Ambivalent sexism and system justification in an egalitarian country

• Ambivalent sexism consists of complementary hostile and benevolent beliefs toward women and men, assumed to function as part of a system justifying ideology. The present study was the first validating a Swedish translation of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), as well as investigating the link between System Justification and complementary gender stereotypes. Both women and men in this community sample dissociated themselves from sexist ideas. Interestingly, women disagreed to a greater extent with benevolent items than hostile items. There were gender differences in a number of scales: men scored higher on Benevolent and Hostile Sexism, Old-fashioned and Modern sexism (Swim, Aikin, Hall & Hunter, 1995), System Justification (Jost & Banaji, 1994; scale adapted from Kay & Jost, 2003), and placed their political stance more to the right than women. Women identified more strongly as feminists than men. A suggested link between system justification and the belief in complementary gender stereotypes (e.g., Glick & Fiske, 1997, 2001) could not be confirmed. The social democratic view prevailing in Sweden was confirmed by participants’ average political stance tending towards the left, and a moderate correlation between political stance and system justification; those with a more leftist political stance tended to believe that the system is more just. Participants with a right-wing political stance also tended to hold more sexist attitudes, although patterns diverged between male and female participants. In sum, the results highlight the cultural specificity of a “feminine” country with a social welfare state emphasizing gender equality.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)