What Makes a Decision Fair? Relative Earnings, Gender, and Justifications for Couples’ Decision-Making

In What Makes a Decision Fair? Relative Earnings, Gender, and Justifications for Couples’ Decision-Making, Joanna Pepin and William Scarborough analyze perceptions of fairness in the decision-making processes of mixed gendered couples. Their research reveals that, in general, people perceive decisions made by women as being fair. While this may seem empowering, the authors warn that such conceptions of fairness may actually uphold gendered inequality in relationships, as it foists the the cognitive and emotional labour of decision-making onto women under the notion that it makes them happy. In doing so, men relinquish responsibility for equal divisions of labor while maintaining authority.

Joanna Pepin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, and leads the Trajectories of Mothers’ Breadwinning Responsibilities Over the Life Course project.

Citation

Pepin, J. R., & Scarborough, W. J. (2025). What makes a decision fair? relative earnings, gender, and justifications for couples’ Decision-Making. American Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1086/735618

Abstract

This article builds on research demonstrating that inequality is widely accepted when it results from practices that are perceived to be fair. Using a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (n=3,978), the study adds new insight into the mechanisms that sustain gender inequality in relationships. Findings show that Americans’ beliefs about gender are relied on more often than economic explanations to diminish concerns about unfairness in decision making. Respondents were more likely to view decisions as fair when made by women, even though respondents often drew on seemingly gender-neutral allocation rules to justify decision making. Topic modelling of open-ended explanations also exposed how beliefs about gender are incorporated into fairness perceptions in ways that sustain men’s authority. The authors argue that the empirical patterns underpinning subjective perceptions of fairness are fundamental to understanding the persistence of inequality in gendered divisions of cognitive, emotional, and domestic labor.