Measuring contemporary forms of sexism: developing a new scale

Šimac, Bruno. (2017). Measuring contemporary forms of sexism: developing a new scale. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Sociology. [mentor Klasnić, Ksenija].

Preview

PDF (Croatian) Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

From the 1980's onwards, new forms of inequality are emerging, among which gender inequality is particularly emphasized. A special form of gender inequality, i.e. discrimination based on sex is called sexism. While gender prejudices in the form of sexism have traditionally been characterized by advocacy of strict gender roles, due to cultural and political changes in recent decades, open discrimination against women becomes illegal and socially unacceptable, so sexism assumes a new, contemporary form that many women and men are not even aware because of its covert and hidden nature. In this paper two theoretical, one methodological and one empirical goal have been set. The theoretical goals of the paper are to present different types of conceptualization of contemporary forms of sexism and to look back at existing scales of contemporary forms of sexism. Furthermore, the methodological goal of the paper is to construct and evaluate scale that will unite various forms of contemporary sexism. Finally, the empirical goal of the paper is to determine the extent to which students' contemporary sexist attitudes are related to their traditional sexist attitudes, attitudes towards feminist movement and individual characteristics. By presenting three types of contemporary sexism: modern sexism (Swim et al., 1995), neosexism (Tougas et al., 1995), and hostile and benevolent sexism (Glick and Fiske, 1996), authors were able to conceptually and operationally elaborate contemporary sexist attitudes. The study was conducted on a convenience sample of 402 s tudents of the University of Zagreb. The authors conclude that the Contemporary Sexism Scale (CSS ) is an instrument of high reliability and satisfactory validity that measures a single phenomenon. According to the results of this paper, students' contemporary sexist attitudes are determined by their attitudes towards feminist movement, gender and traditional sexist attitudes. Therefore, male students who are simultaneously inclined to express traditional sexist attitudes and negative attitudes towards the feminist movement are more prone to express contemporary sexist attitudes. This paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of sexism in today's Croatian society, supplementing theoretical, methodological and empirical knowledge on sexism in Croatian sociology of gender.

Actions (login required)

View Item