Ambivalent sexism theory states that prejudice toward women comprises two interrelated ideologies. Endorsement of hostile sexism—aggressive and competitive attitudes toward women—is linked with ...endorsement of benevolent sexism—paternalistic and patronizing attitudes toward women. We conduct the first systematic tests of how endorsement of sexism differs across age and across time, using six waves of a nationally representative panel sample of New Zealand adults (N = 10,398). Results indicated U-shaped trajectories for men’s endorsement of hostile sexism, women’s hostile sexism, and women’s benevolent sexism across the life span. However, over time, endorsement of these sexist attitudes tended to decrease for most ages. In contrast, men’s benevolent sexism followed a positive linear trajectory across age and tended not to change over time. These results provide novel evidence of how ambivalent sexism differs across age and highlight that benevolent sexism is particularly tenacious.
Emeka Anaza, Jacqueline McDowell -The purpose of this study was to explore factors that embolden sexist practices, attitudes, and behaviors towards female sport participation. Using four levels of ...sexism as a theoretical guide, the experiences and sentiments of Nigerians were explored. Thirty research participants explain factors they believe are the root causes of sexism or elements that embolden sexist practices, attitudes, and behaviors which inhibit women’s and girls’ sport participation. These factors are individual, social structural, institutional, and cultural in nature. Fully conceptualizing the causes of sexism within Nigerian sport programs will provide practitioners with an understanding of ways to minimize the negative effects of discrimination. It will also help emancipate oppressed groups, and increase participation rate for women and girls interested in sports.
According to ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), the coexistence of gendered power differences and mutual interdependence creates two apparently opposing but complementary sexist ...ideologies: hostile sexism (HS; viewing women as manipulative competitors who seek to gain power over men) coincides with benevolent sexism (BS; a chivalrous view of women as pure and moral, yet weak and passive, deserving men's protection and admiration, as long as they conform). The research on these ideologies employs the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, used extensively in psychology and allied disciplines, often to understand the roles sexist attitudes play in reinforcing gender inequality. Following contemporary guidelines, this systematic review utilizes a principled approach to synthesize the multidisciplinary empirical literature on ambivalent sexism. After screening 1,870 potentially relevant articles and fully reviewing 654 eligible articles, five main domains emerge in ambivalent sexism research (social ideologies, violence, workplace, stereotypes, intimate relationships). The accumulating evidence across domains offers bottom-up empirical support for ambivalent sexism as a coordinated system to maintain control over women (and sometimes men). Hostile sexism acts through the direct and diverse paths of envious/resentful prejudices, being more sensitive to power and sexuality cues; Benevolent sexism acts through prejudices related to interdependence (primarily gender-based paternalism and gender-role differentiation), enforcing traditional gender relations and being more sensitive to role-related cues. Discussion points to common methodological limitations, suggests guidelines, and finds future avenues for ambivalent sexism research.
Public Significance Statement
Ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) posits that two complementary ideologies aim to control women: hostile sexism (antipathy toward nontraditional women) coexists with benevolent sexism (seemingly favorable yet demeaning beliefs about conforming women). This review systematically scopes the multidisciplinary empirical literature on ambivalent sexism (654 articles), identifies the main domains, and shows how it reinforces gender inequality in terms of vulnerability to prejudiced ideologies, gendered violence, workplace discrimination, stereotyped representations, and close relationships disadvantage.
We tested the novel hypothesis that men lower in status-linked variables—that is, subjective social status and perceived mate value—are relatively disinclined to offset their high hostile sexism with ...high benevolent sexism. Findings revealed that mate value, but not social status, moderates the hostile–benevolent sexism link among men: Whereas men high in perceived mate value endorse hostile and benevolent sexism linearly across the attitude range, men low in mate value show curvilinear sexism, characterized by declining benevolence as hostility increases above the midpoint. Study 1 (N = 15,205) establishes the curvilinear sexism effect and shows that it is stronger among men than women. Studies 2 (N = 328) and 3 (N = 471) show that the curve is stronger among men low versus high in perceived mate value, and especially if they lack a serious relationship partner (Study 3). Discussion considers the relevance of these findings for understanding misogyny.
Student evaluations of teaching are widely believed to contain gender bias. In this study, we conduct a randomized experiment with the student evaluations of teaching in four classes with large ...enrollments, two taught by male instructors and two taught by female instructors. In each of the courses, students were randomly assigned to either receive the standard evaluation instrument or the same instrument with language intended to reduce gender bias. Students in the anti-bias language condition had significantly higher rankings of female instructors than students in the standard treatment. There were no differences between treatment groups for male instructors. These results indicate that a relatively simple intervention in language can potentially mitigate gender bias in student evaluation of teaching.
This collection of essays responds to the need to approach questions of race and racism from a feminist perspective, focusing on the intersections of race, class and gender. Only a thorough ...exploration of these intersections can open up a deeper understanding of racism against particular groups that have emerged in the European historical context and point to ways of intervening in the racial practices of the present. The chapters in the book are structured into two parts: the first section focuses on particular themes like representation of race and gender inequality, as well as everyday racism in educational institutions, whereas in the second section, the intersections of race and gender are explored in national contexts.
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