a man whose business burned down, or to a woman whose business was razed.
In addition to the core male-female disparity, the researchers found that men donated an average amount of $4 (less than half of the $10 prize) to a woman whose house burned down, compared with only $2.48 to a woman whose business premises were torched. The findings were replicated in a separate experiment conducted among management students in Tel Aviv.
According to study leader Danit Ein-Gar, “It should be noted that we did not present the funding request as a financial investment but rather as a donation… When men were asked to donate, some of them found it easier to donate to a woman in her domestic, needy, and weak place, than to a woman raising funds to rebuild her business.".
Ein-Gar adds that the research reveals the boundaries of male chivalry, which in this case are set by male hegemony in the business world. “Gentlemanliness reaches up to the point where it does not threaten their dominant status,” he says.
Bareket et al., "I will help you survive but not thrive: Helping decisions in situations that empower women", Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (2022); doi:10.1177/13684302221108437