Collaborative Research in Decision, Risk, and Management Science: Understanding Gender Inequality: The Relative Influence of Institutional Power and Gender Consciousness

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Game theorists and some feminist scholars would predict that individuals with asymmetric access to institutional power (such as an exit opportunity) should claim more resources than those without such access--regardless of the sex of the individual. Other feminist scholars, in contrast, emphasize the ways in which socialization and other mechanisms can produce gender-role internalization such that men and women of equal power behave differently. Based on this latter research, we would predict interactions between sex and institutional power. To sort out these different arguments, this research pilot tests an experimental study of two-person prisoners' dilemma (PD) games in which an asymmetric exit opportunity is crossed with sex-of-subject. In some conditions, only men will have the exit opportunity while in others only women will have the exit opportunity. (Same-sex conditions are also explored.) The sex of an individual's body, however, does not necessarily match the "sex" of his or her psyche. Thus, in order to understand individual differences among women (and among men) the research explores correlation between behavior and measures of gender-role internalization (i.e., the "sex" of one's psyche) and "gender" consciousness," (i.e., beliefs about proper gender roles). The results of the longer term research program may have important implications for the broader policy question of how to lessen gender inequality. Can gender inequality be corrected by changing the balance of institutional power (in this case access to an exit option)? Or, are changes in the socialization process also necessary before equal outcomes can be expected?