Sexism Flashcards
Definition of sexism
Discrimination against a certain sex
The view one sex is superior to the other
Gender stereotypes
Men are competent and independent
Women are warm and expressive
Or women are seen as nice but incompetent
Men are seen as competent and not nice
Female stereotypes
Housewife
Sexy woman
Career woman
Feminist/athlete/lesbian
Sexism still an issue today
Donald trump and grab your pussy gate
Angela markyls warmth and kindness to refugees seen as negatively woman traits
Egalitarianism and sexism
Overall decrease in sexist attitudes but still discrimination in work setting
Egalitarian Norms make it difficult to determine true attitudes to gender roles
New concepts related to sexism were proposed to address the problem
Replacement of Attitudes to women and men scale recommended
Attitudes to women and men scales
E.g. It is worse to see a drunk woman than a drunk man
Men are naturally better drivers than women
Criticisms Self report Old fashioned Too obvious Susceptible to egalitarian norms Create bias to more liberal end of scale
Modern vs old fashioned sexism
Denial of continued discrimination
Antagonism towards women’s demand s
Lack of support for polices that help women
( swim et al 1995)
Neosexism
Conflict between egalitarian values and persisting negative feelings to women
Resistance to equality policy
Denial of women’s difficult situations
Ambivalent sexism
Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework which posits that sexism has two sub-components: “hostile sexism” and “benevolent sexism”. Hostile sexism reflects overtly negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender (e.g., the ideas that women are incompetent and inferior to men). Benevolent sexism represents evaluations of gender that may appear subjectively positive (subjective to the person who is evaluating), but are actually damaging to people and gender equality more broadly (e.g., the ideas that women need to be protected by men)
Benevolent sexism
Viewing women as wonderful but delicate and weak
Sexism two faces
Many of us are familiar with the concept of misogyny: hatred of women. Sexism has another face, though: the belief that women are wonderful and must be protected from the big, bad world.
These two sides to sexism were given a name in a paper by Glick and Fiske (1996): ambivalent sexism. Ambivalent sexism consists of two types of attitude towards women: hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism is classic prejudice; benevolent sexism is the view that women are lovely, fluffy nurturing caregivers (or, as the paper puts it, intimacy-seeking and prosocial). Within these categories are three “sources” of ambivalent sexism, each with its corresponding hostile and benevolent face.
First, paternalism. Paternalism is theorised to come in two forms. Dominant paternalism is the idea that men should control women, while protective paternalism is the notion that men should protect women.
Second, gender differentiation. Competitive gender differentiation is a set of beliefs that bolster the idea that men are the better sex, while complementary gender differentiation, its benevolent counterpart, focuses on the “equal but different” myth, wherein women have their own, special roles in the kitchen.
Finally, heterosexuality. The theory of ambivalent sexism acknowledges that a major source of sexism is the hegemonic heterosexual ideal. Heterosexual hostility is the viewing of women as sex objects and fear of female sexual power, while intimate heterosexuality romaticises this objectification and sees men as incomplete without a woman.
The theory therefore provides a fairly comprehensive account of sexism. It does not just stop at theorising.
Measurement of ambivalent sexism
The ASI consists of 22 items; 11 in each category. Examples of questions which tap hostile sexism are “Once a man commits, she puts him on a tight leash” or a reverse-scored item “Feminists are not seeking more power than men“. Reverse scoring allows researchers to check if participants are just selecting the same response for every item on a questionnaire, and also help to test the reliability of the measure.
Examples of questions which tap into benevolent sexism include “A good woman should be set on a pedestal“, “Women have a quality of purity few men possess“, and “Men are complete without women“. Spot the reverse-scored item.
The Glick and Fiske study found that benevolent and hostile sexism were distinct, but they were also correlated with one another, suggesting that people who hold hostile sexist attitudes also hold benevolent sexist attitudes.
A problem with the ASI, though, is that it is dependent on self-reporting. Even in an anonymous questionnaire, research participants may give responses that make them seem socially desirable (i.e. less of a sexist knobend). Furthermore, a questionnaire may influence their behaviour or responses to other questions if the participant guesses that the study is about sexism. For that reason, some researchers prefer to modify the ASI to present scenarios or observe behaviour.
Problems of ambivalent sexism
Much of the ambivalent sexism research has focused on workplace sexism. Hostile sexism has been linked to negative evaluations of women candidates for a managerial job and higher recommendations for a male candidate for the same role. It has also been linked to greater tolerance of sexist events after hearing a sexist joke, which suggests that sexist humour does have real-world implications, for hostile sexist people, at least.
Benevolent sexism has many real-world implications. It, too, has been linked to low evaluations of women in the workplace, as women are seen to be neglecting their traditional roles as caregivers and homemakers. As well as this systemic negative effect on women, the impact of benevolent sexism extend to psychological effects. When experiencing benevolent sexism, women perform worse at various cognitive tasks, which suggests that the benevolent sexist attitude further reinforces a vicious circle which allows women to do worse.
Racism and ambivalent sexism
Benevolent sexism leads to women are pure and weak attitude and can be used in racism
E.g. Protecting women against black men raping them
Colonialism attitudes of black men being dangerous to white women
Ambivalent sexism applied to women of different races
E.g. Women who wear the veil seem as pure and holy, women who don’t seen as slutty
