Abstract
In Framed by Gender, Cecilia Ridgeway provides a pathbreaking account for what is perhaps the most fundamental question for gender scholars today: how is it that gender inequality manages to persist in the modern world? She begins by setting up the puzzle–ordinal hierarchies, such as gender inequality, are generally maintained by tying membership in a particular category to the control of resources and power. Theoretically, then, when that system of resource control is upset, the inequality on which it is based should collapse. Yet this has not happened with gender inequality. Several major forces in the United States regularly disrupt systems that give men a resource or power advantage: The pursuit of economic efficiency and political power pushes economic and political organizations to treat individuals in gender-neutral ways, and laws prohibit gender discrimination in many contexts. Despite these countervailing forces, however, gender inequity persists. How does this happen?
The answer, Ridgeway argues, is rooted in the way that gender frames social relations. Drawing on countless studies, Ridgeway provides a clear and compelling argument that individuals’ continual use of gender as a primary frame for organizing social interaction activates gender status beliefs in most work and domestic settings. Gender status beliefs, which depict men as higher status and more competent, implicitly shape perceptions and behavior in ways that produce gender inequality even in settings where the systems do not—at least initially—advantage men. Citing dozens of tests of expectation states theory, she shows that when individuals work together in a mixed-sex group or on a task culturally linked to gender, gender beliefs affect performance expectations. These expectations disadvantage women when the task is considered masculine or when the task is considered gender-neutral and the group is mixed-sex. These biased expectations produce gender inequality in rates of participation, assertive speech and gestures, influence, performance evaluations, and acceptance as leaders.
Ridgeway’s framing perspective also helps account for the emergence of gender status beliefs—the focal variable underlying the maintenance of gender inequality. Here she draws on studies that test the theory she developed, status construction theory. This research shows that shared beliefs about a presumed categorical difference can set the stage for the development of hierarchical beliefs if one category receives some initial resource or power advantage. Thus, if historical circumstance gives men a resource or power advantage, social processes of task group encounters are likely to transform this advantage into gender status beliefs.
Ridgeway shows how these processes play out in paid work and the home. She ties these theoretical propositions to the literatures on sex segregation in paid work, the wage gap, the glass ceiling, the maternal wall, and housework. She shows, for example, how gender status beliefs implicitly shape employers’ decision making during hiring and promotion processes, how the everyday use of the gender frame embeds beliefs about gender into workplace practices and policies, how gender status beliefs affect individuals’ feelings about their own suitability for gender-typed jobs, and how these beliefs can compel heterosexual couples to divide domestic work in economically inefficient ways.
Ridgeway also uses her framing account to show how gender inequality emerges in sites of innovation—that is, settings outside established social institutions. Citing numerous studies, she observes that changes in gender beliefs are likely to lag behind changes in the distribution of resources and power. Consequently, even when resource distribution systems do not advantage men, individuals still tend to use gender status beliefs to coordinate behavior, particularly if their tasks are culturally linked to masculinity. This tendency then reintroduces gender inequality into practices and policies. She illustrates these ideas, in part, by contrasting two sites of innovation: a biotechnology start-up firm and an information technology start-up firm.
Ridgeway closes by outlining the implications of her account for achieving gender equality. Drawing on her framing perspective, she sees hope for change through two interrelated processes: reducing gender status beliefs and reducing the range of contexts culturally tied to gender. Progress on both processes has begun. For example, women’s workforce activities have become increasingly similar to men’s, helping to reduce beliefs about men’s superior intellect while also increasing the range of tasks considered gender-neutral. Nonetheless, considerable progress is still needed, particularly in the division of domestic work.
Framed by Gender is extraordinary in several ways. Its theoretical perspective offers a compelling and groundbreaking account rooted in sociological and psychological research. It also provides an illuminating integration of findings from dozens of subfields within gender studies (e.g., studies of gender stereotypes, hegemonic and nonhegemonic gender beliefs, the wage gap, housework divisions, social networks, the “doing gender” perspective). In this way, the book provides an overall theoretical explanation for the persistence of gender inequality while also presenting a comprehensive, accessible, and integrated review of diverse gender literatures. I expect the book will quickly become required reading for all gender scholars and for all social psychologists.