Everyday Sexism: Evidence for Its Incidence, Nature, and Psychological Impact From Three Daily Diary Studies

TLDR

Three daily diary studies were conducted to examine the incidence, nature, and impact of everyday sexism as reported by college women and men. The studies used daily diary methods with college women and men to capture real‑time reports of everyday sexism. Women reported one to two impactful sexist incidents per week, which lowered comfort, increased anger and depression, and reduced self‑esteem, while men reported fewer incidents with similar emotional effects, demonstrating that everyday sexism adversely affects psychological well‑being and confirming its prevalence and nature.

Abstract

Three daily diary studies were conducted to examine the incidence, nature, and impact of everyday sexism as reported by college women and men. Women experienced about one to two impactful sexist incidents per week, consisting of traditional gender role stereotypes and prejudice, demeaning and degrading comments and behaviors, and sexual objectification. These incidents affected women's psychological well‐being by decreasing their comfort, increasing their feelings of anger and depression, and decreasing their state self‐esteem. Although the experiences had similar effects on men's anger, depression, and state self‐esteem, men reported relatively fewer sexist incidents, suggesting less overall impact on men. The results provide evidence for the phenomena of everyday prejudice and enlighten our understanding of the experience of prejudice in interpersonal encounters from the perspective of the target.