Aligning with the Advantaged Gender Group: How Gender Inequality Shapes Women’s Intended Gender Expression

Gender inequality remains a global issue. However, less is known about how women respond to gender inequality, particularly how they intend to express their gender. In Study 1 ( N = 198), female participants imagined living in a fictional country with either high or low gender inequality. Participants reported intentions to express their gender in more masculine ways under high versus low gender inequality. Study 2 ( N = 293) extended this finding by testing whether women intended to express greater masculinity specifically or whether they more broadly aligned their gender expression with characteristics stereotypically associated with the advantaged gender group. We introduced a condition in which women held the advantaged position, alongside a male-advantaged inequality condition and a near-equality condition. We found that women intended to express greater masculinity when men were advantaged, relative to the other conditions, and greater femininity when women were advantaged, relative to the other conditions. This pattern suggests that women intended to express their gender in ways more closely aligned with characteristics stereotypically associated with the advantaged gender group. Such shifts in intended gender expression may have broader implications, as previous studies suggest that they may reduce women’s sense of authenticity and connection with other women while also affecting how positively or negatively women are perceived and evaluated by others.