Gender-Role Attitudes 73sexism. There are other circumstances in
which women endorse benevolent sexism. A
study of women college students showed that
they were more likely to endorse benevolent
sexism when told that men held negative
rather than positive attitudes toward women
(Fischer, 2006). Women are also more likely
to endorse benevolent sexism when a protec-
tive rather than a hostile justification is pro-
vided for limiting women’s opportunities. In a
community sample of women living in Spain,
women reacted more positively to a scenario
in which a husband did all the driving on a
trip when the reason was that driving a long
way could be tiring (protective justification)
than when the reason was that women don’t
drive as well as men (hostile justification)—
but only when the women scored high on
benevolent sexism (Moya et al., 2007).
A related construct isbenevolent
discrimination, or men providing more
help to women than men (Glick & Fiske,
1999b). What is the harm in men holding a
door open for a woman? Paying for dinner
at a restaurant? Again, the implicit message
is that women need help and protection.
The behavior appears prosocial but really
legitimizes women’s inferior position. It is
difficult to reject benevolent discrimination
because (1) the behavior provides a direct
benefit to the recipient, (2) the help pro-
vider will be insulted, (3) social norms dic-
tate that one should accept help graciously,
and (4) it is difficult to explain why help is
being rejected. If you are male on a date with
a female, try offering benevolent discrimina-
tion as a reason for splitting the bill. If you
are female on a date with a male, try remark-
ing that your date paying the bill is an act
of discrimination. Neither situation will be
comfortable. See Sidebar 3.1 for a discussion
of benevolent sexism toward women in the
criminal justice system.time, especially among those who endorse
right-wing authoritarianism (Sibley, Overall, &
Duckitt, 2007).
Not surprisingly, men score higher
than women on hostile sexism around the
world (Glick et al., 2000). The sex difference
in benevolent sexism is less reliable. In four
countries, women scored higher than men
on benevolent sexism—Cuba, Nigeria, South
Africa, and Botswana. These four coun-
tries were also the most sexist. A study that
compared college students in China and the
United States showed that Chinese women
scored higher than United States women and
higher than Chinese men on benevolent sex-
ism (Chen, Fiske, & Lee, 2009). Why would
women in these countries support benevo-
lent sexism? In general, women support be-
nevolent sexism because (1) it does not seem
like prejudice because of the “appearance”
of positive attributes and (2) women receive
rewards from benevolent sexism (i.e., male
protection). These rewards may be especially
important in sexist countries, where women
are most likely to be victims of violence. As
stated by Glick and Fiske (2001), “The irony
is that women are forced to seek protection
from members of the very group that threat-
ens them, and the greater the threat, the
stronger the incentive to accept benevolent
sexism’s protective ideology” (p. 115).
Benevolent sexism is viewed most fa-
vorably under circumstances when it appears
that women need protection. Vulnerability to
crime is one such situation. Women are more
afraid than men are of becoming a victim of
crime, and these fears are associated with
benevolent sexism among women (Phelan,
Sanchez, & Broccoli, 2010). When under-
graduate women were randomly assigned
to a condition in which crime on campus
was made salient or not, the crime salience
group was more likely to endorse benevolentM03_HELG0185_04_SE_C03.indd 73 6/21/11 12:22 PM