New data on dates: men should pay
Posted August 12, 2013 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
New data on dating backs up an old cliché: both men and women believe men should pay on dates.
Researchers from Chapman University, California State University and Wellesley College surveyed more than 17,000 people and found that 84 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women reported that men pay for most expenses, even after dating for a while.
The study did not address same-sex couples.
“The motivation for the study was to understand why some gendered practices are more resistant to change than others; for example, the acceptance of women in the workplace versus holding onto traditional notions of chivalry,” said David Frederick of Chapman University, who co-authored the study with Janet Lever, of California State University, Los Angeles, and Rosanna Hertz, of Wellesley College.
While over half (57 per cent) of women claimed they offered to help pay, 39 per cent of them said they hoped men would reject their offers.
Less than half – 44 per cent – of women were bothered when men expected women to help pay.
The same was not true of men: Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of men believed that women should contribute to dating expenses, and nearly half of men (44 per cent) said they would stop dating a woman who never pays.
However, a large majority of men (76 per cent) reported feeling guilty accepting women’s money.
Researchers said the data bears out conventional gender norms, where the man is expected to “display benevolent sexism and dominance as a breadwinner.”
And, researchers said, the same basic patterns were seen regardless of daters’ ages, income, or education.
The paper, “Who Pays for Dates? Following versus Challenging Conventional Gender Norms,” was presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association on Sunday.
Who pays on your dates? Let us know in the comments.
