Ambivalent sexism

Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework, used to define the different behaviors and thoughts associated with sexism. According to the theory, there are two types of sexism: “hostile sexism” and “benevolent sexism”. Hostile sexism represents subjectively negative evaluations and stereotypes about gender (e.g., women are too easily offended). Oppositely, benevolent sexism is about subjectively positive and affectionate, but patronizing sexist attitudes toward women (e.g., women should be cherished and protected by men). The term and the theory were first introduced in 1996 by Peter Glick and Susan Fiske.

The authors
Peter Glick, PhD., is the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of the Social Sciences Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. His scholarship focuses on biases and stereotyping. He received his A.B. in psychology from Oberlin College in 1979 and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1984.

Susan T. Fiske (born August 19, 1952) is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at the Princeton University Department of Psychology. In 1973, she enrolled at Radcliffe College for her undergraduate degree in social relations at Harvard University where she graduated in the top 10% of her class. She also received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1978. Besides ambivalent sexism, her theoretical contributions include the development of the stereotype content model, power as control theory, and the continuum model of impression formation.

Both Glick and Fiske received the 1995 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize, honoring the "best paper or article of the year on intergroup relations" for "The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexism."

Theoretical framework
Sexism has typically been conceptualized as a reflection of hostility toward women, a type of prejudice. However, this view neglects a significant aspect of subjectively positive feelings toward women that often go hand in hand with sexist antipathy. The key idea of ambivalent sexism theory is that sexism is a complex, multidimensional construct that encompasses two sets of sexist attitudes: hostile and benevolent sexism. Authors describe benevolent sexism "as a set of interrelated attitudes toward women that are sexist in terms of viewing women stereotypically and in restricted roles but that are subjectively positive in feeling tone (for the perceiver) and also tend to elicit behaviors typically categorized as prosocial (e.g., helping) or intimacy-seeking (e.g., self-disclosure)" (1996, P 491). It doesn't mean that benevolent sexism is a good thing. Despite positive feeling, both types of sexism share common assumptions that women inhabit restricted domestic roles and are the "weaker" sex, it indicates traditional stereotyping and masculine dominance.

Hostile sexism and benevolent sexism are mutually supportive ideologies. According to the cross-cultural study, conducted in 2000 with more than 15,000 participants, 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 (Glick et al., 2000).

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 paternalism) and interdependence between the sexes (heterosexuality).

Male dominance is prevalent across cultures, with men dominating high-status roles and exploiting women. To justify the exploitation, hostile stereotypes are created by the dominant group. However, men are often highly dependent upon women as wives, mothers, romantic partners, and interaction between members of the dominant and subordinate group are welcome. 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) (Glick & Fiske, 1997).

Ambivalent Sexism Inventory
To measure the degree to which an individual hold ambivalent sexism beliefs the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) was introduced in 1996. The ASI is a 22-item self-reported measure on which respondents indicate their level of agreement with various statements, which are placed on a 6-point scale. It based on two sub-scale (to measure hostile and benevolent sexism separately), but the result can be calculated into one overall sexism score. Here are some examples of statements from the ASI:

Hostile Sexism Items: Benevolent 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."
 * "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."

The ASI was proved to be reliable and valid over time (Glick & Fiske, 2011).

Critique
The main critique of the theory is the natural limitation of ASI. Because it is a self-reported measurement, some biases can occur (for example, desirability bias or extreme response bias). Another criticism of the ASI is that the labels of the two sub-constructs, "benevolent" and "hostile", are too abstract, do not generalize to certain languages, and may not be relevant to some cultures.