It Takes Two to Tango: Links Between Traditional Beliefs About both Men's and Women's Gender Roles and Comfort Initiating Sex and Comfort Refusing Sex

Abstract

Traditional gender roles dictate rigid rules and standards prescribing which behaviors, thoughts, and feelings are considered masculine and feminine within sexual contexts, and thus internalizing these beliefs (higher traditional gender ideology) may influence sexual attitudes. Prior theorizing has primarily focused on how women's traditional beliefs about women's gender roles (traditional femininity ideology) and men's traditional beliefs about men's gender roles (traditional masculinity ideology) influence their sexual assertiveness. Yet, men can hold traditional beliefs about women, and women can hold traditional beliefs about men, and these beliefs should have important implications for sexual assertiveness. We addressed this gap by testing how both heterosexual women's (n = 389) and men's (n = 393) traditional masculinity and femininity ideologies associate with their reported comfort initiating sex and comfort refusing sex in their relationships. When accounting for both sets of beliefs, women's traditional beliefs about men's and women's roles interacted to predict comfort initiating sex, but not comfort refusing sex. Men's traditional beliefs about men's roles predicted less comfort refusing sex, and their traditional beliefs about women's roles predicted less comfort initiating sex. This novel research underscores the importance of considering beliefs about both sets of traditional gender roles for understanding people's sexual attitudes.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11199-023-01366-w.

Keywords: Gender ideology; Gender roles; Sexual assertiveness; Sexual initiation; Sexual refusal.

Fig. 1

Women’s Comfort Initiating Sex as a Function of their Endorsement of Traditional Femininity Ideology (TFI) and Traditional Masculinity Ideology (TMI) Note. High and low values represent 1 SD above and below the mean. ***p < .001. All measures used scales ranging from 1 to 7.

Fig. 2

Indirect Effect of Men’s Greater TFI on Lower Comfort Initiating Sex Through Lower Sexual Knowledge and Skills Indirect effect: -0.23, SE = 0.07, 95% CI [-0.37, -0.09] Note. Estimates on the bottom path represent (1) the direct effect when accounting for the mediator and (2) the total effect (in parentheses). All measures used scales ranging from 1 to 7 and estimates are unstandardized. ***p < .001. **p < .01. *p < .05. All other values are not significant (p > .05).