Benevolent Sexism
This portion that focuses on benevolent sexism will once again provide a working definition of what it is, an example of how it may occur throughout life, and how its application may change with age and appear in different parts of life.
As previously defined, benevolent sexism is the positive side of the coin that makes up the Ambivalent sexism theory. Sexists that fall within this category tend to view women as pure, innocent, and delicate. However, instead of hating/majorly disliking women, sexists within this category aim to “protect and preserve women.”
Woman in Construction, "Might be too Tough..."
Like with the hostile sexism section, we’ll first look at benevolent sexism with the youth. As discussed previously, the research from the article “Wonderful but Weak”: Children’s Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Women” looked to see if children from ages 5 to 11 exhibited ambivalent sexism. They looked at two different places of society in the United States, New York(a more gender-egalitarian region) and Illinois(less gender-egalitarian). Regarding benevolent sexism, they found that throughout this age range, boys' benevolent attitudes would vary, but girls' would not. They also found that children from a more gender-egalitarian region of the United States were less likely to agree with benevolent sexism[4].
Continuing onto workplace sexism, specifically benevolent sexism in the workplace. In the workplace, benevolent sexism may look/sound like someone claiming a task is too hard for women, calling women different pet names, commenting on their appearances, and many other forms. This is a problem because at times it may lead to women's intelligence being undermined, the woman may have less challenging experiences to go through because they were too hard for them, or they may not get the necessary feedback as it may be too harsh[5].
The final example with benevolent sexism will focus on opinions on reproductive rights and how they relate to benevolent sexism. Putting women on a pedestal to stick with traditional gender roles and praising the women that do is restrictive. As these traditional roles that are applied to women include motherhood, then it is safe to say that people who agree more with benevolent sexism would not approve of abortion, whether it is elective or traumatic. One study found that there is a relationship between these ideals and that benevolently sexist people would still place restrictions on women’s reproductive rights[7]. This would further suggest that those who are benevolently sexist would support abortion bans because it would protect and preserve part of a woman’s traditional gender role, motherhood.
References:
[4] Hammond, Matthew D. and Cimpian Andrei. "“Wonderful but Weak”: Children’s Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Women." Sex Roles 84, no. 1-2 (01, 2021): 76-90. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01150-0. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/wonderful-weak-children-s-ambivalent-attitudes/docview/2474583045/se-2?accountid=14541.
[5]Chawla, Nitya, Elena M. Wong, and Allison S. Gabriel. "Expanding the Discourse Surrounding Sexual Harassment: The Case for Considering Experienced and Observed Hostile Sexism, Benevolent Sexism, and Gendered Incivility." Industrial and Organizational Psychology 12, no. 1 (03, 2019): 79-83. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/iop.2019.13. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/expanding-discourse-surrounding-sexual-harassment/docview/2225056217/se-2?accountid=14541.
[7] Huang, Yanshu, Paul G. Davies, Chris G. Sibley, and Danny Osborne. "Benevolent Sexism, Attitudes Toward Motherhood, and Reproductive Rights: A Multi-Study Longitudinal Examination of Abortion Attitudes." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 42, no. 7 (07, 2016): 970. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167216649607. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/benevolent-sexism-attitudes-toward-motherhood/docview/1797547719/se-2?accountid=14541.