Rethinking Sexism: A Daughter-Father Team Examines How Society Maintains the Status Quo

November 12, 2009 — Coral Gables — There is a tendency to think that only men treat women in a sexist way, but a new study by a University of Miami researcher and his daughter shows that both men and women participate in maintaining a gender hierarchy in our society. The study, titled 'Social Dominance and Sexual Self-Schema as Moderators of Sexist Reactions to Female Subtypes,' was recently published by the journal of Sex Roles. The two most significant findings of the study are that both men and women respond in a more hostile way to a woman who violates sex-role expectations, than to one who adheres to them. Secondly, that the more an individual supports social hierarchy in general (that some people should have more power and resources than others), the more hostile they responded toward a woman who violated sex-role expectations. 'We were surprised by the lack of difference in the role of social hierarchy support in hostile sexism between men and women,' said Blaine Fowers, professor in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies in the UM School of Education and co-author of the study. 'We expected social hierarchy support to lead to greater hostile sexism among men than among women.' - Although sexism has been discussed as an issue of social hierarchy for decades, few researchers have directly tested the role that social hierarchy plays in sexism. Some of the motivation for supporting the gender hierarchy is the belief that social hierarchy is important in general, explained Alyssa Fowers, co-author of the study and a first year student at Duke University. 'It's important for women to understand that judgment hurts everyone and that sexist judgment hurts women in particular,?