Women's Judgments Research Articles

An investigation of women's judgment in jurisprudence and Afghanistan law

This article examines the difference between women in Imamiya jurisprudence, Sunni jurisprudence, and Afghanistan law, and in this regard, it explores the views of Imamiya jurisprudence and Sunni jurisprudence with a comparative perspective. Meanwhile, the laws of Afghanistan have also been considered. The present research has been carried out with a descriptive analytical method and it has been concluded that among the Sunni jurists and Imamiya jurists, the dominant view is that women are not qualified to be a judge. About this disqualification, jurists have referred us to verses of Quran and Ahadith and they believe that the main reason for women's disqualification is the claim of consensus. Despite this prevailing view, some Imamiya jurists doubt the existence of such a consensus and do not consider women's limited qualification in cases that can be proven by their testimony. Among the religions, the Hanafis believe that women can take the position of judge, except in cases of retribution. The absolute authority of women to hold a judgeship among the Imamis and the Sunnis also has few supporters. According to this point of view, the laws of Afghanistan have not deprived women of this right, and women can take this responsibility just like men, therefore the Afghan Courts Jurisdiction Law has not mentioned being a man as one of the conditions of being a judge in this country.

Reprint: In a Different Voice: Women's Conceptions of Self and of Morality

As theories of developmental psychology continue to define educational goals and practice, it has become imperative for educators and researchers to scrutinize not only the underlying assumptions of such theories but also the model of adulthood toward which they point. Carol Gilligan examines the limitations of several theories, most notably Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development, and concludes that developmental theory has not given adequate expression to the concerns and experience of women. Through a review of psychological and literary sources, she illustrates the feminine construction of reality. From her own research data, interviews with women contemplating abortion, she then derives an alternative sequence for the development of women's moral judgments. Finally, she argues for an expanded conception of adulthood that would result from the integration of the “feminine voice” into developmental theory.

The structure of social anxiety in Russian society: gender emphasis

The article presents the structure of Russian citizens' anxiety in the gender context, focusing on the attitude of Russian women to the economic and social policy conducted by the authorities, self-assessment of their financial situation, expectations and vision of the future. The material is based on the data of the 52nd stage of the All-Russian monitoring "How are you, Russia?", conducted with the participation of the authors in May 2022 by the Institute of Socio-Political Research of FCTAS RAS. It shows the convergence of men's and women's value judgments due to the increased social and economic activity of women. At the same time, there is still a traditional difference in the level of income, as well as in the distribution of gender roles according to the archetypes "woman = keeper of the family home" and "man = strategist, thinking globally. Respondents of both sexes expressed equally minimal concern about the topic of the special military operation in Ukraine, with women showing serious concern about the economic consequences of the current foreign policy. In the structure of their anxiety, problems of rising prices, economic sanctions, deteriorating relations with the U.S. and Europe, and, as a consequence, fear of an uncertain future lead the way. Lack of stability and uncertainty decrease the loyalty to the power structures among female respondents, who are the most vulnerable in the current situation, slightly increasing the level of protest activity in parallel.

Bias, accuracy and assumed similarity in judging intimate partners’ sexist attitudes

Women and men are particularly vulnerable to the costs of sexism in intimate relationships, which may override relationship enhancement motives that produce positive biases. Inspired by error management principles, we propose that women and men should make biased judgments of intimate partners’ sexist attitudes to help avoid the harmful costs of sexism that occur within mixed-gender relationships. Women may overestimate partners’ hostile sexism because failing to detect men’s hostile sexism should render women especially vulnerable to the risk of maltreatment, whereas women may underestimate partners’ benevolent sexism because expecting special treatment that is unavailable is more costly than receiving unexpected benevolence. By contrast, men may overestimate partners’ benevolent sexism because failing to prevent women’s dissatisfaction and anger when men do not fulfill gallant gender roles would be most costly than providing more benevolence than expected. Comparing perceptions of partners’ attitudes to partners’ actual sexist attitudes in two studies of mixed-gender couples ( N = 91 and 84 dyads) confirmed this gender-differentiated pattern. On average, women overestimated their partners’ hostile sexism and underestimated their partners’ benevolent sexism, whereas men overestimated their partners’ benevolent sexism. Although we did not make predictions about judgments of women’s hostile sexism, analyses also revealed that men underestimated their partners’ hostile sexism. The pattern of bias has important implications for understanding the ways sexist attitudes affect intimate relationships and sustain gender inequality.

Religion and Moral Judgments of HIV-related Sexual Behaviors

ABSTRACT Introduction The percentage of individuals diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) increases yearly, and occurs at disproportionate rates. Previous research suggests that religion may be an important coping mechanism for individuals with HIV, who have lost loved ones to HIV, or who have engaged in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., Pargament et al., 2004). However, research examining the impact that religion has on an individual's moral judgment of engaging in HIV-related sexual behaviors remains unclear. Objective To examine the impact of religious beliefs, identity, and practices on women's moral judgements towards scenarios involving potential HIV transmission. Methods Women (N = 578) were asked to indicate their moral judgments towards three items separately for male and female actors: (1) having sex with someone who discloses that they have HIV and using condoms; (2) having sex with someone who discloses that they have HIV and not using condoms; and (3) getting diagnosed with HIV and not telling new sex partners. Results Multiple regression analysis revealed that the more women listened to religious music and participated in behaviors during religious services (e.g., reading scriptures), the more morally wrong they viewed male actors for having sex with someone who discloses that they have HIV and not using condoms. Further, the more women believed in souls, the more morally wrong they viewed male and female actors for getting diagnosed with HIV and not telling new sex partners. These associations held when controlling for important confounds such as age and relationship status. Conclusions The results of this study provide further understanding about the relevance of religion on individual's’ perceptions of sexual behavior. Because religious individuals tend to be interested in long-term, highly reproductive lifestyles (e.g., Hone et al., 2021), they may view a host of sexual behaviors-including HIV-related behaviors-as morally wrong as they associate them with promiscuity. Discussion focuses on how an evolutionary perspective of religion may provide insight into aspects of women's moral judgments of sexual behaviors that have yet to be systematically explored. Disclosure No

Women's blame, men's merit? The effect of gender on voters' evaluation of ministers' governing performance

Research demonstrates how gender stereotypes affect voters' judgments of political candidates, resulting in a voter bias to the detriment of women candidates. However, little is known about how these stereotypes influence voters' judgments of women in executive office. In this study, we experimentally test the effect of ministers' gender on voters' evaluation of their governing performance in Flanders (Belgium). Given the gendered nature of perceptions of ‘agency’, we expect that voters are more likely to treat men as more responsible than women for changes that occur during their tenure. Our study finds that voters generally make no distinction between men and women ministers in the evaluation of their governing performance. However, women ministers' governing performance is evaluated less favorably for negative policy outcomes in masculine issues compared to negative policy outcomes in feminine issues. Taken together, these findings yield important insights into the biases women face against political leadership.

Women's Satisfaction with Maternal care in Ghana : The Doctor's Behaviour as a Regulating Factor

<p>The key element of human rights and the road to equity and dignity of women and children is the quality of care received. The provision of maternal health care is based on quality during pregnancy, and distinctly forty-eight hours after delivery, is an important contribution to saving women’s lives and preventing disabilities (Quah, 2016). Thus, the understanding of women's experiences and expectations through the continuum of prenatal care, delivery care and postnatal care is important for assessing the quality of maternal health care and the determination of problem areas requiring improvement. Women's satisfaction reflects women's judgment of various aspects of maternal health care, including organizational and interpersonal aspects. Multiple linear regression was used (IBM SPSS v.25) to test the main hypotheses for the present study. The ordinal regression was used to predict the value of a result variable (dependent variable) based on the value of two or more prediction variables (independent variables). This study identifies the relationship between maternal health services (prenatal & diagnostic care, delivery care and postnatal care) and women's satisfaction with the moderating role of doctor's behavior. The study finally determined the positive impact of health care services on women's satisfaction. The results also show that the doctor's behavior in health care services affect women's satisfaction and so, the alternate hypotheses are accepted. In this study, physicians were encouraged to give pregnant women thorough inspection and examination, treat them with courtesy and respect. The study also showed that, the government should focus on hiring additional employees to overcome workload.</p>

The red-derogation effect: How the color red affects married women's ratings of male attractiveness.

The present research addresses the question of how the color red affects married women's evaluations of male attractiveness. Three studies demonstrate a red-derogation effect for married women's judgments such that men are perceived to be less attractive and less sexually desirable when their profiles are displayed on a red versus a white background. We show that married (vs. single) women perceive the color red as a threat cue which, in turn, evokes avoidance tendencies. Our studies indicated that married (vs. single) women became more risk averse (Study 2) and were more likely to recall words related to relationship commitment and threat after exposure to an attractive male presented on a red (vs. white) background (Study 3). Further, we show that the red-derogation effect is moderated by the level of cognitive resources. When married women were cognitively depleted, the effect of color was mitigated. Overall the findings demonstrate that a subtle peripheral cue (e.g., red color) is sufficient to identify an attractive other as a threat, which activates a defensive strategy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual Attitudes, Perceptions of Attractiveness, and Level of Coercion Affect Undergraduate Men's Judgments of Women's Responses to Sexual and Nonsexual Social Situations.

The aims of this study were to (a) evaluate undergraduate men's (N = 108) judgments of the effectiveness of women's responses to increasingly coercive sexual victimization risk and nonsexual social situations and (b) examine whether individual difference factors (e.g., perceptions of attractiveness, rape empathy) influenced these judgments. As part of a larger study, undergraduate women were video recorded responding to a series of vignettes depicting increasingly coercive sexual and nonsexual social situations. Undergraduate men then rated the effectiveness of these responses in either decreasing risk for sexual victimization (for the sexual victimization risk situations) or increasing the likelihood of achieving a social goal (for the nonsexual social situations), as well as each woman's physical attractiveness. Multilevel modeling results revealed that both situational-level (i.e., level of coercion) and individual-level factors (i.e., rape empathy, perceived attractiveness of the women, and rape myth acceptance) were associated with men's judgments of the effectiveness of women's responses in sexually risky situations. Specifically, responses were rated as less effective in decreasing victimization risk as the level of coercion increased, and men who reported lower rape empathy, lower perceived attractiveness of the woman, and higher rape myth acceptance judged women's responses as less effective than men who reported higher rape empathy, higher perceived attractiveness, and lower rape myth acceptance. Attractiveness was the only significant predictor of men's judgments of women's responses to nonsexual situations, with more attractive women being perceived as more effective. The findings of the current study highlight the importance of understanding the interaction between individual difference variables and situational features in understanding men's judgments of women's responses.

The effect of unrelated social exchanges on facial attractiveness judgments

Whereas the influence of facial attractiveness (FA) on social judgments has been well documented, much less is known about the converse influence of social exchanges on FA judgments. Previous research has shown that social dimensions inherently related to the face judged, such as status, can affect such judgments. However, we found that facial attractiveness ratings were affected by social exchanges unrelated to the face judged. In three experiments, we examined how competitive and cooperative financial exchanges influence subsequent facial aesthetic judgments. Compared to cooperation, competition decreased women's (but not men's) ratings of men's facial attractiveness; this pattern of effects also occurred for ratings of buildings, suggesting that competition suppressed aesthetic appreciation. However, women's responses to women's faces followed an inverse pattern, as competition (rather than cooperation) elevated women faces' attractiveness ratings. Introducing self-affirmation, a psychological mechanism that alleviates the effects of social competition, restored attractiveness ratings. This finding suggests that women's own-gender judgments in a competitive environment are affected by a perception of threat induced by social comparison. Overall, this study suggests that aesthetic judgments are not immune to social conditions. Such moderating effects contribute to our understanding of how sociocultural environments dynamically regulate aesthetic preferences.

Judgments of women wearing eyeglasses: a focus on specific dimensions of physical attractiveness

Judgments of women wearing eyeglasses: a focus on specific dimensions of physical attractiveness

Judging Women: Twenty-Five Years Further Toward a Feminist Theory of the State

This paper engages with the work of Catharine MacKinnon to consider three ways of understanding the phrase "judging women." First, when is it acceptable or necessary to make judgements about what women do? The paper argues that feminist analysis urges compassion and empathy for women, but also highlights the ways that choices are limited and shaped by patriarchy. Thus we cannot and should not avoid all judgment of women’s—and men’s—choices. Second, when can women engage in the act of judging? It is sometimes claimed that it is anti-feminist to engage in such judgment, and that feminists must above all else avoid being judgmental. The paper rejects this idea and argues instead that feminism should insist on women's right to exercise judgment: women’s voices matter. Third, how are we to judge who counts as a woman? MacKinnon’s work offers profound, sustained, rich analysis of these questions, but does not fully resolve them.

Cue-based estimates of reproductive value explain women's body attractiveness

Abstract Women's body attractiveness is influenced by specific anthropometric cues, including body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-stature ratio (WSR), and shoulder-to-waist ratio (SWR). Despite the existence of multiple functional hypotheses to explain these preferences, it remains unclear which cue-based inferences are most influential in regulating evaluations of women's body attractiveness. We argue that (i) the common link to the morphological cues that influence women's body attractiveness is that they all reliably indicate high reproductive value (as defined by youth and low parity); and (ii) ancestrally, selection pressures related to tracking between-women differences in reproductive value would have been among the strongest acting on adaptations for body evaluation. An empirical study then tested the resulting prediction that cue-based estimates of reproductive value function as powerful regulators of women's body attractiveness judgments. Subjects viewed standardized photos of women in swimsuits (with heads obscured), and were assigned to either estimate components of their reproductive value (age or number of offspring) or rate their attractiveness. Structural equation modeling revealed that a latent variable capturing estimated reproductive value was almost perfectly correlated with a latent variable capturing body attractiveness. Moreover, unique associations of women's BMI, WHR, and WSR with their body attractiveness were entirely mediated via estimated reproductive value. These findings provide strong support for the longstanding hypothesis that women's body attractiveness is primarily explained by cue-based estimates of reproductive value – expected future utility as a vehicle of offspring production.

Edith Wharton in Washington, 2–4 June 2016

Edith Wharton in Washington, 2–4 June 2016

Men's perceptions of women's sexual interest: Effects of environmental context, sexual attitudes, and women's characteristics.

Men’s perceptions of women’s sexual interest were studied in a sample of 250 male undergraduates, who rated 173 full-body photos of women differing in expressed cues of sexual interest, attractiveness, provocativeness of dress, and the social-environmental context into which the woman’s photo had been embedded. Environmental context significantly influenced men’s judgments of sexual interest, independently of the affective cues of sexual interest themselves and of provocativeness of dress and attractiveness. Cue usage was moderated by men’s risk for sexual aggression, as measured by a rape-myth inventory, with higher-risk men (relative to lower-risk men) relying significantly less on affective cues, relying significantly more on attractiveness, and showing a non-significant tendency to rely more on environmental cues. Men exhibited a moderate degree of insight into individual differences in their cue usage. Analysis of individual differences in cue usage suggested that men’s judgments of women’s momentary sexual interest varied along two dimensions: (1) men who relied more on affective cues were less likely to rely on women’s attractiveness (r = −0.73); and (2) men who were influenced more by provocativeness of dress were also likely to rely more on environmental context (r = 0.49). Results suggest that variation in contextual variables should be included in cognitive-training programs designed to improve the accuracy of men’s judgments of women’s affective responses. Ultimately, such training programs may prove useful as an adjunct to prevention programs for sexual aggression.

The Influence of Different Social Roles Activation on Women's Financial and Consumer Choices.

In recent times, the changes occurring in the social role of women and men have been observed. Traditionally, the dominating social role of the woman was as housewife, and that of the man was focused on work and family maintenance. Nowadays, the social role of women is evolving in the direction of taking a profession, while increasingly men are taking care of the household. The main goal of the studies presented here was to verify how the activation of different social roles (traditional or non-traditional) may be reflected in women’s financial and consumer choices. Three experimental studies were conducted. In the first study (n = 195 females), three different social roles of women – professional (non-traditional), housewife (traditional) and neutral (control) – were activated. The results showed that activating women’s non-traditional social role increased their tendency to invest and decreased their propensity to save money compared to the activation of the traditional or neutral social role. The goal of the second study (n = 196 females) was to check whether, despite there being no differences in the level of consumption in the first study, can any differences be observed in the preference for the type of products chosen for consumption. The results showed that activating the non-traditional social role raised the propensity to spend funds on products and services for individual use and reduced the willingness to buy goods for collective use (shared with other members of the household). The purpose of the third study (n = 90 females) was to examine how different images of women appearing in advertisements may affect women’s judgments of the advertised product. Women who watched the ad with woman in the non-traditional social role estimated the product quality, look, color and price higher that participants exposed to the advertisement presenting the woman in traditional or neutral social role. The present studies give some evidence that the new, non-traditional social role of women that is often presented in the media may affect women’s everyday financial choices and judgments of products.

Judgments toward women wearing high heels: a forced-choice evaluation

AbstractResearch reported that men interact with women wearing high heels more readily than with the same women wearing flat heels. However, the effect of heels on the judgment of women by both men and women has received little attention. Male and female participants viewed two photographs of the same woman’s body profile; the woman wore high heels in the one and flat heels in the other, although her shoes and feet were not visible. Participants were asked to select one photograph of the woman on several dimensions of body attractiveness. A significant greater number of male and female participants selected the target with high heels as the sexier, the prettier, and the more elegant, with the more attractive legs and buttocks. The same target was also perceived as the younger person and the photograph that would be preferred by others and the more appropriate for a photo album. The findings support the assumption that high heels could act as secondary sexual characteristics that increase the attractiveness of women to men.

The effects of advertisements that sexually objectify women on state body dissatisfaction and judgments of women: The moderating roles of gender and internalization

Experimental studies have demonstrated that exposure to idealized images of women increases state body image disturbance. However, little work has experimentally examined the effects of exposure to images that sexually objectify women, especially as it relates to women and men's state body dissatisfaction and judgments of women. In the current study, 437 women and men were randomly assigned to view advertisements that sexually objectify women and portray appearance ideals, or to view non-appearance-related advertisements. Results indicated that state body dissatisfaction increased for women and men exposed to advertisements that sexually objectified women, although this effect was larger for women. Trait internalization of appearance ideals moderated this effect, indicating that women and men with higher internalization exhibited greater state body dissatisfaction after viewing women sexually objectified in advertisements. Exposure to women sexually objectified in advertisements did not affect women's or men's attractiveness or competence ratings of women in university advertisements.

Contextual Influences on Men's Perceptions of Women's Sexual Interest.

The current study evaluated whether the sexual relevance of the social environment potentiated men's judgments of women's sexual interest, particularly among men reporting more frequent misperception of a potential partner's sexual interest. Twenty-eight scenes were constructed depicting social environments that were either lower or higher in sexual relevance (e.g., office vs. bar). A full-body photograph of one of 14 college-aged women was inserted into each scene; the women all expressed neutral-to-positive affect and varied in provocativeness of dress and attractiveness. A total of 237 undergraduate males viewed each scene and judged how sexually interested and friendly each woman felt. Sexually relevant social environments potentiated men's judgments of women's sexual interest far more than their friendliness. This effect was stronger among more conservatively dressed women and among men reporting more frequent experiences of misperceiving a woman's sexual interest. The findings highlight the contextualized nature of emotional perception, whereby perception of emotion is potentiated in congruent, relative to incongruent, contexts.

Judging the Difference between Attractiveness and Health: Does Exposure to Model Images Influence the Judgments Made by Men and Women?

Recent research has shown facial adiposity (apparent weight in the face) to be a significant predictor of both attractiveness and health, thus making it an important determinant of mate selection. Studies looking at the relationship between attractiveness and health have shown that individuals differentiate between the two by preferring a lower weight for attractiveness than for health in female faces. However, these studies have either been correlational studies, or have investigated weight perceived from only the face. These differences have been discussed with regard to sociocultural factors such as pressure from parents, peers and also media, which has been seen to have the highest influence. While exposure to media images has been shown to influence women’s own-body image, no study has yet directly tested the influence of these factors on people’s preferred weight in other women’s bodies. Here we examine how a short exposure to images of models influences men’s and women’s judgments of the most healthy looking and attractive BMI in Malaysian Chinese women’s bodies by comparing differences in preferences (for attractiveness and health) between groups exposed to images of models of varying attractiveness and body weight. Results indicated that participants preferred a lower weight for attractiveness than for health. Further, women’s but not men’s preferred BMI for attractiveness, but not health, was influenced by the type of media images to which they were exposed, suggesting that short term exposure to model images affect women’s perceptions of attractiveness but not health.