What Makes a Decision Fair? Relative Earnings, Gender, and Justifications for Couples’ Decision-Making

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This article builds on research demonstrating that inequality is widely accepted when it results from practices that are perceived to be fair. Using a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of US adults (n=3,978), the study adds new insight into the mechanisms that sustain gender inequality in relationships. Findings show that Americans’ beliefs about gender are relied on more often than economic explanations to diminish concerns about unfairness in decision-making. Respondents were more likely to view decisions as fair when made by women, even though respondents often drew on seemingly gender-neutral allocation rules to justify decision-making. Topic modeling of open-ended explanations also exposed how beliefs about gender are incorporated into fairness perceptions in ways that sustain men’s authority. The authors argue that the empirical patterns underpinning subjective perceptions of fairness are fundamental to understanding the persistence of inequality in gendered divisions of cognitive, emotional, and domestic labor.