Research has found that men who believe women should not work earn significantly more than those with more modern views.
As a society we’re gradually moving towards a time where men and women are treated as equals. However, new research has revealed that men who still believe that a women’s place is in the kitchen earn significantly more than their modern-minded counterparts.
The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Florida, discovered that men who hold these traditionally chauvinistic views earn an average £4722 more each year than those who believe women should work outside the home.
What’s more, the enhanced earning power of ‘sexist’ men was found to apply irrespective of education, the number of hours worked and the complexity of the job they held, adding considerable kudos to the results.
The findings culminate almost 3 decades of research by Dr Timothy Judge and his team, during which the beliefs held by 12,686 individuals were recorded and analysed.
Interviewees between the ages of 14 and 22 were initially approached in 1979 and asked to reveal their thoughts on whether a women’s place was in the home and whether it was a women’s responsibility to take care of her family. Their opinion as to whether the employment of women was likely to lead to higher rates of juvenile delinquency was also recorded.
The beliefs of this same group were documented a further 3 times over the successive decades, with the final interview held in 2005. It was during this last consultation that participants were asked to reveal their current salaries.
While the researchers found that views tended to become a lot more liberal over the years, men who consistently answered yes to these questions were, on the whole, found to be the higher earners.
The research also found, rather unsurprisingly, that women who held more feminist views took home an average £833 ($1,500) more in their pay packets than those with more traditional beliefs.
Commenting on his findings Dr Judge said: "These results cannot be explained by the fact that, in traditional couples, women are less likely to work outside the home. Though this plays some role in our findings, our results suggest that even if you control for time worked and labour force participation, traditional women are paid less than traditional men for comparable work.
"More traditional people may be seeking to preserve the historical separation of work and domestic roles. Our results prove that is, in fact, the case. This is happening in today's workforce where men and women are supposedly equal as far as participation."
The study found that upbringing had a significant effect on the beliefs held and consequently the earning power of the participants. Those brought up in homes where both parents worked seemed to hold more modern views, while individuals brought up in traditional homes held more chauvinist views themselves.
While the exact reason of this significant difference in earning potential is not know, one psychologist has speculated that "It could be that more traditionally-minded men are interested in power, both in terms of access to resources - money in this case - and also in terms of a woman who is submissive."
Dr Magdalena Zawisza also suggested that "employers are more likely to promote men who are the sole earner in preference to those who do not - they recognise that they need more support for their families, because they are the breadwinner."
The authors of the study on the other hand attributed the findings more to tradition, speculating that as chauvinist men have traditionally earned more, individuals who hold similar views have more incentive to live up to their expected role in society.
