Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices.

Abstract

Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Be-nokraitis & J. R. Feagin, 1986). Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and dis-crimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form ofsexism. Support was found for a distinction between old-fashioned and modern beliefs about womensimilar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988).The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment ofwomen and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modernsexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's de-mands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education andwork). Research that compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racismand that validates our modern sexism scale is presented.