Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/SocEkol.30.2.4
What else do they want? Development of a new scale for measuring contemporary forms of sexism
Bruno Šimac
orcid.org/0000-0003-1361-9622
; Odsjek za sociologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Ivana Lučića 3, 10 000 Zagreb
Ksenija Klasnić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9362-6739
; Odsjek za sociologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Ivana Lučića 3, 10 000 Zagreb
Abstract
Prejudice against women, in the form of sexism, has traditionally been characterized by advocating stricter gender roles. However, due to cultural and political changes in the recent decades, overt discrimination against women became socially unacceptable, so sexism is taking on new, contemporary forms that often go unnoticed and remain secret and hidden. The aim of this paper is to construct and evaluate a new Scale of contemporary sexism that will bring together several so far conceptually separated forms of contemporary sexism, as well as some topics that have not been included in the existing scales of contemporary forms of sexism. Relying on three types of conceptual and operational elaborations of contemporary sexism – modern sexism by Swim et al. (1995), neosexism by Tougas et al. (1995), and ambivalent sexism by Glick and Fiske (1996), we conceptualize and operationalize contemporary sexist attitudes according to four basic domains: 1. denial of the existence of continued discrimination against women; 2. antagonism towards women’s demands; 3. resentment of special benefits that women receive because they are women; and 4. resentment of women for their “hypersensitivity” to sexism and sexual harassment. The research was conducted using the survey method on a convenient sample of 402 students at the University of Zagreb. The final version of the Scale of Contemporary Sexism (SCS) is a one-dimensional measurement construct consisting of 27 particles. Based on the analyses, the authors conclude that SCS is an instrument of high reliability and satisfactory content, criterion, and constructive validity, and suggest some guidelines for its use in future survey research.
Keywords
discrimination of women; gender inequality; Scale of Contemporary Sexism (SCS); contemporary sexism; traditional sexism; attitudes toward feminist movement
Hrčak ID:
261228
URI
Publication date:
7.8.2021.
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