THE AMBIVALENT SEXISM INVENTORY - DIFFERENTIATING HOSTILE AND BENEVOLENT SEXISM

The authors present a theory of sexism formulated as ambivalence towar d women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism In ventory (ASI). The ASI taps 2 positively correlated components of sexi sm that nevertheless represent opposite evaluative orientations toward women: sexist antipathy or Hostile Sexism (HS) and a subjectively pos itive (for sexist men) orientation toward women, Benevolent Sexism (BS ). HS and BS are hypothesized to encompass 3 sources of male ambivalen ce: Paternalism, Gender Differentiation, and Heterosexuality. Six ASI studies on 2,250 respondents established convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes t oward women, the HS scale correlates with negative attitudes toward an d stereotypes about women, and the BS scale (for nonstudent men only) correlates with positive attitudes toward and stereotypes about women. A copy of the ASI is provided, with scoring instructions, as a tool f or further explorations of sexist ambivalence.