How Americans See Men and Masculinity

Files

Table of Contents

• About Pew Research Center 2
• How we did this 3
• Terminology 4
• Table of Contents 5
• Relatively few Americans say people have negative views of masculine men. 6
• Majorities of Americans say most people in the U.S. dont place enough value on men who are caring open about their emotions soft- spoken or affectionate. 7
• Views are more mixed when it comes to traits that tend to be associated with traditional masculinity . 7
• Majorities of men and women find certain behaviors that could be associated with toxic masculinity to be unacceptable. 8
• About four-in-ten men 42 see themselves as highly masculine. 8
• Most Americans say women are doing better than they were 20 years ago when it comes to getting leadership positions at work getting a well-paying job and getting into a college or university. 9
• About two-thirds of men 66 say their father influenced their views about what it means to be a man a great deal or a fair amount. 10
• Young women are much more likely than young men to say social media has had a lot of influence on their views about their gender. 10
• Jump to read more about 10
• Most Americans say men and women are basically different in many ways but there is no consensus on whether society or biology drives these differences. 11
• A majority of Americans 57 say men and women are basically similar in the things they are good at in the workplace. 11
• The public sees women as benefitting more than men from changing gender roles at work and in the family. 11
• A majority of Americans 57 say its extremely or very acceptable for men to take care of the home and children while their wife works for pay. 12
• About four-in-ten Americans 42 say its extremely or very acceptable for men to put a lot of effort into their style or fashion choices. 12
• 1. Public views on men and masculinity 13
• Differences by gender 14
• Differences by party 14
• Republican men 15
• Republican women 15
• Democratic men 15
• Democratic women 15
• Differences by gender 16
• Differences by age 17
• Differences by party 18
• Differences by masculinity and femininity rating 18
• 2. Behaviors people find acceptable and unacceptable in men 20
• Differences by gender 20
• Differences by age 21
• Putting a lot of effort into their style and fashion choices 21
• Playing video games on a regular basis 21
• Differences by party 22
• Differences by age 24
• Differences by party 24
• Gender and age differences on splitting the bill 25
• 3. Views on the progress men and women have made in different areas 26
• Differences by gender 27
• Differences by party 28
• Differences by gender 30
• Differences by party 30
• Differences by gender and party in feelings about how women are doing 33
• Differences by gender and age in feelings about how men are doing 33
• 4. Views of the impact of changing gender roles 35
• Differences by gender 35
• Differences by party 35
• Differences by gender 38
• Differences by party 38
• 5. How Americans see differences between men and women 40
• Differences by gender 41
• Differences by party 42
• Comforting children 44
• Disciplining children 44
• 6. How men and women rate their own masculinity and femininity 45
• Differences by race and ethnicity 47
• Differences by age 48
• Differences by party and ideology 49
• Differences among men 51
• Differences among women 52
• Their female friends 52
• TV or movies 52
• Social media 52
• Acknowledgments 53
• Kim Parker Juliana Horowitz Isabel Goddard 53
• Rachel Minkin Luona Lin Kiley Hurst 53
• Dana Braga Reem Nadeem 53
• John Carlo Mandapat 53
• Anna Jackson 53
• Julia OHanlon Maya Pottiger 53
• Methodology 54
• Overview 54
• Panel recruitment 54
• Sample design 55
• Questionnaire development and testing 55
• Incentives 55
• Data collection protocol 55
• For panelists who take surveys online 56
• For panelists who take surveys over the phone with a live interviewer 56
• Data quality checks 57
• Weighting 57
• Dispositions and response rates 59
• A note about the Asian adult sample 60