Hostile and Benevolent Sexism in India: Taking forward the Cross-cultural Analysis

Gender discrimination encompasses both hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) towards women and men. Cross-cultural studies (Glick et al., 2000) show that in countries where men hold highly sexist attitudes, women tend to endorse benevolent sexism more strongly, using it as a system justifying ideology. To our knowledge the relationship between women’s and men’s levels of benevolent and hostile sexism has not been fully analysed in India. In our study 500 participants (both sexes, Mage=35 years) residing in sub-urban regions of Northern India responded to Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) (Glick & Fiske, 1996) and Ambivalence towards Men Inventory (AMI) (Glick & Fiske, 1999). In line with cross-cultural results from England, Japan, South Korea and Turkey obtained by Glick et al. 2000, our findings show that HS and BS are held as complementary forms of sexism by both men and women in India, however this complementarity is more visible among women than men. Contrary to previous results Indian males hold stronger hostile as well as benevolent sexist attitudes as compared to Indian women and despite Indian males scoring high on sexism, Indian women have not scored higher on BS towards women and HS towards men. Unlike women in other countries (Cuba, Syria, Turkey, Taiwan, US) Indian women seem to be less inclined to express their resentment about experienced gender inequality through holding hostile sexist attitude towards men. Above findings about India and a comparative understanding with results obtained in other countries would be elaborated in the presentation.