Feminists do it better

A couple of researchers at Rutgers have asked if feminism is good for romantic relationships. The conclusion they’ve reached: well yes!

Rudman and Phelan conducted a study of 242 American undergraduates and an online survey of 289 older adults. They looked at the relationship between people’s self-perceived feminism and how healthy their relationships are. Relationship health was measured as “combination of overall relationship quality, agreement about gender equality, relationship stability and sexual satisfaction”. Here’s what they found:

- Having a feminist partner is linked to healthier heterosexual relationships for women.
- Men with feminist partners report both more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction.
- Feminism does not predict poor romantic relationships, in fact quite the opposite.

In addition, the authors tested the validity of some all-time favorite stereotypes about feminism. Like, for example, that feminist women are single, lesbian, and sexually unattractive. If these stereotypes are indeed based in some kind of reality, then female survey respondents who self-identified as feminist, would have to be more likely to report themselves as “being single, lesbian, or sexually unattractive, compared to non-feminist women”. Surprisingly enough, the authors found that was not the case.

I know, I know…correlation is not causation…and even though there seems to be a strong statistical correlation between one’s feminism and how happy they are in a relationship, that is by no means a guarantee that it’s their feminism that is leading them into a better relationship. Perhaps, only people of certain psychological dispositions or certain socio-economic backgrounds become feminist and it is those other things that make it more likely for people to end up in better, funner, sexier couple-situations. But still, I am willing to bet that Rudman and Phelan did their stats right. And, confirm what that old t-shirt used to say: FEMINISTS DO IT BETTER.

Still, I feel sad that such a study is still necessary.

Via Feministing