Men, Women, and Economic Changes: Social Representations of the Economic Crisis / Hombres, mujeres y cambios económicos: representaciones sociales de la crisis económica

Resumen La crisis económica actual ha sido un fenómeno nuevo e inesperado; es parte del sistema capitalista, bancario y económico que ha sido conocido hasta el año 2008. La crisis ha llevado a los bancos, los Estados, las instituciones internacionales, así como a las personas del común, a ver profundos cambios en sus representaciones sobre la economía. En este escenario, se plantea la pregunta: ¿cómo los hombres y las mujeres de estratos sociales diferentes afrontan el fenómeno complejo y desconocido de la crisis económica? ¿El género y el estatus social justifican diferentes significados atribuidos a la crisis, sus causas y consecuencias? En el presente artículo se elige la teoría de las representaciones sociales para estudiar el papel del género y el nivel educativo en la producción de las representaciones de la crisis. Se presentan resultados de encuestas realizadas en el sur de Italia (N = 120), los cuales revelan que tanto el género como el nivel educativo de las personas marcan diferencias en la forma de definir y afrontar la crisis. Por un lado, los participantes de alto nivel definen la crisis en términos más abstractos que los participantes de bajo nivel. Por otra parte, los hombres de alto nivel mantienen un estado de coping más proactivo con la crisis que los otros participantes, especialmente mujeres. La discusión se enfoca en el papel de la teoría de la representación social entendiendo la relación entre género, estatus y comportamiento económico, aportando ideas sobre cómo la igualdad de género puede ser mejorada.

Abstract The current economic crisis has been a new and unexpected phenomenon; it is part of the capitalist banking and economic system that has been known until 2008. The crisis has led to banks, states, international institutions, as well as common people, changing profoundly their representations about the economy. In this scenario, some questions arise: how do men and women of different social status face the complex and unknown phenomenon of the economic crisis? Do gender and social status justify the different meanings attributed to the crisis, to its causes and its consequences? When confronted with an external threat like the economic crisis, people draw on social representations to provide meaning to that unfamiliar situation. Through media and interpersonal communication, social groups produce naive theories that improve familiarity with an unexpected and distressing phenomenon. In order to analyze these lay theories elaborated though daily economic thinking and acting, this research has been conducted using Social Representation Theory and its methodological approaches. This theory, in fact, contributes to our understanding of the societal process of sense making when an unexperienced external shock affects society. It offers a way to understand economic phenomena's impact on social groups. Social representations (SRs) serve the purpose of making the unfamiliar become familiar, and the unusual become usual, as well as to provide orientation in times of change. In this sense, in this article, social representations theory is used to examine the role of gender and educational status in the production of representations of the crisis. Presented findings came from a survey carried out in Southern Italy (N = 120) revealing status and gender differences in the ways people define the crisis and cope with it. Participants were asked to order the first most important five statements and the first least important statements, among a list of 15 (according to the rule of a multiple of 3) to code every item with a score of 1 (less characteristic), 3 (more characteristic), or 2 (not chosen). Every Questionnaire of Characterization was created starting from social descriptions and explanations of the crisis, identified in a previous study. They covered every sub-dimension of the content (complementary to the structure) of the social representation of the crisis, such as: cognitive-evaluative aspects about the representation's structure (central and peripheral elements); descriptive-defining aspects of the representation; informative sources and interaction networks; level of involvement/implication with the object; relationship between representation and social practices; perceptions, attributions and categorizations (causes, responsibilities, duration/evolution, solutions, positive implications, the EU's role). In this paper, we will only consider the answers related to the following dimensions: crisis definitions, strategies to tackle the crisis and social practices related to the crisis. The analysis of the data was carried out primarily using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). In this analysis, in order to uncover the objectification and anchoring processes, we considered the interaction of status and gender as an illustrative variable. These findings were further substantiated with the use of Discriminant analysis. The social anchoring of social representations of the economic crisis is influenced by gender and social status. Nevertheless, the difference in status modifies the stereotypical dimensions, also coherently with predictions derived from gender role theory about the reduction of the impact of gender stereotypes when men and women occupy similar social positions. On the one hand, high-status participants defined the crisis in more abstract terms than low-status participants. On the other hand, high-status men hold a more proactive style of coping with the crisis than other participants, especially women. The discussion focuses on the role of social representations theory in understanding the relationships between gender, status and economic behavior, providing insights into how gender equality might be improved.

I'll emulate you only if you want me to: The impact of ingroup norms and status on the identification-assimilation relationship.

High identifiers are generally more willing to affiliate to their group and, as a result, perceive themselves and behave as prototypical members of their group. But is this always the case? The present research investigates the when and the why of the positive relationship between ingroup identification and assimilation by focusing on the role of the content of the injunctive ingroup norm (collectivistic vs. individualistic) and the ingroup status. Two experiments showed a positive identification-assimilation relationship in the low-status group when the ingroup norm was collectivistic, but not when the norm was individualistic. Moreover, the relationship was unreliable in the high-status group, regardless of the content of the norm. In a third study, these findings were extended to a more general measure of group affiliation (i.e., the need to belong). This research suggests that the greater tendency of high identifiers to assimilate to their group-and, more generally, to affiliate to groups-is accounted for by conformity motivations and strategies aimed at coping with an unfavorable social identity.

Nothing Changes, Really: Why Women Who Break Through the Glass Ceiling End Up Reinforcing It.

Two correlational studies conducted in Switzerland ( N = 222) and Albania ( N = 156) explained the opposition of female managers to gender quotas by examining the origins and consequences of the "Queen Bee (QB)-phenomenon," whereby women who have been successful in male-dominated organizations do not support the advancement of junior women. Results disconfirm previous accounts of the QB-phenomenon as indicating competitiveness among women. Instead, the tendency of women managers to consider themselves as different from other women, and their opposition to gender quotas, emerged when junior women were addressed but not when they considered their direct competitors, other women managers. Personal sacrifices women managers reported having made for career success predicted self-distancing from junior women and opposition to gender quotas targeting these women. We provide a more nuanced picture of what the QB-response is really about, explaining why women managers oppose quotas for junior women, while supporting quotas for women in the same rank.

"I Want, Therefore I Am" - Anticipated Upward Mobility Reduces Ingroup Concern.

Empirical findings suggest that members of socially disadvantaged groups who join a better-valued group through individual achievement tend to express low concern for their disadvantaged ingroup (e.g., denial of collective discrimination, low intent to initiate collective action). In the present research, we investigated whether this tendency occurs solely for individuals who have already engaged in social mobility, or also for individuals who psychologically prepare themselves, that is 'anticipate', social mobility. Moreover, we examined the role of group identification in this process. In two studies, we looked at the case of 'frontier workers', that is people who cross a national border every day to work in another country where the salaries are higher thereby achieving a better socio-economic status than in their home-country. Study 1 (N = 176) examined attitudes of French nationals (both the socially mobile and the non-mobile) and of Swiss nationals toward the non-mobile group. As expected, results showed that the mobile French had more negative attitudes than their non-mobile counterparts, but less negative attitudes than the Swiss. In Study 2 (N = 216), we examined ingroup concern at different stages of the social mobility process by comparing the attitudes of French people who worked in Switzerland (mobile individuals), with those who envisioned (anticipators), or not (non-anticipators), to work in Switzerland. The findings revealed that anticipators' motivation to get personally involved in collective action for their French ingroup was lower than the non-anticipators', but higher than the mobile individuals'. Moreover, we found that the decrease in ingroup concern across the different stages of social mobility was accounted for by a lower identification with the inherited ingroup. These findings corroborate the deleterious impact of social mobility on attitudes toward a low-status ingroup, and show that the decrease in ingroup concern already occurs among individuals who anticipate moving up the hierarchy. The discussion focuses on the role of the discounting of inherited identities in both the anticipation and the achievement of a higher-status identity.