By Lily Schatz

On Wednesday Peter Glick, a professor of psychology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin (OC ’89) gave a lecture titled “Love Hate Man Woman: How Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Both Sexes Promote Gender Inequality.”

In the lecture, Professor Glick explored traditional attitudes toward both sexes the majority of which he maintained are shaped by the traditional male/female relationships.

At the beginning Glick said that there are several virtually universal truths about the structure of heterosexual relationships which figure prominently into these conventional views of both sexes. The most basic of these truths is that structurally, from government to religious organizations to the business world, men tend to dominate. At the same time, and unlike in most other inter-group relationships, he pointed out that men and women are quite intimately dependent upon one another. The most obvious example of this dependency is heterosexuality.

Glick conjctured that in traditional relationships men are dependent upon women for childbearing and domestic labor, while women often rely upon men for provision, especially if the men have greater incomes. Thus we have a very interesting and unusual social situation in which one of two groups is more powerful and it is intimately dependent on the group that is not in power.

Glick referenced an argument with colleague Susan Fuchs on whether these conditions generate ambivalent gender views and traditional beliefs that are both good and bad despite that, “even the positive ones tend to reinforce and justify inequality between the sexes.”

At the conclusion of the lecture, Glick fielded questions. One member of the audience asked if he had done any research on children’s views (the data Dr. Glick presented were primarily based on college students). Glick said he had not, but he cited a study in which elementary-school children were given a list of adjectives and asked which ones more accurately described males or females. Across the board, children attributed the positive adjectives to their own gender. For example, little girls categorized courage, which adults typically view as a masculine quality, as being dominant among females. Glick noted that when young people reach puberty, and become aware of and concerned with the intimate interdependent relationship between the sexes, this changes.

After the lecture, a freshman who requested to remain anonymous, remarked that she would be interested to see how the results of a similar study on matriarchal societies would compare to Glick’s findings, which are based on patriarchal societies.

“Oberlin really profoundly affected my life,” Glick commented. “I’ve now spent my professional career at a small midwestern liberal arts college with a Conservatory of Music that was the second co-ed college in the country. It’s all downhill from here.”