{"id":446,"date":"2020-02-15T19:24:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T19:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/upgrade-stop\/?p=446"},"modified":"2020-08-21T14:25:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T13:25:49","slug":"ambivalent-sexism-and-the-dos-and-donts-of-pregnancy-examining-attitudes-toward-proscriptions-and-the-women-who-flout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/ambivalent-sexism-and-the-dos-and-donts-of-pregnancy-examining-attitudes-toward-proscriptions-and-the-women-who-flout\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambivalent sexism and the \u2018do’s’ and ‘don\u2019t\u2019s’ of pregnancy: Examining attitudes toward proscriptions and the women who flout them"},"content":{"rendered":"

More about Professor Robbie Sutton<\/a>
\nFull text of<\/a> pap<\/a>er<\/a>
\nRelated coverage: BBC News<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

About\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Discrimination against pregnant women is evident in many ways. Among these are restrictions in hiring, negative consequences in career progression following maternity and socially imposed restrictions on diet and exercise (Murphy, Sutton, Douglas & McClellan, 2011; Silver-Greenberg & <\/span>Kitroeff<\/span>, 2018).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A quick online search about pregnancy restrictions aptly paints the picture: <\/span>articles about what foods and drinks to avoid, how to manage exercise, mobility and travel during pregnancy and other taboos. <\/span>In the<\/span> \u2018the everyday sexism project\u2019 a female professional describes how colleagues consistently pressure her not to travel to work by bike because she is pregnant.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of these taboos may not only be physically harmful to the mother and baby (e.g., disallowed exercise, be forced to stay at home- <\/span>G\u00e9lis<\/span>, 1991<\/span>; <\/span>Meyer-Rochow,2009<\/span>) but may also have negative psychological consequences for the mother. For instance, research has shown that in Western cultures, pregnant women who do not adhere to <\/span>\u201c<\/span>conventional prohibitions may experience confusion, guilt and stigma<\/span>\u201d<\/span> (Murphy, Sutton, Douglas & McClellan, 2011, p.812). At the same time, pregnant women who continue to work or pursue careers in typically masculine fields may be discriminated against (<\/span>Hebl<\/span>, Glick, <\/span>Singletrary<\/span> & Kazama, 2007).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research has attempted to understand the reasons underlining socially-construed prohibitions towards pregnant mothers (i.e., that extend beyond medical advice).\u00a0 <\/span>One line of research proposes<\/span> that one reason <\/span>for <\/span>this may be aversion to risk<\/span>. Another line of research, however, argues that such prohibitions are rooted in sexist attitudes. For example, <\/span>Gavaghan<\/span> (2009) argues that \u2018\u2018singling out one sex for particular monitoring and lecturing from healthcare professionals….is, on the face of it, <\/span>a <\/span>straightforwardly sexist policy\u2019\u2019 (p. 302).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Two experimental studies<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Study 1: 148 students from a UK University were given questionnaires in return for 10 GBP.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Questionnaires:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Ambivalent Sexism Inventory<\/em> (e.g., <\/span>\u2018\u2018Most women fail to appreciate fully all that men do for them\u2019\u2019)<\/span>\u00a0;\u00a0<\/span>Endorsement of proscriptions<\/em> (e.g., \u2018Pregnant women should not…\u2019\u2019)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Study 2: 124 undergraduate students at an English university<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Questionnaires:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Ambivalent Sexism Inventory<\/em> ;\u00a0<\/span>\u202fJudgements concerning proscribed <\/em><\/span>behaviours<\/em> (7 <\/span>behaviours<\/span>: eating blue-veined cheese, drinking alcohol, smoking, drinking tea or <\/span>coffee,drinking<\/span> tap water, working out at the gym, and eating seafood<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Participants indicated whether these <\/span>behaviours<\/span> are “unsafe to the mother”, “unsafe to the baby”, deserving of punishment”.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2022 \u00a0General positivity or negativity towards women<\/span>
\n\u2022 \u00a0P<\/span>articipants indicated their feelings to-ward \u2018\u2018women generally\u2019\u2019, and \u2018\u2018pregnant women generally\u2019\u2019 (feeling thermometer)<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2022 \u00a0Participants also rate their feelings toward \u2018\u2018pregnant women who, against health advice, drink moderate levels of alcohol\u2019\u2019- most salient and controversial of <\/span>proscriptions<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Key findings\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 H<\/span>ostile<\/span> and benevolent sexism were positively<\/span> associated with endorsement of proscriptive statement<\/span> (Study 1)
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2022 Hostile (but not benevolent) sexism was positively associated with punitive attitudes toward proscribed <\/span>behaviours<\/span> during pregnancy<\/span> (Study 2)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Impact<\/h3>\n

\u2022 Findings offer new and important insight into the link between sexism and pregnancy proscriptions<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Important<\/span> potential<\/span> implications for media and policy<\/strong> regarding<\/span> pregnant women refraining from usual activities<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Important implications for equality and human rights policies<\/strong> towards the derogation and <\/span>stigmatisation<\/span> women may face <\/span>when<\/span> pregnan<\/span>t
\n<\/span>
\n\u2022 <\/span>Important implications for healthcare <\/strong><\/span>regarding the<\/span> stigmatisation<\/span> of<\/span> women during pregnancy<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Findings<\/span> stimulate<\/strong> further research<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More about Professor Robbie Sutton Full text of paper Related coverage: BBC News About\u00a0\u00a0 Discrimination against pregnant women is evident in many ways. Among these are restrictions in hiring, negative consequences in career progression following maternity and socially imposed restrictions on diet and exercise (Murphy, Sutton, Douglas & McClellan, 2011; Silver-Greenberg & Kitroeff, 2018).\u00a0\u00a0 A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":1198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","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\/446","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=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/2250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/stop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}