Women’s rights have expanded dramatically around the world in recent decades. Attitudes, too, have become more supportive of gender equality. Yet people often think that others, especially men, do not support these changes. Equality in Doubt argues that widespread, exaggerated pessimism about the extent to which men support gender equality has roots in how women’s rights have advanced in the Global South and matters for the pursuit of gender equality in practice.
Stereotypes that men oppose gender equality are grounded in longstanding social practices and ongoing inequalities. Cognitive biases predispose people to hold on to those stereotypes, even as laws and attitudes change, unless there is a credible signal that the stereotypes are outdated. Feminist activism, international pressure, and governments’ embrace of women’s rights for strategic reasons have all pushed women’s rights forward. But they do not credibly signal that broader public opinion has evolved, because people discount the reforms as imposed from above or outside. Meanwhile, advances in women’s rights and inclusion often go hand in hand with visceral reminders of the maintenance of gender hierarchy, both quotidian and violent, reinforcing pessimism about men’s support for equality in particular. These forces are most potent in parts of the Global South that have liberalized but not fully democratized: attitudes have often changed rapidly, but weak trust in institutions means that people there are likely to be skeptical that reforms reflect a democratic consensus, while the opposition has freedom to mobilize and capture public attention.
Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork and four original surveys conducted in Morocco, this book illustrates these dynamics in detail in a country that has significantly expanded women’s rights in recent decades. In Morocco, doubt about support for equality is informed by perceptions that reforms have been imposed on a resistant society, attention to key episodes of conservative mobilization, and a “spiral of silence” among men that frequently obscures their real views. The book also shows how theoretical insights built from the Moroccan case help make sense of global variation in exaggerated pessimism about support for equality. People are most likely to underestimate men’s support for gender equality in middle-income countries that are neither harshly autocratic nor fully democratic—that is, in places where attitudes and practices have changed, but many view reforms skeptically and conservatives can countermobilize. Cross-nationally, advances for women’s de jure rights and de facto inclusion are not associated with greater optimism about support for equality. Yet variables that capture weak trust in institutions, backlash, and the persistence of gender hierarchy are associated with greater pessimism.
Identifying and combatting pessimism is important: doubting support for equality undermines the potential of women’s rights reforms to change lives on the ground. In its final chapters, this book argues that exaggerated pessimism constrains men’s ability to accurately assess the social costs of speaking out in support of equality, constrains technocrats’ and policymakers’ willingness to take steps that would improve women’s lives, and undermines bureaucrats’ willingness to enforce laws they perceive as unpopular. For activists, awareness of the tendency toward pessimism presents an opportunity: beyond trying to change attitudes, they may be able to make significant strides by alerting key actors to the support for equality that already surrounds them.