Cheryl Schneider was leaving the checkout counter at her local Target Wednesday when she saw them.

Two men, just a few feet away from her, their faces completely exposed.

How about wearing your mask? said Schneider, 66. Its required.

I am, one of the men said, smiling and pointing at his chin. His face covering hung like a silly beard, protecting no one.

Idiot! said Schneiders daughter, Gabrielle, 33.

It wasnt the New Yorkers first such exchange. She likes using the catchphrase mask it or casket when she sees people ignoring the rules.

Ive been cursed at, yelled at, called names, says Schneider, a public relations professional. But I dont care.

Most of the people she sees without a mask?

Men.

Even as masks have become a part of our daily pandemic uniform and are required in all indoor and non-socially distanced outdoor spaces in New Jersey recent surveys show men are less likely to say they wear them all the time, and more likely to say they dont wear them at all.

A Gallup survey of 3,615 adults age 18 and older conducted June 29 to July 5 found that 20% of men said they never wear a mask outside the home, compared with 8% of women. Men were also less likely to say they intend to wear face coverings in a spring survey of 2,459 people in the United States from the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California and Middlesex University in London.

Men more than women believe that they will be relatively unaffected by the disease, researchers said in their May report. This is particularly ironic because official statistics show that actually the coronavirus (COVID-19) impacts men more seriously than women.

People lining up to buy beach badges in Belmar in May. Outdoor scenes aren't always so mask-compliant and not every state mandates that masks be worn indoors. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Why would men behave as if being a man equates to some kind of coronavirus immunity?

Its called maskulinity with a K, says Yasemin Besen-Cassino, a sociologist at Montclair State University.

That is a part of masculine identity and how we raise men, she says. Admitting this is something that can threaten your health is in direct conflict with how we assign masculinity.

This is also why men are less likely to get regular check-ups at the doctor and more likely to engage in risky behavior, Besen-Cassino says.

People men included have used masks to express their personal sense of style, team allegiances and New Jersey pride (Gov. Phil Murphy wore one that advertised his Parkway exit, 109). But in the May survey, men were more likely than women to agree that masks are shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness and a stigma, researchers said.

Of course, that assumes masks are intended to protect the wearer. On the contrary, we mainly wear them to shield others from getting COVID-19 from us, whether or not we have contracted the virus or know we have it.

Various stages of mask-wearing (and the absence of masks) on display at the pedestrian plaza on Jersey City's Newark Avenue in July. Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

We raise women to be more caring and more susceptive to their environment, Besen-Cassino says. Wearing a mask is caring about other people and making sure others are okay.

The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Publics Policy Preferences Across States surveyed 19,058 people across the country from July 10 to 26. The survey showed that 77% of women said they had followed the recommendation to wear a mask outside the home very closely, compared with 69% of men, says Katya Ognyanova, a professor of communication at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The consortium is a joint project of Rutgers, Harvard, Northeastern and Northwestern universities.

In public health we work really hard to work on behavior change, says Rosie Frasso, director of public health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, which operates medical centers in South Jersey. We try and understand the role of gender ... weve really screwed up with the messaging around this as a country.

For some, being outside has become a signal that masks are not necessary.Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

An early aversion to masks was on full display with government leaders, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. But even off TV screens, Frasso has anecdotally noticed gender differences in mask wearing.

The data on COVID show that men with COVID do far worse than women, she says. They should be extra motivated to avoid it.

Women are more likely to embrace masks because of an approach Frasso likens to putting on an oxygen mask before helping others on a plane.

Women are in lots of ways more responsible about health and health behavior than men because they end up being the organizers of health care for families, she says.

Its a pattern weve seen before.

Women adopted seatbelt use more readily than men, and that was a very similar debate, Frasso says.

For the most part, New Jersey's mask mandate can take the gendered "choice" out of mask wearing. Pictured: Cranford in July.Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media

Women readily see the connections between community and self, says Noah Kass, a psychotherapist and clinical director for NY Health Hypnosis and Integrative Therapy in Manhattan.

Men are more in touch with their ego they almost put themselves outside of their community and see that as a source of pride ... certainly the president doesnt help.

Men are more likely to be in denial about health problems, says Melinda Hall, director of the gender studies program at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. But that kind of denial can also be seen in American culture at large, which upholds the myth that to be human is to work constantly and somehow not get sick. The health crisis, by keeping many at home, has often triggered a reassessment of round-the-clock productivity.

Autonomy and independence are really more of a fiction than anything, Hall says of the rugged individualist identity associated with America. Women are doing the kinds of work that highlights our interdependence.

Women wearing masks at the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in July. It is women who often manage health care for their entire family.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

How can officials cut down on gender-based mask avoidance? One solution can be found in measures that are already in effect in New Jersey and across the country. The May survey on mask use found that the disparity between women and men when it came to intentions about wearing face coverings almost disappears in places where they are mandatory.

A statewide New Jersey mask mandate applying to outdoor spaces went into effect July 8, expanding on the earlier mandate for indoor spaces. Though its clear that not everyone is wearing a mask outside when they arent social distancing, the COVID-19 Consortium survey found that 82% of New Jerseyans surveyed (of a total 388) said they followed mask recommendations very closely.

By comparison, of 254 people surveyed in South Dakota, which has no statewide mask mandate, just 37% said they did the same, and 21% said they followed guidelines to wear face coverings not at all closely.

The Gallup survey found that women (54%), Northeasterners (54%), people 55 and up (47%) and those with annual household incomes under $36,000 (51%) were among the top groups to say they always wear masks outside the home.

President Donald Trump wears a mask July 27 while touring a lab that makes components for a potential COVID-19 vaccine in Morrisville, North Carolina. For months after the CDC recommended them, Trump did not wear a mask.Jim Watson | AFP via Getty Images

But mask analysis isnt limited to gender, age, location and income. The COVID-19 Consortium found Asian respondents (85%) were most likely to say they wore a mask outside the home, echoing the example of mask-wearing cultures found in Asian countries. African American respondents (81%) followed, along with Hispanic respondents (80%). White mask wearers came in at 70%.

Looking at political affiliation, Democrats (84%) were most likely to say they closely follow guidelines to wear masks, while Republicans were least likely (64%). Democrats (92%) were also most likely to say masks are effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, and Republicans were least likely (76%).

President Trump, the most visible Republican, did not wear face coverings at public events for months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended masks, and retweeted messages implying that former Vice President Joe Biden looked weak by wearing them. Trump also told told a reporter wearing a mask that he must want to be politically correct.

The president has since reversed course, wearing a mask in public for the first time in July at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He later tweeted a photo of himself in his presidential face covering, saying that wearing masks is considered patriotic.

People wore gauze masks during the 1918 flu pandemic, when putting one on was equated to supporting the war effort. National Archives and Records Administration/public domain

Trump deciding to wear a mask several months into the pandemic is like showing up to a baby shower with condoms, says Dr. Niket Sonpal, professor of clinical medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York. Its too late.

The politicization of masks can transcend gender differences, as seen in Karen videos that depict middle-aged white women vehemently refusing to wear the face coverings. In June, when staff at a California Trader Joes confronted a woman for not wearing a mask, she proceeded to thrown down her cart and yell Democratic pigs! at people in the store. In July, a woman in Arizona filmed herself dismantling an entire mask display in Target because she disapproved. These anti-mask actors often claim that it is their right to flout store policies or state mandates by going without a mask.

A century ago, masks were routinely associated with patriotism and heroism. In the 1918 flu pandemic, putting on gauze masks to guard against infection was likened to soldiers overseas wearing gas masks during World War I, says Katie Foss, professor of media studies at Middle Tennessee State University.

If we think about the Spanish Flu, most of the messages we got about disease at that time were underscored by war discourse, says Foss, author of the forthcoming book Constructing the Outbreak: Media in Epidemics and Collective Memory (September, University of Massachusetts Press).

We have this switch from wearing a mask is a masculine thing, we moved away from that, Foss says, calling todays mask a loaded symbol.

In one survey, men were more likely to associate masks with weakness.Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

While hand-washing may be second nature, those gauze masks from 1918 do not live in the public memory of 2020.

That fact that we dont have a cultural norm around mask-wearing makes this much more difficult, says Leslie Kantor, chair of the department of urban-global public health at Rutgers in Newark.

Still, that doesnt mean popular thinking about masks cant be reprogrammed.

We have a fast-moving epidemic and peoples personal habits are slow to change, Kantor says. We can change the associations with these prevention objects. We never stopped telling people how to prevent HIV and STDs and pregnancy you have to keep going.

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.

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