Iron Fist, Velvet Glove, or Joining Hands? The Impact of Cross-Group Interactions on Social Change Amongst Women

Research on intergroup contact suggests that pleasant cross-group relations, although beneficial in terms of harmony, can paradoxically dampen disadvantaged groups’ recognition of injustice and reduce motivation for social change. Yet these effects, and their proposed exceptions, such as allyship, remain underexplored in the gender context. This thesis examines how cues in cross-gender interactions shape women’s responses to inequality, either mobilising resistance or sedating it. Across three empirical chapters, we present a series of experimental studies investigating women’s reactions in terms of individual resistance or collective-level mobilisation, to cross-group interactions with men who engage in behaviour that can broadly be characterised by the metaphors iron fist (e.g., hostility), velvet glove (e.g., paternalism), or joining hands (e.g., egalitarianism). Part I (empirical Chapter 1) presents research examining how women respond to men who behave in a sexist manner. Drawing on ambivalent sexism theory, four experiments tested whether hostile sexism was met with increased leadership aspirations, and whether benevolent sexism exerted a more insidious and demobilising effect, reducing women’s willingness to take on the counter-stereotypical leadership role. Part II (empirical Chapters 2 and 3) focuses on men’s positive behaviour, in the form allyship. Chapter 2 investigated the effects of egalitarian versus paternalistic forms of allyship on women’s social change, anticipating that the former would be more conducive to social change than the latter. Chapter 3 examined how the masculinity performance of an ally shapes women’s collective mobilisation. Overall, the research yielded mixed findings. However, it nevertheless contributes to knowledge on intergroup contact, gendered power, and allyship, suggesting that negative encounters may mobilise resistance, pleasant but hierarchy-reinforcing encounters may demobilise, and egalitarian allyship - especially when embodied as well as spoken - may foster empowerment in a positive manner, as well as social change motivation.