Citation

Eldabli A, Franiuk R, Coleman JM. Race Soc. Probl. 2022; 14(2): 101-113.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12552-021-09341-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many scholars investigating sexism distinguish between two related, but distinct, forms of sexism aimed at women: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996). These sexist beliefs can seem contradictory, with hostile sexism (HS) reflecting more contempt for women and benevolent sexism (BS) offering protection and care to women, but both serve to maintain the gender status hierarchy. However, these concepts may have been created based on the white feminine ideal and may not apply to women of color. For example, expectations about female sexual purity may be different across race and may lead to differential treatment of women who violate purity norms. In the current research, participants (N = 410) read a news article about a black or white woman arrested for prostitution, and answered questions about convicting, punishing, and helping the woman. Participants high in HS and high in BS were more likely to convict and punish the sex worker than those low in HS and BS, but HS and BS did not interact with race when predicting conviction and punishment. For helping those high in HS were less likely to recommend immediate interventions and those high in BS were more likely to recommend dependency-oriented interventions, but none of the two-way interactions with sexism and race was significant. It is possible that sex work is such a strong violation of the female purity norm that punishment of women who violate this norm does not vary based on the characteristics of the woman but more intersectional research on race and sexism is needed.

Language: en

Keywords

Benevolent sexism; Hostile sexism; Intersectionality; Prostitution; Racism