Gendered Racial Boundary Maintenance: Social Penalties for White Women in Interracial Relationships

Throughout American history, formal laws and social norms have discouraged interracial romantic relationships. White Americans in particular perceive interracial relationships as a threat to the group’s boundaries, and are the most resistant to interracial marriage of any racial group. Despite the importance of racial homogamy to White identity, we argue that gender roles make violating norms against intimate intergroup contact more costly for women than men, leading to Whites’ greater resistance to interracial relationships involving White women. In a nationally representative sample using a natural quasi-experiment, as well as in two follow-up lab experiments, we find that White women face differential social penalties for intimate intergroup contact—being perceived as gender deviant and low status within the group. This research demonstrates the existence of a gendered double standard for intimate intergroup contact among Whites, revealing that gender norms play a critical role in the maintenance of American racial boundaries.