Income Inequality Impacts Discourse Related to Endorsement of, and Desire to Conform to, Traditional Gender Norms

ABSTRACT

Income inequality has been shown to increase social status seeking, while parallel research suggests that conforming to traditional gender norms confers status. Integrating these literatures, we examined whether inequality motivates greater endorsement of, and desired conformity to, gender norms. In Study 1, analyses of natural language on Twitter across 5378 cities, 1725 counties and 10 years showed that discourse relevant to gender norm endorsement was higher in areas with greater inequality, even after adjusting for covariates. In Study 2 ( N  = 919), participants were randomly assigned to versions of a fictional society varying in inequality. Under higher inequality, men reported greater desire to conform to masculine norms, whereas women reported lower desire to conform to feminine norms. These effects were mediated by greater desire for social status. Together, results implicate income inequality in shaping endorsement relevant discourse and conformity, highlighting the role of economic conditions in sustaining harmful gender norms.