“A sense of entitlement in women was associated with stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism”

At RawStory, some really interesting research:

Ambivalent Sexism Theory holds that stereotypes about women come in two main forms: a hostile version and a benevolent version. Hostile sexism is overtly negative and includes beliefs such as women being intellectually inferior to men. This form of sexism is easy to identify, and is typically known as misogyny.

Benevolent sexism, on the other hand, is more subtle. It appears to be positive toward women but implicitly suggests that members of “the fairer sex” are dependent on men…. Kathleen Connelly of the University of Florida has summarized benevolent sexism as the belief that “women are wonderful, but weak.”

Researchers at the University of Auckland designed a study for 4,400 participants, testing “whether or not benevolent sexism is attractive to women because of its promises of benefits to individual women (under the conditions of being cared for and provided for by a man within an intimate relationship).”

The researchers found a sense of entitlement in women was associated with stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism. Women who believed they deserved more out of life were more likely to endorse benevolent sexist beliefs and adherence to these beliefs increased over time. The association between a sense of entitlement in men and endorsement of benevolent sexism was weak, in contrast, and did not increase over time.

“It tells us that one factor underlying women’s endorsement of sexist attitudes toward women is the propensity to feel more deserving than others and wanting to feel special,” [Hammond] explained. “This also gives us insight into showing how benevolent sexism is subjectively positive but is not actually a ‘pro-social’ set of attitudes.”

[RS]