RACE, GENDER, AND ATTITUDES TOWARD GENDER STRATIFICATION

This paper addresses the intersection of race and gender in contemporary American society by exploring how one aspect of gender relations, the degree of agreement between men and women in their attitudes toward gender stratification, varies between blacks and whites. Both black men and black women tend to express more criticism in their gender-related attitudes than whites, and the level of agreement between the sexes is greater for blacks. I interpret this greater agreement in the context of the resistance to racial inequality, levels of exposure to gender inequality, and the degree of interdependence between the sexes among blacks. I consider the implications of my results for understanding how race and gender interact in shaping attitudes toward gender inequality and how men's social dominance and women's dependence influence the degree of agreement between men and women in their criticism of gender stratification.