I don’t mean whether espousal of traditional gender roles results in higher/low IQ or educational attainment, I mean whether there is any correlation, positive or negative, between IQ or educational attainment and espousing traditional gender roles. E.g.: Are people with higher educational attainment more or less likely to agree that men and women should behave in particular ways because of their gender? My gut tells me the correlation is negative but I’m having difficulty finding data using those search terms.
Bonus question: If there such a correlation when it comes to openness in the Big 5 OCEAN personality traits?
It might be easier to locate data if you (or another motivated person) could propose some specific “traditional gender” behaviors or beliefs.
For example, is there a correlation between IQ or educational attainment and:
Number of children in a family?
Opposition to gay marriage?
Percentage of married cis-couples where the wife is unemployed?
I’m not proposing those examples as solid markers for support of traditional gender roles — they are just “help get the ball rolling” suggestions
Also, are you separating out the statistics by gender? Among those who believe that women shouldn’t pursue higher education, for instance, you’re going to see very few women pursuing higher education.
I agree that you should try to check info mentioned above about general views on gay marriage and traditional family to correlate it with your data. That would be interesting.
College graduates are among the least likely to agree that it’s better for a marriage if the husband out-earns his wife—only 18% support this view. Fully 75% of college graduates disagree with this notion. Among those with a high school diploma or less, roughly one-third (35%) agree that it’s better for a marriage if the husband has a higher income, while 54% disagree.
It’s not that men and women should behave in certain ways because of their gender, it’s that men and women do behave in certain ways because of their gender.
“Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class”
This book is a very in-depth look at the question you are asking; nearly half the book is appendixes, footnotes, and references, so it is not an easy read. It goes into great detail regarding the correlation of certain genetic traits, including the numbers.
These three ideas will be challenged in the book: Gender is a social construct; race is a social construct; and class is a function of privilege.
I don’t know about feelings towards gender roles specifically but the openness trait is associated with higher intelligence and values that are traditionally thought of as being socially liberal.
By which I mean that a good number of people who don’t identify as being politically liberal would claim to hold these values. Anyway, sorry so sloppy.
I’m going to make the wild guess that people (male and female) who haven’t been to college, are less likely to encounter in their jobs or social life women who have made it to college and into careers that require college education. (Since in general, people tend to socialize within their own socio-economic class). Yes, maybe the high school dropout will run across the occasional female doctor, or maybe some engineers or accountants at the factory will be women, but they’ll encounter a lot less than a doctor or nurse or lawyer or engineering/accounting firm employee who has been to college and so ends up working beside a lot of educated women.
And I’ll repeat what I said in a discussion with a very bright friend who skipped going to university (but was very successful nevertheless.) A university education or lack is not a determinant of IQ - but education does have a filtering effect. It’'s a lot harder for a moron to get into and through university, even the Wharton School of Business, but some might. It’s not guaranteed that if you’re smart you’ll make it to university, but probably it’s more likely. To quote O Henry - “The race is not always to the swift, nor the contest to the strong - but that;s the way to bet.”
And finally, I’m guessing those who less often see women in “non-traditional” roles are less likely to consider that this may be an option for them. But… I can’t speak for whether higher IQ individuals are automatically open-minded about gender roles, but guaranteed there are some on each side of the issue. High IQ does not necessarily mean smart in ways that matter. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it smart.
Possibly I’m missing your point, or misinterpreting the OP’s question. Are you saying that because men and women TEND to have different interests and behaviors, that people should be pressured to conform to certain gender roles?
I don’t have the slightest problem with the idea that women are generally more interested in building a supportive social structure than men, or that they are generally more nurturing or less competitive. However, I don’t believe that a person should be discouraged from following their personal inclinations, just because those inclination are out of the mainstream.
So I thought the OP was asking if accepting non-traditional gender behavior was correlated with IQ or education level. I didn’t think he was asking if men and women tended toward different interests due to biological factors — that issue does not seem relevant to his question.