PSYC 191

1. PSYC 191 CHAPTER 8 SEXISM

2. Women are never frontrunners-Gloria Steinem • Nancy Pelosi ( 2007: first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) • Carly Fiorina ( former CEO of Hewlett-Packard • (statistical rarities when compared against men • Hilary Clinton turns down Vogue’s request for a photo shoot during her campaign • Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s responses to other male senators during her confirmation hearing in July 2009, described as “ steady,” “ “unemotional” • Women seen as divisive; men unifying race

3. Common stereotypes about women--—emotional, polite, gentle, neat indecisive.Common stereotypes about men—decisive, nonemotional, confident , aggressive, assertive. Such a notion that men and women possess diametrically opposite traits is known as bipolar assumption .Gender stereotypes are conceptualized as a set of traits, role behaviors, physical appearance, occupation.Dualistic view –agentic (assertiveness, striving for achievement)

4. Communal—(sensitive, getting along with others). • Attitude Toward Women Scale—men showed favorable view towards women but had negative attitudes towards the idea of male-female equality, or for privileges for women. • How did it originate?— • Through—Religion, Social Learning (learning gender appropriate behavior through instructions, observations, parents ,peers.)

5. Cultural Institutions-TV, movies, magazines, • Shows, advertisements etc. • We are influenced by media, as we believe it is shared by many. Gender stereotypes in advertisements influence gender attitudes through • -normative influence (we wish to be liked so we hold on to a particular attitude). • -In informational influence we like to be accurate in our information.

6. Women are shown as attractive with a male voice over. • Men are in agentic roles, women are on the periphery. • Men placed higher in advertisements, having their arms around the women. • Women are shown as nurturant.

7. Faceism— • Men’s faces are given more prominence, • they are rated as more intelligent, • Ambitious • Women are objectified. • When women viewed advertisements in which women were shown as, homemakers, they reported less –positive attitude toward political participation. But when women were are shown role- reversed commercials, women’s essays had more achievement- related themes. When women are exposed to women leaders like female professors in their daily lives, they are less likely to activate gender stereotypes.

8. Gender Bias-the tendency to value men and masculine traits over women and feminine traits Subtly communicated to children in many forms as coloring books etc. Fitzpatrick & McPherson (2010) found females constituted 41% of all characters, shown doing cooking, sewing PMS-research demonstrates about 5% experience severe enough symptoms-could it be then a part of self-fulfilling prophecy---providing a tidy explanation for their supposed moodiness

9. Evolution versus Social Role-According to the evolutionary perspective men and women are hardwired differently. Evolutionary processes of inclusive fitness favored certain behaviors for men and different behaviors for women. • Eagly (1987) proposed Social Role Theory-this theory states that gender differences that are present today come from the different social roles that men and women perform in our society.

10. Due to biological & social factors division of labor has emerged. Due to different roles people play, men wield power, hence they are seen as “dominant” and women seen as “domestic” “by nature.” • Power-Men due to stronger physique have had more agentic traits, women raised children, religion, government, legislation all legitimized men’s control over women.

11. Fiske (1993) suggests that stereotypes are a form of control (powerful versus powerless). • Descriptive stereotypes are those which describe how most people in a group think, feel, behave. • Prescriptive stereotypes are those that suggest how one should think, feel, act. • Gender stereotypes are more prescriptive.

12. Are gender stereotypes accurate? • LaFrance & Banaji(1992) reviewed literature & found that physiological measures of emotion indicate that there are no differences in terms of physiologically felt emotions. It is only that men & women choose to describe what they feel differently (women use external situational sources of information, men use internal physiological cues).

13. Martin & Westie (1987) reported that both men & women exaggerate small real differences to match gender stereotypes. • Sexist Language—”generic masculine”—as in policeman, postman, mankind. • When women read advertisements about jobs using masculine pronouns, they assume that they are not suited for the position. Basow (1992) reported that women tend to be described by their appearance, but not the men.

14. Women lose their maiden name when they marry (Mrs.). • Sexist Humor—Bem (1981) reported that some individuals think about the world in terms of gender information & are called gender schematic, and they tend to find sexist jokes as humorous. • Individuals with less traditional views of women rated sexist cartoons as less funny than non sexist cartoons.

15. Women found sexist cartoons as less funny. According to Zillman’s (1983) dispositional theory—if one feels sympathetic with the victim of a disparaging joke, one will find that joke less funny. • Women may view sexist humor as harmless & may find it amusing , so as to appear not to be too pushy. • La France &Woodzicka(1998) reported that

16. LaFrance & Woodzicka (1998) reported that women reported feeling more angry on hearing sexist jokes than women who heard non sexist jokes, but their non verbal reactions indicated that they found such jokes to be amusing. TV, media prime us to perceive gender stereotypes and sexism as funny. It was reported that women who endorsed rape myth, viewed violence against women as more acceptable reported enjoying sexist humor.

17. Research shows that men who are accepting of violence towards women enjoy sexist jokes. • Types of Sexism—Prior to 1920 women were not allowed to vote. Things changed after WWII. • Old fashioned sexism—only 57% of those surveyed in Gallup poll in 1976 supported Equal Rights Amendment. Swim et al., (1995) suggested that old fashioned sexism connoted upholding of traditional gender roles & different treatment of men & women, regarding women as being less competent than men.

18. Modern sexists deny there is discrimination but are hostile towards equality for women & non supportive for programs aimed at helping women. • Tougas et al., (1995) defined neosexism a “conflict between egalitarian values and residual negative feelings toward women”

19. Neosexists feel that interests of men are served better by a hierarchical view of society. • When this is threatened then they are more likely to resist policies aimed at promoting equality of women. • They deny that there is discrimination and view the world with a pro-male bias.

20. Ambivalent Sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996) Ambivalent sexists hold positive yet stereotyped views of some women, this is termed benevolent sexism, these men also have negative attitudes toward other women and this is called hostile sexism. Hostile sexists view women as inferior and unfit to hold positions of power and are more tolerant of wife-abuse. Those women who closely identify with women are committed to ending sexism & confront men who are sexists, seen negatively by them. • Supervisors displaying benevolent sexism in treating female job applicants liked more (Good & Rudman, 2010)

21. Gender Discrimination • Lott (1989) reported that when people feel positive towards each other, wish to interact with each other, they reduce their interpersonal distance. Men tend to distance themselves from women when they interact with them. • Job Opportunities—Women are seen as having communal traits, and hence are seen as more suited for teaching, nursing etc.

22. When women apply for predominantly male jobs they are rated as less competent, less committed, less hard working. • Physically attractive women applying for high level executive positions are seen as less serious than men about that position.

23. Women should look more masculine to be regarded as competent. • When working women become mothers they are seen as less competent , not so the working males when they become fathers. • Murray (1999) reported that male child care workers are viewed with suspicion & hostility by the parents.

24. Even for jobs not considered sex-typed males are more successful in getting the jobs, married women with children least successful. • Jackson et al.,(1992) found that women tended to have lower expectations about advancement, evaluation than men. • Women earn 70% of what men get paid for the same job, as reported in 1993 by US Department of Labor. • According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, an organization that tracks gender wage gap data, the ratio of men’s to women’s medial weekly income in 2010 was 80.3. • In 2010, women’s earnings were about 80% of men’s earnings (Hegewisch, Williams, & Henderson, 2011).

25. “Glass Ceiling” • This further prevents women from advancing in their organizations, women are not given important assignments, are given less responsibility, receive less stock option. • The collective impact of negative stereotyping and behavior toward working mothers on their occupational achievement is called maternal wall. Working mothers must work harder to overcome their supervisors’ stereotypic assumptions about their competence and commitment—this may also help account for the glass ceiling effect. • Research reveals that women tend to adopt a more participatory style of leadership incorporating both male and female traits.