{"id":431,"date":"2020-02-15T19:20:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T19:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/upgrade-stop\/?p=431"},"modified":"2020-02-15T19:20:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T19:20:49","slug":"is-sexism-a-gender-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/is-sexism-a-gender-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Is sexism a gender issue?\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

More about Dr Kristof Dhont<\/a>
\nFull text of paper<\/a><\/p>\n

About<\/h3>\n

What is sexism?<\/h4>\n

Psychological research on sexism generally looks at men\u2019s discriminatory attitudes and <\/span>behaviours<\/span> towards women. While sexism is a form of prejudice, Glick and Fiske (1996, 1999) suggest that it differs from other types of prejudice because of the \u201cinterdependency and close intimacy between men and women\u201d \u2013 characteristics that are not associated with other forms of inter-group relations (e.g., ethnic minority vs ethnic majority). For that reason, sexism is distinguished between benevolent and hostile.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Benevolent sexism is a form of paternalistic prejudice directed toward women. Benevolent sexism<\/span> is an affectionate but patronising attitude that treats women as needing men’s help, protection, and provision<\/span>. <\/span>Benevolently sexist attitudes suggest that women are purer and nicer than men, but also mentally weaker and less capable<\/span> (i.e. \u2018weak but wonderful\u2019)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hostile sexism is a form of sexism that is reflected in biased attitudes and behavio<\/span>u<\/span>rs toward people based on their gender. <\/span>H<\/span>ostile sexis<\/span>ts<\/span> seek to maintain and perpetuate the dominance of <\/span>their group (e.g., men)<\/span> by focusing on the perceived inferiority of the other group<\/span> (e.g., women)<\/span>. <\/span>Hostile sexism can perpetuate gender-based prejudices and restrict equal opportunities for both genders. This usually results in negative psychological and emotional consequences for women (ref).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is likely to be sexist?<\/h3>\n

Psychological research shows that people who are more needing of clear order and structure, and have problems tolerating ambiguous situations are more likely to show prejudice<\/span> (e.g., racial or ethnic prejudice)<\/span>. In psychological terms, these personality <\/span>traits<\/span> are <\/span>explained as <\/span>\u2018Need for Cognitive Closure\u2019 (NFC)\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research on the relationship <\/span>between <\/span>NFC <\/span>and<\/span> prejudice has mostly been conducted in relation to racial and ethnic prejudice. In this research project, <\/span>Dhont<\/span> and colleagues examine the role of NFC in predicting sexist ideology. <\/span>Their examinations also extend beyond NFC to examine RWA and SDO in prejudice.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their findings are crucial for understanding both the roots of sexism and ways of reducing sexism in society.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013 \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-
\nDefinitions:<\/p>\n

NFC:<\/strong> <\/em>A desire for a definite answer to a question, as opposed to uncertainty, confusion, or ambiguity.<\/p>\n

RWA:<\/strong><\/em> People high in RWA are in favour of maintaining traditional socially conservative values and are more likely to obey authority (which they see as legitimate). They tend to be punitive towards people who do not adhere to authority and social norms.<\/p>\n

SDO:<\/strong><\/em> People high in SDO show greater preference for hierarchies within social systems and the domination of lower-status groups.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013 \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Research objectives<\/h3>\n

\u2022To investigate <\/span>how the respondents\u2019 own gender contributes to sexism
\n<\/span>
\n\u2022<\/span>To investigate how <\/span>personality traits<\/span> in general and NFC in particular explain sexism
\n<\/span>
\n\u2022<\/span>To investigate whether NFC is related to sexism in the same way as it is to racial prejudice
\n<\/span>
\n\u2022<\/span>To test whether RWA is primarily predictive of benevolent sexism<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022To test whether SDO is primarily predictive of hostile sexism\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Programme and methodology\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Study 1: <\/strong>179 working adults working in two national companies (a gas and electricity company and a health insurance firm) completed online questionnaires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Questionnaires<\/span> measured:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, NFC scale, Organisational citizenship behavior<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Study 2<\/strong>: <\/span>222 adults working adults completed questionnaires (not online)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Questionnaires:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>NFC scale, Social attitudes, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Ambivalent towards Men Inventory\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Some key findings\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 M<\/span>en<\/span> and women who showed sexism towards the other gender also showed sexism towards their own gender <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 NFC explained sexist attitudes towards other and own gender <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>RWA (but not SDO) explained benevolent sexism towards men and women (for both men and <\/span>women<\/span>) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 SDO was most strongly linked to hostile sexism<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 W<\/span>omen’s hostile sexism toward their own gender group was primarily associated with SDO as well<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More about Dr Kristof Dhont Full text of paper About What is sexism? Psychological research on sexism generally looks at men\u2019s discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards women. While sexism is a form of prejudice, Glick and Fiske (1996, 1999) suggest that it differs from other types of prejudice because of the \u201cinterdependency and close intimacy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prejudice-gender"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}