Study Notes on Chapter 5: Sexism and Gender/Sex-Role Stereotypes

Chapter 5: Sexism and Gender/Sex-Role Stereotypes

Attitudes and Concepts

  • Attitude A: Affect → Refers to emotional responses associated with sexism.
  • Attitude B: Behavior → Encompasses actions leading to gender/sex discrimination.
  • Attitude C: Cognition → Relates to gender/sex-role stereotypes, which can manifest positively or negatively.

Gender/Sex Ideology

  • Traditional Gender Ideology:

    • Men's roles are primarily outside of paid employment.
    • Women's roles are predominantly inside the home.
    • Patriarchal structure emphasizes men's power over women.
    • Displays prejudice and discrimination against transgender and gender-expansive individuals.

  • Egalitarian Gender Ideology:

    • Power is distributed equally across all individuals, regardless of gender/sex.

  • Transitional Gender Ideology:

    • Accepts elements from both traditional and egalitarian ideologies.

Feminist Perspectives

  1. Conservatism:

    • Belief in retaining traditional roles based on biological differences between men and women.

  2. Liberal Feminism:

    • Advocates for the idea that men and women are fundamentally the same and should receive equal opportunities.

  3. Radical Feminism:

    • Focuses on the oppression of women by men as a central societal problem.

  4. Socialist Feminism:

    • Emphasizes the interconnectedness of oppression stemming from sex, race, and class, taking intersectionality into account.

  5. Cultural Feminism:

    • Argues that masculine values are destructive and promotes a society based on feminine values.

  6. Women of Color (Womanist):

    • Highlights the interconnections of poverty, racism, and sexism, criticizing mainstream feminism for undervaluing the experiences of women of color.

Attitudes Toward LGBTQ+

  • Spectrum of Stigma:
    • Trans Identites:
    • Communicates the challenges faced by individuals with diverse gender identities, noting society’s perceptions of legitimacy and visibility.
    • Cis Man/Woman Identities:
    • Viewed as legitimate and supported in societal contexts.
Types of Phobias

  • Homophobia:

    • Negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men.

  • Biphobia:

    • Negative attitudes specifically towards bisexual individuals.

  • Transphobia:

    • More negative attitudes towards trans and gender-expansive people compared to attitudes towards LGB individuals.
    • Particularly prevalent among cisgender, White men, especially those with lower education levels and higher conservatism.

Transphobia Scale Responses (Table 3.4)

  1. Discomfort with unclear gender individuals (e.g., flirting ambiguity).
  2. Perception of wrongness in non-binary identities.
  3. Upset feelings related to past gender disclosures.
  4. Avoidance of unclear gender individuals in public.
  5. Importance of identifying others as men or women.
  6. Belief in the naturalness of the male/female dichotomy.
  7. Discomfort around those breaching traditional gender roles.
  8. Firm belief that gender is unchangeable.

Attitudes Toward LGBTQ+ Communities

  • Positive Predictor of Attitudes:
    • Contact with LGBTQ+ individuals fosters positive feelings.
  • Trends in Homophobia:
    • General decline over time.
    • Higher prevalence among:
    • Men, especially teenagers.
    • Individuals endorsing extreme masculinity.
    • Those with a high desire for social dominance.
    • Male participants in competitive sports.

Styles of Sexism

Traditional versus Modern Sexism

  • Traditional Sexism:

    • Open disregard for women, transgender, and gender-expansive individuals.
    • Preference for traditional gender roles.
    • Differential treatment based on gender/sex.
    • Belief in cisgender men's superiority.

  • Modern Sexism:

    • Faded over time but remains prevalent.
    • Includes denial of discrimination and lack of sympathy for women’s experiences.
    • Resentment towards perceived preferential treatment of women.

Hostile vs. Benevolent Sexism

  • Hostile Sexism (HS):

    • Characterized by hostility towards women, especially those who challenge patriarchal norms.

  • Benevolent Sexism (BS):

    • Involves seemingly positive attitudes towards women, including a desire to help them; however, it is rooted in the belief of women’s incompetence relative to men.

Distinctions between HS and BS

  • Hostile Sexism:

    • Correlates with social dominance orientation, often leading to less friendly behavior towards women.
    • Related to belief in rape myths.

  • Benevolent Sexism:

    • Seen as friendly but perpetuates the idea that women require protection and assistance.
    • Women may find it difficult to reject help without negative social implications.

Perceptions of Benevolent Sexism

  • College student perceptions indicate that men displaying BS are perceived as warmer than those who reject it, particularly exhibiting greater warmth towards men endorsing BS.

Ideological Resistance

  • Jackman (1994) argued that dominant groups create an ideological environment that labels discriminatory actions as benevolent.

Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory

  • Indicates a positive correlation between BS and HS, with men displaying higher BS than women.
  • Higher BS and HS scores are associated with countries demonstrating more significant gender inequality.

Gender/Sex-Role Stereotypes

  • Descriptive Stereotypes:

    • Features describing gender/sex roles as per societal norms.

  • Prescriptive Stereotypes:

    • Expectations concerning behavior, enforcing norms of femininity for women and masculinity for men.

Changes to Stereotypes Over Time

  • Competence and Warmth:

    • Stereotypical perceptions remain stable; men are viewed as more agentic while women are seen as more communal.

  • Occupation Stereotyping:

    • Stereotypes for male-typed and female-typed occupations show no significant change from 1983 to 2014.

Racial Stereotypes in Gender Roles

  • Distinct stereotypes are often associated with different races, showcasing biases towards White middle-class individuals, leading to generalizations that paint women of different ethnicities in various lights, such as emotionality for White women or aggression stereotypes for Black and Latina women.

Stereotypes of LGBTQ+ Identities

  • Continual stigma and misunderstanding exist across various LGBTQ+ identities, with binary sexualities viewed differently from bisexualities, often perceived as temporary or hypersexual.

  • Transgender Stereotypes:

    • Transgender women often align with feminine stereotypes, while transgender men are described in ambiguous terms reflecting both masculine and feminine traits, revealing a more significant negativity toward trans women in comparison to trans men.

Effects of Stereotypes

  • Stereotypes streamline information processing; however, they also propagate self-fulfilling prophecies in contexts such as job interviews.
Study on Math Performance
  • Variation in women's math performance exists based on whether a sexist or non-sexist environment was created; men's performance remains relatively unchanged regardless of environmental conditions.

Stereotype Threat

  • The salience of stereotypes can hinder performance, particularly in high-pressure situations or during challenging tasks across dimensions such as gender/sex and race/ethnicity.

Strategies for Reducing Stereotype Threat

  • Creating less threatening task environments.
  • Disassociating identity from performance feedback.
  • Introducing counter-stereotypes.
  • Facilitating self-affirmation strategies.

Backlash Effect

  • Punishments arise for individuals violating established gender/sex stereotypes.
    • Reasons for backlash include:
    • Motivations to preserve patriarchal norms that justify existing power dynamics.
    • Defense mechanisms triggered by perceived threats to worldviews or social status.

Gender/Sex Role Strain

  • This occurs when gender/sex roles generate adverse consequences for individuals, particularly when expectations clash with personal identities or desires.

Precarious Masculinity

  • The notion that masculinity is precarious; it must be constantly asserted and can easily be lost, which may correlate with increased gender/sex role strain as well as heightened homophobia and transphobia.