In 2005, in Spain the Organic Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence to try to intervene in social problems such as gender violence, domestic violence or domestic terrorism.
Article 1.1 of the aforementioned Law states that violence occurs as a manifestation of discrimination, the situation of inequality and the power relations of men over women.
Although many believe that this inequality or “marginalization” towards the female sex is being exaggerated or that it does not exist, It shows that this problem is due to clearly psychosocial factors. Is That is why studies have been carried out in this regard from Social Psychology. To solve a problem you have to understand it, know how it operates and what factors reproduce it.
Janet Taylor Spence created in the 70s the Scale of Attitudes towards Women, which turned out to be very useful and continues to be so today. In it, beliefs about the rights and roles of men and women are measured, which evaluates different treatment between both sexes, emphasizing that women do not perform certain tasks as well as men.
Fortunately, the results of applying this scale have varied over the years and, although today women continue to be more egalitarian than men, the latter’s score has increased. In our country the Gender Identity Scale. The results conclude that Men with a lower educational level and older scores have more prejudiced attitudes towards the female sex
The ambivalence referred to in the name of this theory of sexism refers to the coexistence of two types of sexism that complement each other: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism.
Hostile sexism
Whereby women are considered an inferior group that must be subordinated to the control of men. How can we justify its existence?
Because of dominant paternalism, according to which there is an underlying belief that men should have more power than women, which is why they are afraid that they can usurp said dominant status. For example, in the private sphere within a heterosexual relationship, it is the man who must make important decisions. For a hostile sexist, the prototypical characteristics of women (such as their greater sensitivity) make them less prone to higher status roles.
Within heterosexual relationships, hostility includes the belief that women are manipulative with men and that, in addition, they exercise power over men through sexual satisfaction. With the paradox that even though they consider them subordinate, they depend on them sexually.
Benevolent sexism
In this second, a “positive” connotation is adopted towards women but subject to certain functions This type of sexism is explained by protective paternalism, according to which women depend on men and they must protect them. For example, treating women before men in case of emergency. The complementary sex differentiation for the benevolent sexist consists in the fact that feminine characteristics complement them, however, their roles will always be of lower status than those he can or should play.
Finally, in this sexism, heterosexual intimacy is also based on cooperation, however, physical and psychological aggression towards their partner has been a way of controlling them to maintain inequality.
To resolve the unpleasant psychological conflict that arises when a man is ambivalent towards the opposite sex, you can choose to react in two ways.
First of all, you can divide the woman into subparts evaluating each one differently So they can, for example, love some women (for example, their daughters) and hate others (for example, those who defend gender equality). The problem with this way of resolving the conflict is that such subdivision of women can lead to not all women fitting into any of those categories.
In second place, Sexists may negatively evaluate powerful women but respect them for being competent in their professional lives Or the other way around, feeling affection towards subordinate women but perceiving them as incompetent. What sexists must keep in mind is that, in real life, they do not interact with stereotypes but with real women who can be included in many categories (housewife, mother, worker with positions of responsibility, etc.). ) for which they will have ambivalent feelings, especially if they maintain some type of social or emotional bond with her.
Concluding
Theories that address the issue of sexist prejudices must understand the problem as part of a psychosocial dynamics On the one hand, the thinking styles linked to sexism must be studied, and on the other, the way in which individuals interact with each other and with the environment must be studied. In this way you can understand a phenomenon as complex as this.
