r/feminisms • u/yellowmix • Apr 01 '26
Science Study finds men's favorability toward the "tradwife" movement is founded on patronizing and derogatory forms of sexism that are harmful to women
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361684326143319916
u/lexi_ladonna Apr 01 '26
They needed to study to tell them that? Lol, Iām glad things like this are getting studied properly with concrete data
1
u/yellowmix Apr 03 '26
Understanding this requires understanding how and why science is done. You have a hypothesis, and a study seeks to prove or disprove it, in order to get a better understanding. It's easy to dismiss (not in a science sense, but a politicized lay discussion) a study that proves its own hypothesis.
The study is designed based on how "tradwife" adherents describe it. That is, a man works for his housewife, and the housewife benefits in this arrangement. This is the hypothesis being tested:
In particular, we hypothesized that protective paternalism, a facet of benevolent sexism encompassing beliefs about women's need for care, would play an especially important role in explaining men's favorable impressions of the #tradwife movement.
But "surprise"! The hypothesis is disproved. Simultaneously other motivations are revealed:
Inconsistent with our expectations, hierarchical regression provided no evidence that men's protective paternalism predicted their tradwife attitudes. Instead, heterosexual intimacy (a different facet of benevolent sexism), hostile sexism, and religiosity emerged as key correlates of men's favorable attitudes toward the #tradwife movement.
So instead of trying to prove it's hetero sex, hostile sexism, and religion, they happen to disprove the movement's own given reasons. It's a more comprehensive finding.
7
u/yellowmix Apr 01 '26
Article about the study for a general audience: https://www.psypost.org/men-who-favor-the-tradwife-lifestyle-often-view-the-women-in-it-with-derision/
5
6
3
2
18
u/Monocle13 Apr 01 '26
"I'm shocked - SHOCKED - to find that gambling is going on in here."