Sensitivity to sexism and perceptions of reports about sexist events

We tested the hypothesis that women would vary in their sensitivity to the occurrence of sexism directed at themselves and others, and that this sensi tivity would influence their estimations of the frequency of occurrence of sexism-related behaviors that they were exposed to. Results showed that wom en who indicated that they and others frequently experienced sexism estimat ed that they had seen more newspaper headlines relating to sexism than had actually been shown during an experimental session. Furthermore, high-sensi tive women overestimated the occurrence of sexist behaviors, whereas low an d medium-sensitive women underestimated their occurence, in comparison to t heir estimates of the frequency of non-sexist headlines. These results prov ide information both about differences among women in their sensitivity to sexism, and also suggest that women may either over- or underestimate the e xtent to which sexism is directed at the self and others.