April 4th, Lecture 10: Sexism continued

Question 1

What is sexism?

Answer 1

Focus on attitudes, actions, and institutions that limit opportunities and outcomes for women.

Question 2

What is sexism and economic power?

Answer 2

sexism and the glass ceiling
1. womens advancement to high-status positions is limited.
2. experiences with discrimination and inequality between men and women increase the higher one moves up in the status hierarchy.
- perhaps better thought of as a filter than a ceiling

But…
3. it is not only at the top
4. AND there are also more subtle forms of prejudice and discrimination that look downward and: reduce women’s wages, increase their unpaid workload, and reduce their influence and power in male-dominated environments.
- the glass cliff
- the glass elevator
- androcentrism
- sexualization.

Question 3

The Financial Impact of Women on Corporate Boards: A Meta-analysis (Post & Byron, 2015)

Answer 3

• Compiled 140 studies yielding correlations between % women on boards & firm performance
• From mostly Western industrialized nations (e.g. 45 U.S. studies)
• Computed a correlation across the studies between the % of women on boards & financial performance of the company.

Do women behave differently?
Sex differences in sociopolitical attitudes
- Women’s attitudes: more compassionate and other-oriented than men’s (e.g., Eagly, Diekman, Johannesen-Schmidt, & Koenig, 2004)

Women as legislators
- Women advocating for interests of women, children, and families and for public welfare in areas such as health care and education (e.g., Karpowitz & Mendelberg, 2014).

Women on corporate boards
- Positive correlations with corporate social responsibility, pro-environmental initiatives, charitable giving, and “labour hoarding” (see Rao & Tilt, 2015)

Question 4

How should we advocate for change to increase the number of women in higher positions in the workplace?

Answer 4

• Abandon sole emphasis on utilitarian/financial outcomes.
• Consider fairness
  -Lack of diversity may reflect discrimination
• Consider the values of democratic societies
  -Substantive (meaningful) representation in positions of power
• Consider the impact of decision-making being dominated by the rich, the White, and the male.
  -Unlikely to equitably represent the interests of the poor, minorities, and the female

Question 5

What is Glass Cliff (Ryan & Haslam)?

Answer 5

• women are more likely than men to be promoted to (or hired for) risky positions likely to result in failure.
  Reasons:
• think crisis- think women
• they face discrimination in hiring, and they face negative stereotypes in some domains (and perhaps experience stereotype threat).

But…
- men in “female” professions tend to rise quickly (promoted more quickly

And…
- a gender pay gap in favour of men is found even in these professions (e.g., nurses, elementary school teachers, secretaries, receptionists).

Question 6

What is Androcentrism?

Answer 6

(Male normativity)
- placing mens point of view as the centre of attention
- Bem’s (1993) definition: Conflation of maleness with humanity or normalcy.
- Explain gender differences by explaining women.
- Women are seen as more gendered than men.
- Male privilege goes unexamined.

Question 7

What are some studies showing Male as default

Answer 7

• Lambdin et al. (2003); Asked kids and adults to tell stories about gender-neutral stuffed animals.
• They described the stuffed animal using male terms much more often than female terms.

another example; is Androcentrism in national stereotypes (Eagly & Kite)
- US Participants were divided into three groups and asked to provide either:
1. Stereotypes of a variety of countries.
2. Stereotypes of men from those countries.
3. Stereotypes of women from those countries.
- Researchers mapped these in terms of their level of competence (agency) and warmth (communion).
- Androcentrism in psychology (men are default- when someone says German person- you think of a German male).

Explain gender differences by explaining women. Hegarty & Buechel analyzed Psychology articles published from 1965-2004.
- Journal of Personality and Social Psych
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Psychology of Women Quarterly
- For any article that reported a gender difference, they analyzed
- Androcentric explanations (focus on explaining women)
- Visuospatial displays (Standard comes first)

Androcentism in Lnaguage
- Generic he
- Everyone has a right to his opinion
- Mankind
- Fireman
- From each accordion to his ability, to each according to his need - Marx
- Latino, Filipino
- Other languages are even more gendered
- And what about ‘they.’

Question 8

What is Hostile Sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996; 2001)?

Answer 8

• Negative views of women and anger at women who challenge patriarchy - Example items from the scale
• “Women exaggerate problems they have at work.”
• “Women are too easily offended”
• “Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash.”
• “Many women are seeking special favours under the guise of equality.”

Question 9

What is Benevolent Sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996; 2001)?

Answer 9

• Appears positive but places women in restricted roles.

Paternalism:
- “A good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man.”

Gender Differentiation:
- “Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess.”

Heterosexual Intimacy:
- “Every man ought to have a woman whom he adores.”
- Benevolent and hostile sexism are correlated.
- For men: failure to follow Benevolent sexism → Hostile

Sexism
- But also correlated for women
- Across nations – higher hostile = higher benevolent
- Across nations and gender
- higher male hostile sexism = higher female benevolent sexism.