Development and validation of Swedish classical and modern sexism scales

Abstract

In two studies we develop and validate a Classical--overt or direct--and a Modern--covert or subtle--Sexism Scale concerning attitudes toward women, for a Swedish (Scandinavian) context. Further, we examine whether these two forms of prejudice are distinguishable. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that, although highly correlated, classical and modern sexism are distinguishable. The construct validations showed that men had higher means on modern and classical sexism scores than women, and that our scales were related to other constructs as expected. In a third study, we analyzed the knowledge and the content of cultural stereotypes about women. There were no differences in the knowledge of cultural stereotypes between men and women or between high- and low-sexist individuals. The findings are discussed in relation to previous international studies that examine people's modern and/or classical sexism.

Rape Victim Blaming as System Justification: The Role of Gender and Activation of Complementary Stereotypes

“…In a similar vein, men (M = 2.33, SD = .59) scored higher on classical sexism than did women (M = 1.79, SD = .42), t(34) = 3.13, p \ .01. Consistent with previous research (Ekehammar et al, 2000), we further note that modern and classical sexism scores were positively correlated (r = .52, p = .001).…”

“…We tested this hypothesis by assessing individual differences in modern sexist attitudes. In order to rule out that our findings are attributable to a general antipathy towards women we also measured classical sexism (Ekehammar, Akrami, & Araya, 2000). After that, participants were exposed to a fictitious rape scenario and answered questions concerning the victim's blameworthiness.…”

“…This part of the questionnaire contained a measure of gender-related system justification motivation and a measure of antipathy towards women. To measure gender-related system justification motivation, we used a validated Swedish version of the Modern Sexism Scale (Ekehammar et al, 2000;Swim et al, 1995). The scale contains 8 items measured on a 6-point scale (1 = Disagree completely; 6 = Agree completely).…”

“…After reverse-coding scores on two items so that higher scores consistently indicated higher endorsement of modern sexist attitudes, scores on all items were averaged to create a reliable MS scale (a = .83). To assess antipathy towards women we used a validated 7-item measure of classical sexism (CS, Ekehammar et al, 2000). Examples of items from this scale are ''Women are generally not very talented,'' and ''The work of men is more important than the work of women.''…”

Cinsiyetçilik: Çelişik duygulu cinsiyetçilik

“…Son yıllarda kadınlara ilişkin negatif tutumların başta kadın ve feminist hareketler ve bazı ülkelerdeki yasal değişiklikler ve cezaların etkisi ile azaldığı, gerçekte ise örtük olarak sergilendiği görülmektedir [21][22][23]. "Yeni Cinsiyetçilik" (NS) [24] ve "Modern Cinsiyetçilik" (MS) [25] cinsiyetçilikteki bu gelişmelere bağlı olarak ve örtük ve gizli cinsiyetçiliği ölçmeye yönelik geliştirilmiş yeni kuram ve ölçeklerdir.…”