Double Standards

Double standards are principles or rules applied unequally to different groups, so that the same behavior is judged more harshly or leniently depending on who performs it, most notably in relation to gender, race, class, and age. The sexual double standard, in which men are praised or excused for sexual activity that women are condemned for, has long been documented, and Ira Reiss analyzed it in studies of premarital sexual norms. Simone de Beauvoir described how women are held to different moral and social expectations than men, and Erving Goffman’s analysis of stigma shows how identical conduct can discredit some people but not others. Susan Fiske and Peter Glick’s research on ambivalent sexism and Alice Eagly and Steven Karau’s role congruity theory help explain why assertive women in leadership are often penalized for behavior rewarded in men. Joan Williams has described the maternal wall and the tightrope that women must walk at work, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter examined how tokens face heightened scrutiny. Michelle Alexander and others have documented racial double standards in criminal justice. Kimberle Crenshaw’s intersectionality shows how overlapping identities shape unequal evaluation. Double standards remain central to research on gender, race, organizations, sexuality, and legitimacy.