Women evaluate ally men less positively and are less willing to work with them for gender equality when men deny their male privilege

Abstract

Members of advantaged groups can play a role in addressing discrimination and inequality. Sometimes, members of advantaged groups are motivated to deny their group-based privilege, however. In two studies (Ns = 196, 600), we examined how privilege denial affects disadvantaged group members’ (i.e., women’s) evaluations of advantaged group members (i.e., men) who engage in collective action to support equality. We sampled women attending colleges or universities in the United States and randomly assigned them to read about a man who attended a rally to support gender equality and either denied his male privilege, acknowledged it, or said nothing about his privilege at all. We found that women evaluated a man who attended a rally to support gender equality less positively and were less willing to work with him for gender equality if he denied his male privilege. This pattern was either fully (Study 1) or partly (Study 2) statistically mediated by women rating a man who denied his male privilege as less moral, an effect that was stronger among women who identified more highly as feminists. Our findings indicate that advantaged group allies who deny their group-based privilege diminish their potential contributions to movements for equality.