Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices.

TLDR

Prejudice and discrimination against women have become increasingly subtle and covert, and unlike racism research, little work has examined the underlying beliefs of modern sexism, which is characterized by denial of discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and lack of support for policies helping women. The study compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racism and validates a modern sexism scale. The authors use factor analysis to compare old-fashioned and modern sexism and racism and to validate a modern sexism scale. The study found a clear distinction between old-fashioned and modern sexism, mirroring racism findings, with old-fashioned sexism characterized by traditional gender roles, differential treatment, and stereotypes of lower female competence.

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.