Insidious dangers of benevolent sexism: consequences for women's performance.
Four experiments found benevolent sexism to be worse than hostile sexism for women's cognitive performance. Experiments 1-2 showed effects of paternalist benevolent sexism and ruled out explanations of perceived sexism, context pleasantness, and performance motivation. Experiment 3 showed effects of both paternalist and complementary gender differentiation components of benevolent sexism. Benevolent sexism per se (rather than the provision of unsolicited help involved in paternalism) worsened performance. Experiment 4 showed that impaired performance due to benevolent sexism was fully mediated by the mental intrusions women experienced about their sense of competence. Additionally, Experiment 4 showed that gender identification protected against hostile but not benevolent sexism. Despite the apparently positive and inoffensive tone of benevolent sexism, our research emphasizes its insidious dangers.
Dardenne
Benoit
B
Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. b.dardenne@ulg.ac.be
Dumont
Muriel
M
Bollier
Thierry
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001530:Belgium; D026686:Beneficence; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D026706:Paternalism; D011287:Prejudice; D012107:Research Design