Belief in sexism shift: Defining a new form of contemporary sexism and introducing the belief in sexism shift scale (BSS scale)

Abstract

The belief that the target of sexism has shifted from women to men is gaining popularity. Yet despite its potential theoretical and practical importance, the belief that men are now the primary target of sexism has not been systematically defined nor has it been reliably measured. In this paper, we define the belief in sexism shift (BSS) and introduce a scale to measure it. We contend that BSS constitutes a new form of contemporary sexism characterized by the perception that anti-male discrimination is pervasive, that it now exceeds anti-female discrimination, and that it is caused by women’s societal advancement. In four studies (N = 666), we develop and test a concise, one-dimensional, 15-item measure of BSS: the BSS scale. Our findings demonstrate that BSS is related to, yet distinct from other forms of sexism (traditional, modern, and ambivalent sexism). Moreover, our results show that the BSS scale is a stable and reliable measure of BSS across different samples, time, and participant gender. The BSS scale is also less susceptible to social desirability concerns than other sexism measures. In sum, the BSS scale can be a valuable tool to help understand a new and potentially growing type of sexism that may hinder women in unprecedented ways.

A systematic review of the ambivalent sexism literature: Hostile sexism protects men’s power; benevolent sexism guards traditional gender roles.

“…The other articles here centered on specific types of social ideologies; hence, the findings cannot be generalized, although they all represent different types of prejudice. For example, both HS and BS were positively linked to other general social ideologies, such as classism (Colbow et al, 2016), beliefs in human supremacy (Roylance et al, 2016; Salmen & Dhont, 2020), but also to gender-related ideologies such as other types of sexism (Glick et al, 2004; Glick & Fiske, 1999; Masser & Abrams, 1999), endorsement of traditional gender-role ideologies (Eliason et al, 2017), beliefs in anti-men discrimination (de Zavala & Bierwiaczonek, 2021; Zehnter et al, 2021), negative attitudes toward feminists (Ogletree et al, 2019), and honor beliefs (Glick et al, 2016). For ageism, BS predicted a positive form of ageism (e.g., perceptions of the elderly as kind, cute, wise), whereas HS predicted negative ageism (e.g., beliefs about cognitive decline, grumpiness, and lack of libido; Chonody, 2016).…”

Addressing workplace gender inequality: Using the evidence to avoid common pitfalls

“…This is particularly important as such views provide a strong basis to the backlash that is levelled against gender equality initiatives (Flood et al, 2021 ). Indeed, more recent theories of sexism, such as the belief in sexism shift (Zehnter et al, 2021 ), indicate that there are increasingly prevalent views that men are now the key victims of sexism (Ryan & Zehnter, 2022 ), a view that is likely to exacerbate resistance to change.…”

When a woman asks to be voted to a sexist constituency: was Giorgia Meloni’s gender an advantage, a disadvantage or an irrelevant factor in the 2022 Italian general election?

“…In the ITANES dataset, the following 5-category item (borrowed from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems questionnaire: see www.cses.org) was available: 'Policies to increase the representation of women in politics have gone too far'. In the COCO data set, the following 4-category item was available: 'Under the guise of equality for women, men are actually being discriminated against' (Zehnter et al, 2021). We coded these two items so that high scores expressed high levels of traditionalism in gender beliefs.…”