Morgan Weaving

Morgan Weaving (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2023) ‘Misogyny as Hierarchy Maintenance’

There is growing interest in ‘misogyny’ within psychology, yet the concept lacks a clear definition and theoretical grounding. This thesis explores misogyny as a form of gender hierarchy maintenance. Specifically, the thesis seeks to i) provide a definition and conceptual model of misogyny that promotes psychological research on the topic, ii) investigate whether misogyny increases after threats to the gender status-quo, as is expected of hierarchy-maintaining actions, and iii) understand whether individual differences in the preference for social hierarchy vs. equality can help to explain why reactions to perpetrators of misogyny differ.

The thesis argues that misogyny should be conceptualised as the social, physical and economic penalties towards women that enforce a hierarchical gender order. Consistent with this account, it finds that Twitter misogyny towards Hillary Clinton increased after her 2016 presidential campaign announcement, when she threatened male political dominance. The study also found evidence that the motivation to uphold hierarchies predicts more lenient reactions to sexual harassment and assault, and may be implicated in motivated reasoning when evaluating allegations of these misogynistic behaviours. It concludes that theorising misogyny as a form of hierarchy maintenance is a fruitful approach that sheds light on what exacerbates misogyny, and varying reactions to it.

Supervisors: Professor Cordelia Fine, Professor Nick Haslam (Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences)