You have full access to this open access article. Heteronormative dating scripts involve expectations for women and men to enact different behaviours in romantic contexts with one another, such as men paying on dates and making marriage proposals. Despite evidence that attitudes are shifting towards greater support for gender equality in the public sphere, gender relations appear stubbornly inegalitarian in the private sphere of intimate relationships between women and men Donnelly et al.
Gender stereotypes and norms about traditional gender roles persist Eagly et al. First, we investigated known predictors of these scripts: sexism and feminist identity reviewed below. Specifically, we examined their preference for dominant men, their preference for long-term relationships, and preference against short-term relationships.
Men who ask and pay for dates with women are more likely to expect sex from their dating partners Emmers-Sommer et al. Indeed, holding more traditional beliefs about gendered roles in dating contexts is linked with a host of negative outcomes for women.
Accordingly, several researchers argue that heteronormative dating scripts are based in attitudes that uphold gender inequality. Hostile sexism is overt antipathy and antagonism towards women, particularly when they do not fulfil conventional gender roles. Benevolent sexism is superficially positive and holds that men should put women on a pedestal, and chivalrously protect and provide for them. Therefore, if sexism is embedded in these heteronormative dating scripts, then the implications of people endorsing these scripts might not be limited to romantic relationships, but instead might extend beyond the dyad to reinforce broader gender inequalities.
Despite being correlated, many women endorse beliefs in gender equality but do not self-identify as a feminist Fitz et al. Therefore, feminist identity should be considered in addition to sexism, particularly since feminism often critiques conventional gender roles. Indeed, past work shows that women who identify as feminists endorse more egalitarian expectations for dating and for marriage Wu et al. Therefore, in the current research we included a measure of self-identification as a feminist in addition to sexist attitudes.
