Insidious dangers of benevolent sexism: Consequences for women's performance.

Abstract

Four experiments found benevolent sexism to be worse than hostile sexism for women's cognitive performance. Experiments 1-2 showed effects of paternalist benevolent sexism and ruled out explanations of perceived sexism, context pleasantness, and performance motivation. Experiment 3 showed effects of both paternalist and complementary gender differentiation components of benevolent sexism. Benevolent sexism per se (rather than the provision of unsolicited help involved in paternalism) worsened performance. Experiment 4 showed that impaired performance due to benevolent sexism was fully mediated by the mental intrusions women experienced about their sense of competence. Additionally, Experiment 4 showed that gender identification protected against hostile but not benevolent sexism. Despite the apparently positive and inoffensive tone of benevolent sexism, our research emphasizes its insidious dangers.Keywords: benevolent and hostile sexism, discrimination, performance and working memory, ingroup identification, sense of competence Sexism is expressed in a variety of ways, some more subtle than others and some more hostile than others. Examples of this attitude are gender-related humor, sexist name-calling, sexual harassment, and employment discrimination. Gender discrimination, like any other type of discrimination, is less and less accepted in our modern societies, and legislation has been designed to promote gender equality. In Europe, for instance, Article 141 of the European Commission's treaty states that any job classification system that is used for determining pay must be based on the same criteria for both men and women and be so written as to exclude any sex discrimination. Nonetheless, even if obvious forms of sexism are often socially condemned, more subtle forms of sexism are not. Worse, they sometimes are promoted, as they may sound positive in tone or even seem gallant or chivalrous. Consider, for instance, a man helping a woman to carry luggage, paying for her meal at a restaurant, or complimenting her caring abilities. One might ask what is wrong with that. The problem is that people do not notice that these behaviors may be threatening. These kinds of behavior might, however, be expressions of paternalism or else might ambivalently flatter women while simultaneously implicitly suggesting their inferiority. Paternalism suggests that men should take responsibility for the welfare of women, who might not be able to carry luggage by themselves, might not earn enough money to pay at the restaurant, and should be remembered for their qualities (warmth) rather than their weak points (competence). In this article, we propose that paternalism as well as the other aspects of benevolent sexism, by suggesting women's lack of ability, are devastating to women's performance. Sexism Versus PatronizingHostile and benevolent sexism often go hand in hand and result in ambivalent attitudes toward women (Glick & Fiske, 1996. Hostile sexism is an obviously antagonistic attitude toward women, who are often viewed as t...

Be Too Kind to a Woman, She’ll Feel Incompetent: Benevolent Sexism Shifts Self-construal and Autobiographical Memories Toward Incompetence

“…Moreover, Dardenne et al (2007) provided evidence that women confronted by BS reported greater intrusive thoughts and worries about their abilities to perform well than women confronted by HS or neutral comments. The aim of the present study is to extend Dardenne et al's (2007) results in several ways.…”

“…BS theoretically encompasses three subcomponents: paternalism (the belief that men should protect and provide for the women on whom they depend), complementary gender differentiation (the belief that women are the better gender, but only in ways that suit conventional gender roles), and intimate heterosexuality (the belief that men can achieve true happiness in life only when involved in romantic relationships with women), which contribute to controlling women by offering them the deal to conform to a traditional, subordinate role in order to be protected and cherished. Dardenne et al (2007) provided evidence that both the paternalist and the complementary gender differentiation components of BS were negative for women's cognitive performance in tasks involving working memory (i.e., problem-solving task and Reading Span test). Moreover, consistent with Barreto and Ellemers (2005), Dardenne et al (2007) showed that BS was subtle enough not to be identified as sexism, but was nevertheless experienced as quite unpleasant and eliciting intrusive thoughts.…”

“…In a recent series of studies, Dardenne et al (2007) demonstrated that BS more than HS impaired women's cognitive performance and increased their worries in an occupational context. Specifically, the studies made salient the context of job interviews and selection testing, and conveyed BS, HS, or non-sexist attitudes through the recruiter's comments.…”

Comparing victim attributions and outcomes for workplace aggression and sexual harassment.

“…However, contrary to Crocker and Major's argument, Ruggiero and Taylor found that when the mistreatment was ambiguous (i.e., not clearly discrimination), victims attributed their failures to themselves. Further, Dardenne, Dumont, and Bollier (2007) found that "benevolent sexism" (i.e., the portrayal of women as warm but incompetent) led victims to experience self-doubt, whereas hostile sexism was more likely to result in victims' discounting of the opinions of harassers as discriminatory. Separately, Crocker, Voelkl, Testa, and Major (1991) found that participants who received negative feedback from a male evaluator, and who were in the experimental condition that enabled them to make an attribution of prejudice, reported a more positive mood than individuals who could not make an attribution of prejudice.…”

Sistematični pregled literature s področja ambivalentnega seksizma

“…Rezultati teh raziskav (npr. Dardenne, Dumont in Bollier, 2007;Dumont, Sarlet in Dardenne, 2010) kažejo, da dobronamerni seksizem vpliva na dosežke žensk na kognitivnih nalogah prek vsiljenih misli o lastni nekompetentnosti. Izpostavljenost dobronamernemu seksizmu namreč olajša dostop do avtobiografskih spominov o nekompetentnosti (Barreto, Ellemers, Piebinga in Moya, 2010).…”