Attitudes toward Female Professors: A Scale with Some Data on its Reliability and Validity

Abstract

The literature shows that there are no instruments available which measure specific or localized aspects of sexism, e.g., in the professions. As available scales measure sexism in general, that is, general attitudes toward women and women's rights, a Likert-type scale was developed to measure attitudes toward women as university professors. The split-half reliability coefficient is 0.88. The test-retest reliability coefficient determined over a 5-wk. period is 0.95. Its validity, when compared with subjects' level of general authoritarianism (measured by Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale) is —0.63, indicating that subjects who hold favorable attitudes toward women professors are also low in dogmatism. This is consistent with previous findings on the relationship between dogmatism and attitudes toward women. Differences in sex and major field of study are also reported. The utility of this scale in studies of sexist attitudes toward women professors is discussed.