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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

ambivalent sexism, law, gender equality, United States

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The women’s liberation movement of the sixties and seventies has ushered in several important social and political changes in the United States. Gender inequality, however, remains an enduring problem in various institutions (Lips, 2007). The theory of Ambivalent Sexism conceptualizes and may be the key to understanding the residual occurrences of gender inequality within social institutions. Theorists Glick and Fiske (1996) believe that prejudice, though traditionally considered to be antipathy towards a certain group (Allport, 1954), can contain both positive and negative features. They contend that sexism is not simply hostility towards women, but also subjectively positive behavior toward women. Two independent, but highly positively correlated factors make up the theory of ambivalent sexism: Hostile Sexism (HS) and Benevolent Sexism (BS) (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Hostile Sexism can be defined as the traditional antipathy towards women based on the desire to protect the status quo and established power of men within a patriarchal society. Benevolent Sexism is, on the other hand, the pro-social attitude towards women—i.e. women are pure, virtuous, deserving of adoration and protection, etc—that in effect, places women in an inferior and dependent position to men.

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