Women participate in benevolent sexism as strongly as men do

Evidence

Moreover, women may not recognize that a prescription for female niceness underscores their subordinate status in society. Instead, they may view it as a means of favorably distinguishing themselves from men (Brewer, 1991), as well as a means of receiving positive reinforcement (Kilianski & Rudman, 1998). As a result, women may be just as susceptible to forming attitudes based on prescriptive stereotypes as are men. For example, in the foregoing research on prejudice toward masterful women, women were no less prejudiced than were men. Moreover, women and men are equally likely to favor male over female bosses (Gallup, 1996; Sherman & Spence, 1997), and to show an automatic preference for male over female authority figures (Rudman & Kilianski, 2000). Finally, cross-cultural research shows that women, compared with men, often report equal (or higher) levels of benevolent sexism (although their hostile sexism scores are routinely lower; Glick & Fiske, 1996; Glick et al., 2000). Each of these findings is consistent with the argument that sexism cannot be fully explained by viewing prejudice solely as antipathy toward women, in the Allportian tradition. Instead, a perhaps more insidious form of prejudice, involving benevolent and paternalistic beliefs about and attitudes toward women, is necessary to account for the pervasiveness of gender hegemony, including the role that women themselves play in maintaining the status quo (Jackman, ch. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 769

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how victims co-construct their own subordination — parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ piece on how norms are internalized, and to Milgrom on institutions. — connects to: Women’s professional commitment is undermined by the visibility of parasitic peers — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1937; Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714
• SEED: Angle: ‘the glass-slipper effect’ — benevolent ideals as a co-optation mechanism smoother than overt oppression — could anchor an essay on how flattering ideologies maintain hierarchy.