Beliefs About Rape and Women's Social Roles

Abstract

Researchers dealing with feminist issues have proposed that sexual assaults on women are supported by social beliefs that encourage male domination and exploitation of women. One of the most influential sources for this position is Susan Brownmiller's (1975) social-historical analysis of rape, in which she argues that “rape myths” help support men's social and economical control of women. If this is true, beliefs in rape myths should be positively correlated with beliefs that restrict women's social roles and rights. This hypothesis was tested in four countries: United States, England, Israel, and West Germany. Two self-report scales were used, one measuring the acceptance of rape myths and the other measuring restrictive beliefs about women's social roles. Translations of the scales provided the instruments for the Israeli and West German subjects. Subjects for Phase 1, carried out in the United States, included female and male university undergraduates and women and men employed in a variety of occupations. Product-moment correlations between scores on the two scales were significant (p<.01) for all four groups, with r's ranging from .72 for employed women to .46 for employed men. Phase 2 was carried out in the United States, England, Israel, and West Germany. In addition to university graduates in all four countries, subjects included secondary school teachers from the United States and England, and women and men from a variety of other occupations in the United States. Acceptance of rape myths was significantly correlated (p<.01) with restrictive beliefs about women's social roles and rights in all but 1 of the 19 groups tested. The r's ranged from .87 for female teachers to .40 for male police in the United States. Social and educational implications of the confirmed hypothesis are discussed.