Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Next Gen Ambivalent Sexism: Converging Correlates, Causality in Context, and Converse Causality, an Introduction to the Special Issue

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The special issue on Ambivalent Sexism (Glick and Fiske 1996, 1999, 2001) reflects the current landscape of ambivalent sexism research. This introduction reviews the theory, exploring the particularly insidious case of benevolent sexism. Next, it presents the included papers, which range broadly, but generally fit one of three research streams in the development of ambivalent sexism research. Some papers focus on converging correlations, exploring ambivalent sexism’s relation to other ideologies and cultural dimensions. Other papers demonstrate causality in context, revealing impact on targets and the prescriptive power of ambivalent ideologies. A third line documents converse causality, illustrating impact on perceivers’ self processes. Finally, we discuss possible future areas of research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abrams, D., Viki, G. T., Masser, B., & Bohner, G. (2003). Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 111–125.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barreto, M., & Ellemers, N. (2005). The burden of benevolent sexism: How it contributes to the maintenance of gender inequalities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 633–642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barreto, M., Ellemers, N., Piebinga, L., & Moya, M. (2010). How nice of us and how dumb of me: The effect of exposure to benevolent sexism on women’s task and relational self-descriptions. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Becker, J. C. (2010). Why do women endorse hostile and benevolent sexism? The role of salient female subtypes and internalization of sexist contents. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Berdahl, J. L. (2007). The sexual harassment of uppity women. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 425–437.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berdahl, J. L., Magley, V. J., & Waldo, C. R. (1996). The sexual harassment of men: Exploring the concept with the theory and data. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 527–547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkowitz, A. D. (2003). Applications of social norms theory to other health and social justice issues. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 259–279). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohner, G., Ahlborn, K., & Steiner, R. (2010). How sexy are sexist men? Women’s perception of male response profiles in the ambivalent sexism inventory. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Bosson, J. K., Pinel, E. C., & Vandello, J. A. (2010). The emotional impact of ambivalent sexism: Forecasts versus real experiences. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Burn, S. M., & Busso, J. (2005). Ambivalent sexism, scriptural literalism, and religiosity. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29, 412–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christopher, A. N., & Mull, M. S. (2006). Conservative ideology and ambivalent sexism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 223–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cikara, M., Eberhardt, J. L., & Fiske, S. T. (under review). From agents to objects: Sexist attitudes and neural responses to sexualized targets.

  • Dardenne, B., Dumont, M., & Bollier, T. (2007). Insidious dangers of benevolent sexism: Consequences for women’s performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 764–779.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dumont, M., Sarlet, M., & Dardenne, B. (2010). Be too kind to a woman, she’ll feel incompetent: Benevolent sexism shifts self-construal and autobiographical memories toward incompetence. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Durán, M., Moya, M., Megías, J. L., & Viki, T. G. (2010). Social perception of rape victims in dating and married relationships: The role of perpetrator’s benevolent sexism. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Eastwick, P. W., Eagly, A. H., Glick, P., Johannesen-Schmidt, M., Fiske, S. T., Blum, A., et al. (2006). Is traditional gender ideology associated with sex-typed mate preferences? A test in nine nations. Sex Roles, 54, 603–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, W., & Einarsen, S. (2004). Gender minority as a risk factor of exposure to bullying at work: The case of male assistant nurses. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 473–492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feather, N. T. (2004). Value correlates of ambivalent attitudes toward gender relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 3–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fields, A. M., Swan, S., & Kloos, B. (2010). ‘What it means to be a woman’: Ambivalent sexism in female college students’ experiences and attitudes. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Fischer, A. R. (2006). Women’s benevolent sexism as reaction to hostility. Psychology of Women’s Quarterly, 30, 410–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, G. B., Adams-Curtis, L. E., Hamm, N. R., & White, K. B. (2003). Perceptions of the woman who breastfeeds: The role of erotophobia, sexism, and attitudinal variables. Sex Roles, 49, 379–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowers, A. F., & Fowers, B. J. (2010). Social dominance and sexual self-schema as moderators of sexist reactions to female subtypes. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1997). Hostile and benevolent sexism: Measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 119–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1999). The ambivalence toward men inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent beliefs about men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23, 519–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). Ambivalent sexism. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 33 (pp. 115–188). Thousand Oaks: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., Diebold, J., Bailey-Werner, B., & Zhu, L. (1997). The two faces of Adam: Ambivalent sexism and polarized attitudes toward women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1323–1334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., Fiske, S. T., Mladinic, A., Saiz, J. L., Abrams, D., Masser, B., et al. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763–775.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Glick, P., Lameiras, M., Fiske, S. T., Eckes, T., Masser, B., Volpato, C., et al. (2004). Bad but bold: Ambivalent attitudes toward men predict gender inequality in 16 nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 713–728.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Good, J. J., & Rudman, L. A. (2010). When female applicants meet sexist interviewers: The costs of being a target of benevolent sexism. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Guttentag, M., & Secord, P. (1983). Too many women? Beverly Hills: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackman, M. R. (1994). The velvet glove: Paternalism and conflict in gender, class, and race relations. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jost, J. T., & Banaji, M. R. (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false-consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilianski, S. E., & Rudman, L. A. (1998). Wanting it both ways: Do women approve of benevolent sexism? Sex Roles, 39, 333–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kilmartin, C., Smith, T., Green, A., Heinzen, H., Kuchler, M., & Kolar, D. (2008). A real time social norms intervention to reduce male sexism. Sex Roles, 59, 264–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, T. L., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2010). Ambivalent sexism in close relationships: (Hostile) power and (benevolent) romance shape relationship ideals. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Masser, B., Lee, K., & McKimmie, B. M. (2010). Bad woman, bad victim? Disentangling the effects of victim stereotypicality, gender stereotypicality and benevolent sexism on acquaintance rape victim blame. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Napier, J. L., Thorisdottir, H., & Jost, J. T. (2010). The joy of sexism? A multinational investigation of hostile and benevolent justifications for gender inequality and their relations to subjective well-being. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Sakalli-Uğurlu, N. (2010). Ambivalent sexism, gender, and major as predictors of Turkish college students’ attitudes toward women and men’s atypical educational choices. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Sibley, C. G., & Perry, R. (2010). An opposing process model of benevolent sexism. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Sibley, C. G., & Wilson, M. S. (2004). Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes toward positive and negative sexual female subtypes. Sex Roles, 51, 687–696.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibley, C. G., Overall, N. C., & Duckitt, J. (2007). When women become more hostilely sexist toward their gender: The system-justifying effect of benevolent sexism. Sex Roles, 57, 743–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibley, C. G., Overall, N. C., Duckitt, J., Perry, R., Milfont, T. L., Khan, S. S., et al. (2009). Your sexism predicts my sexism: Perceptions of men’s (but not women’s) sexism affects one’s own sexism over time. Sex Roles, 60, 682–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair, S., Lowery, B. S., Hardin, C. D., & Colangelo, A. (2005). Social tuning of automatic racial attitudes: The role of affiliative motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 583–592.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Swim, J. K., Aikin, K. J., Hall, W. S., & Hunter, B. A. (1995). Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 199–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swim, J. K., Becker, J. C., & DeCoster, J. (under review). Core dimensions underlying contemporary measures of sexist beliefs.

  • Taşdemir, N., & Sakalli-Uğurlu, N. (2010). The relationships between ambivalent sexism and religiosity among Turkish university students. Sex Roles, this issue.

  • Tougas, F., Brown, R., Beaton, A. M., & Joly, S. (1995). Neosexism: Plus ca change, plus c’est pareil. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 842–849.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Travaglia, L. K., Overall, N. C., & Sibley, C. G. (2009). Benevolent and hostile sexism and preferences for romantic partners. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 599–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldo, C. R., Berdahl, J. L., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1998). Are men sexually harassed? If so, by whom? Law and Human Behavior, 22, 59–79.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zanna, M. P., & Fazio, R. H. (1982). Commentary. The attitude-behavior relation: Moving toward a third generation of research. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Consistency in social behavior: The Ontario symposium on personality and social psychology (pp. 282–303). Erlbaum: Mahwah.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Tiane L. Lee & Susan T. Fiske

  2. Department of Psychology, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, USA

    Peter Glick

Authors
  1. Tiane L. Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan T. Fiske
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peter Glick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiane L. Lee.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, T.L., Fiske, S.T. & Glick, P. Next Gen Ambivalent Sexism: Converging Correlates, Causality in Context, and Converse Causality, an Introduction to the Special Issue. Sex Roles 62, 395–404 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9747-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9747-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation