Following Peers or School Rules: The Effect of Social Norms on the Behavior toward Gender Inequality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31619/caledu.n57.1223Keywords:
social norms, hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, gender violenceAbstract
Social norms impact on people's beliefs and behaviors. Thus, social norms that set up and validate equality between men and women could foster egalitarian attitudes. Given the importance of norms within social interactions, the aim of this study was to analyze the effect of school and peers' egalitarian norms on attitudes towards gender inequality among adolescents. Specifically, we studied whether norms affect the scales of hostile and benevolent sexism, and the justification of gender-based violence. In a correlational study with a sample of school students (N=547), we found that when the peer norm does not support gender stereotypes -that is, it is an egalitarian norm- it predicts lower levels of sexism and justification of gender violence. The school norm turned out to be not decisive. These results show that peers" social norms can be used as a vehicle for social changes to generate equality between men and women in the school context.
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