Why do women engage in women-to-women oppression?
Social Justification Theory (SJT; Jost & Banaji, 1994) discusses ways in which stereotypes may actually endorce a disadvantaged group’s participation in their own oppression. For example, stereotypes can be internalized by disadvantaged groups (e.g., “I’m a woman, I’m not very mathematical”). These statements lead to self-fulfilling prophecies (Zanna & Pack, 1975) and once these stereotypes are internalized, group members may believe that their lower status is legitimate, and, consequently, they do not fight against them, Since women are part of an oppressed group they may be contributing to the oppression of women by taking their frustrations out on other women (unconsciously or otherwise) instead of adaptively dealing with their uncomfortable feelings. 3. How do women’s brains play a role in women-to-women oppression? In the July 5th 2004 issue of Newsweek researchers used an MRI scan to study brain behavior among women and men. They measured brain activity while test subjects played
