Hostile Sexism Score: 2 - BrainMass



Hostile Sexism Score: 2.27

Benevolent Sexism Score: 4.18

What do my scores mean?

The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory measures two separate but related tendencies:

• "Hostile sexism," which involves negative feelings toward women

• "Benevolent sexism," a knight-in-shining armor ideology that offers protection and affection to women who conform to traditional gender roles (e.g., cute girlfriend, obedient wife, etc.)

Scores on each dimension can vary from 0 to 5, and although there is no fixed point that divides sexist and nonsexist people, higher ASI scores are related to greater degrees of sexism. For example, people with high levels of hostile sexism are more likely than others to hold negative stereotypes about career women, and they express attitudes that are more tolerant of sexual harassment and spousal abuse of women.

In contrast, high scores on benevolent sexism are not related to overt measures of hostility toward women. Nevertheless, benevolent sexism can turn ugly when women venture beyond traditional gender roles. For instance, one study found that benevolent sexists were more likely than others to blame a female victim for being raped after she invited a man into her apartment (presumably because the victim's behavior violated norms of female chastity).

How do my scores compare?

The bar chart below compares your results with the ASI scores of other people who have taken the inventory on this web site. For a cross-cultural perspective, you can change the bars by choosing different countries from the pulldown menu below (to see an exact score, position your mouse over the bar in question).

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Note: The countries listed come from a study of more than 15,000 respondents published in the May, 2000, issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. None of the averages are based on fully representative national samples, so they should be interpreted with caution. More countries will be added as data are collected.

Some cross-cultural research findings

In all countries studied thus far, men have tended to score higher than women in hostile sexism. When it comes to benevolent sexism, though, the gender gap is often small or nonexistent.

In fact, women in the most sexist countries endorse benevolent sexism to an even greater degree than do men. Faced with hostile reactions if they reject conventional gender roles, these women often embrace benevolent sexism and the protection it promises.

To learn more about ambivalent sexism, please visit Frequently Asked Questions: Ambivalent Sexism.

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Frequently Asked Questions: Ambivalent Sexism

This page contains answers to several frequently asked questions about ambivalent sexism. To take the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, click here.

1. What is ambivalent sexism?

Ambivalent sexism is an ideology composed of both a "hostile" and "benevolent" prejudice toward women. Hostile sexism is an antagonistic attitude toward women, who are often viewed as trying to control men through feminist ideology or sexual seduction. Benevolent sexism is a chivalrous attitude toward women that feels favorable but is actually sexist because it casts women as weak creatures in need of men's protection.

2. How is ambivalent sexism measured?

Ambivalent sexism is measured with a paper-and-pencil or computer-based questionnaire known as the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). The ASI is composed of two 11-item subscales that measure hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. In the sample items below, agreement with a statement indicates a more sexist response:

Hostile Sexism Items:

• "Most women fail to appreciate all that men do for them."

• "Women seek to gain power by getting control over men."

• "Most women interpret innocent remarks or acts as being sexist."

Benevolent Sexism Items:

• "Women should be cherished and protected by men."

• "Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess."

• "A good woman ought to be set on a pedestal by her man."

3. Which items of the Ambivalent Sexism Scale measure hostile sexism, and which ones measure benevolent sexism?

The hostile sexism items are numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, and 21, and the benevolent sexism items are numbers 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, and 22. Scores on each subscale are calculated by reversing items 3, 6, 7, 13, 18, 21 (so that an answer of 0 becomes 5, 1 becomes 4, and so on), and then averaging the 11 hostile and 11 benevolent sexism items separately. Scores on each subscale can vary from 0 to 5, and the overall ambivalent sexism score is simply the average of the hostile and benevolent sexism scores.

4. What's sexist about cherishing and protecting someone you care about?

There is nothing sexist about cherishing or protecting another person. Prejudices such as sexism and heterosexism enter the equation when universal or rigid gender prescriptions are endorsed, such as "Every man ought to have a woman whom he adores."

In almost any sexism scale, there will be specific items that do not seem sexist. When all 22 items of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory are taken together, however, the resulting scores are statistically related to other measures of sexism and gender inequality. For example, cross-cultural research has found that national averages on the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory are related to indices of gender inequality, such as having fewer women in positions of political power.

5. Who developed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory?

The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory was developed by Professor Peter Glick of Lawrence University and Professor Susan T. Fiske of Princeton University. The first published article on ambivalent sexism and the inventory appeared in the March, 1996, issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

6. What causes ambivalent sexism?

According to Professors Glick and Fiske, sexist ambivalence is the result of two basic facts about relations between women and men: male dominance (patriarchy) and interdependence between the sexes.

Male dominance is prevalent across cultures, with men dominating high status roles in business, government, religious institutions, and so forth. Hostile sexism arises in large part because dominant groups tend to create hostile ideologies concerning the inferiority of other groups.

Despite male dominance, however, men are often highly dependent upon women as wives, mothers, and romantic partners. This dependence fosters benevolent sexism, which recognizes women as valuable and attractive (an attitude not generally present in prejudices such as racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia, in which the targets of prejudice are typically shunned or loathed).

7. How are hostile sexism and benevolent sexism related?

Hostile sexism and benevolent sexism are mutually supportive ideologies. In a 19-nation study published in the May, 2000, issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, responses from more than 15,000 people who completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory showed that countries high in hostile sexism were invariably high in benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism and benevolent sexism are also significantly correlated at the individual level (meaning that a high score on one scale tends to be associated with a high score on the other), though this correlation is not large.

8. Why is benevolent sexism important?

Benevolent sexism may seem harmless, noble, or even "romantic," but its effects can be devastating. Benevolent sexism, like hostile sexism, is an ideology that supports gender inequality, and in some ways benevolent sexism can be even more insidious.

Benevolent justifications for discrimination (e.g., "Women should forego a career because they excel at childcare") are more likely to be accepted than hostile justifications (e.g., "Women should forego a career because they lack ability"). Whereas women are more likely than men to reject hostile sexism, they often endorse benevolent sexism -- especially in countries high in hostile sexism, where male protection is most appealing. Ironically, it may be that high levels of hostile sexism among men lead to high levels of benevolent sexism among women.

9. Where can I learn more about ambivalent sexism?

A large number of studies have been conducted on ambivalent sexism, and a partial bibliography appears below. For a less technical introduction, you may wish to consult the article by Peter Glick and Susan Fiske in Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination.

Begany, J. J., & Milburn, M. A. (2002). Psychological predictors of sexual harassment: Authoritarianism, hostile sexism, and rape myths. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 3, 119-126.

Dell-Amore, C. (2009, February 16). Bikinis make men see women as objects, scans confirm. National Geographic News.

Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (1995). Ambivalence and stereotypes cause sexual harassment: A theory with implications for organizational change. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 97-115.

Fiske, S. T., Xu, J., & Cuddy, A. C. (1999). (Dis)respecting versus (dis)liking: Status and interdependence predict ambivalent stereotypes of competence and warmth. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 473-489.

Franzoi, S. L. (2001). Is female body esteem shaped by benevolent sexism? Sex Roles, 44, 177-188.

Glick, P., et al. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763-775.

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.

Glick, P. & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.

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, CA: Academic Press.

Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications of gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56, 109-118.

Glick, P., Sakalli-Ugurlu, N., Ferreira, M. C., & Aguiar de Souza, M. (2002). Ambivalent sexism and attitudes toward wife abuse in Turkey and Brazil. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 291-296.

Goodwin, S. A., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). Power and gender: The double-edged sword of ambivanence. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Handbook of the psychology of women and gender (pp. 358-366). New York: Wiley.

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

Masser, B., & Abrams, D. (1999). Contemporary sexism: The relationships among hostility, benevolence, and neosexism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23, 503-517.

Wiener, R. L., Hurt, L., Russell, B. Mannen, K., & Gasper, C. (1997). Perceptions of sexual harassment: The effects of gender, legal standard, and ambivalent sexism. Law and Human Behavior, 21, 71-93.

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