Tapping Into the Complexity

Abstract

Drawing on ambivalent sexism and Chicana feminist theories, the purpose of the study was to explore ambivalent sexism and traditional relational scripts among a regional sample of 141 Hispanic young adults. Data derived from self-report questionnaires indicated that men scored higher on hostile sexism and traditional relational scripts but not on benevolent sexism. Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood procedure was applied and path analyses indicated that, for both men and women, higher endorsement of benevolent and hostile sexism predicted higher traditional dating scripts and family roles. Gender made a difference only in relation to hostile sexism on traditional dating scripts, with men having a stronger association than women. Women's strongest path was between hostile sexism and family scripts. We discuss these nuanced gendered differences between dating and family relationships as well as stereotypical gendered and cultural notions of Hispanic values. Implications are considered.

Do Sexist Mothers Change More Diapers? Ambivalent Sexism, Maternal Gatekeeping, and the Division of Childcare

“…For example, benevolent and hostile sexism were related to attitudes toward dating and sexual behavior (McCarty and Kelly 2015;Paynter and Leaper 2016;Zaikman and Marks 2014), tolerance of sexual harassment and rape (Durán et al 2016;Russell and Trigg 2004), and attitudes toward women's reproductive rights, pregnancy, and abortion (Hodson and MacInnis 2017;Huang et al 2016;Sutton et al 2011). Particularly important for our purposes, many findings indicate that sexist attitudes affect relationship and marriage norms and promote preferences for romantic partners who possess qualities congruent with traditional gender roles (Bermúdez et al 2015;Chen et al 2009;Thomae and Houston 2016). Specifically, women who endorsed benevolent sexism placed greater importance on partners' status and resources, whereas men who endorsed hostile sexism placed greater importance on partners' physical attractiveness (Sibley and Overall 2011;Travaglia et al 2009).…”

Integrating the Neurobiology of Minority Stress with an Intersectionality Framework for LGBTQ-Latinx Populations

“…Latinx women who self-identify as caretakers show flatter and more elevated diurnal cortisol slopes than White women in similar caretaking roles (Gallagher-Thompson et al, 2006). It is important to consider that expectations of traditional gendered caretaking roles, which have been associated with complex forms of sexism (e.g., Bermúdez, Sharp, & Taniguchi, 2015), may themselves be internalized through the lenses of other aspects of ethnic and racial identity, such as generational or documentation status (Flores, 2013). One may see a glimpse of these kinds of intersectional processes in one finding that first generation Latinx women showed higher mid-day cortisol when compared to third generation Latinx women (Ruiz, Stowe, Brown, & Wommack, 2012).…”

Feeling Like Feminist Frauds: Theorizing Feminist Accountability in Feminist Family Studies Research in a Neoliberal, Postfeminist Context

“…However, this may also reflect the status of graduate education in family studies, with its limited focus on psychometrics in general and few family scholars specializing in scale development. Often feminist family scholars use existing scales by revising them, and feminist scholars critique the measures they used in their studies (e.g., Bermudez, Sharp, & Taniguchi, 2015), but we see a need to tackle this issue more systematically.…”