How do social interactions between genders impact progress towards gender equality?

Overview

Despite considerable advances in the rights of women and gender-minoritised individuals, progress toward gender equality has stalled or reversed in key areas such as economic and political empowerment, domestic violence, and the division of care. Meanwhile, public support for gender equality has been faltering, with more people, including some women, believing it has gone too far and is discriminating against men.

To explain the persistence of gender inequalities and opposition to gender equality initiatives, past research has focused on factors such as the endorsement of traditional gender roles, underlying ideologies, perceived threat to men’s status and the broader social context. 

In this review, we argue that an important factor that could explain the stagnation of progress toward gender equality but has not yet, to our knowledge, received sufficient attention in the literature are the social interactions and relationships between different genders, that is, intergroup contact.

Individuals of different genders, particularly women and men, have numerous opportunities for contact and interaction—in their everyday lives and across their lifespans. So why don’t these close ties lead to support for gender equality? 

In this paper, we seek to answer this question by summarising insights from, and key omissions in, the current cross-gender contact research and the broader contact literature, which we consider particularly pertinent to understanding gender attitudes and support for gender equality. Next, we outline three key directions for future gendered contact research. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical importance of cross-gender contact research for advancing (a) intergroup contact theory and (b) gender equality.