Reverse Sexism and Its Impact on Job Satisfaction and Career Planning: Italian Validation of the “Belief in Sexism Shift Scale”

Abstract

The belief that men are the new victims of sexism and anti-male bias is gaining traction globally. The concept of reverse sexism, called the belief in sexism shift, is a new and particularly insidious form of contemporary anti-female sexism that combines the prejudice of hostile sexism with the subtlety of modern sexism. Facilitating the cross-cultural study of a rising form of sexism, in this paper, we provide an Italian translation of the BSS and examine its psychometric properties. In Study 1, we confirmed that the Italian BSS scale has the same uni-dimensional factor structure as the English version. In Study 2, we established that the Italian BSS scale measures the same construct among women and men. In Study 3, we found that the Italian BSS scale was a better predictor, compared to other measures of sexism, of numerous perceived career constraints. Subsequently, explorative analyses revealed that BSS escalated the effect of perceived career constraints on perceived job satisfaction and development opportunities among women and men. Together, our results suggest that BSS is a prevalent form of sexism in Italy that has the potential to negatively affect women and men.

Disentangling Workplace Sexism in Age Generations: A Multi-Group Analysis on the Effects on Job Satisfaction and Task Performance

“…As displayed in Table 2, in Step 1, the perceived levels of organisational support, work engagement and psychological capital had a significant and positive impact on task performance and on job satisfaction. Conversely, in Step 2, experience with benevolent sexism and hostile sexism revealed a significant and negative impact on the same outcomes, task performance and job satisfaction, showing that it is harmful to women's performance and wellbeing at work (Morando et al 2023;Dardenne et al 2007;Dumont et al 2010;Jones et al 2014;Vescio et al 2005). Consistent with the literature, a different reaction and effect of women to hostile and benevolent sexism were found.…”

“…Indeed, as pointed out in the introduction, Italy's typical conservative and traditional approach, its cultural imprint and the cultural rigidity of the gender role suggest that the low scores on the perception of sexism are questionable. Moreover, current research seems to be progressively moving towards more implicit or, in any case, more subtle measurements of the phenomenon, which have revealed, even in Italy, the presence of sexism in the workplace, albeit in a 'camouflaged' manner (Zehnter et al 2021;Morando et al 2023). Thus, in line with the most recent studies, it can be argued that hostile and blatant sexism is still particularly common and present in the workplace, even for the sample of the present study, but in contemporary society, it is the benevolent and more subtle sexism that is more pervasive, which indeed has higher mean scores for the present sample.…”

“…Despite these considerations, the literature reports that society currently tends to believe that gender discrimination is no longer a current problem (Swim et al 1995;Tougas et al 1995). Effectively, sexism still exists but has changed its nature by becoming more implicit, subtle and difficult to recognise (Zehnter et al 2021;Morando et al 2023). In spite of this, although expressed differently, sexist ideologies continue to be experienced and perceived by women, who are often affected and experience the strongest consequences.…”