“A Dad Can Get the Money and the Mom Stays at Home”: Patriarchal Gender Role Attitudes, Intimate Partner Violence, Historical Oppression, and Resilience Among Indigenous Peoples

• Published in: Sex roles Vol. 85; no. 9-10; pp. 499 - 514
• Main Authors: McKinley, Catherine E., Lilly, Jenn M., Knipp, Hannah, Liddell, Jessica L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-11-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Data Analysis; Decolonization; Domestic violence; Family Violence; Gender; Gender role attitudes; Gender Studies; Health behavior; Health problems; Indigenous peoples; Intimate partner violence; Medicine/Public Health; Mixed methods research; Native peoples; Oppression; Original Article; Patriarchy; Psychology; Resilience; Sex Role; Socialization; Sociology; Victimization; Violence; Gender role attitudes; Indigenous; Mixed methods; Intimate partner violence; Resilience; intimate partner violence; gender role attitudes; mixed methods; resilience
• ISSN: 0360-0025; 1573-2762
• DOI: 10.1007/s11199-021-01232-7

Research has shown that gender role attitudes influence a number of health-related outcomes, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet the gender role attitudes of Indigenous peoples – a population that experiences persistent health and violence disparities – have received scant scholarly attention. Using the Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT), the purpose of this mixed methodology was to qualitatively explore U.S. Indigenous peoples’ gender role attitudes and quantitatively examine how key social determinants of health, including IPV perpetration, historical oppression, and resilience, relate to gender role attitudes. This research integrates qualitative and quantitative data from two Southeastern tribes with a total of 563 unique data sources. Regression analysis revealed male sex and IPV victimization were associated with higher patriarchal gender role attitudes, while historical oppression and resilience were associated with lower patriarchal gender role attitudes. Resilience was also associated with lower “victim blaming.” Ethnographic team-based data analysis methods revealed qualitative themes of patriarchal gender role attitudes and gendered socialization processes. This work highlights how key aspects of the FHORT might explain Indigenous peoples’ patriarchal gender role attitudes, suggesting the need to redress historical oppression and patriarchal roles through decolonization.