How Does Culture Relate to Benevolent and Hostile Sexism?

Abstract

As in most countries of the world, gender-based discrimination and sexist attitudes towards women are embedded into the perceived cultural reality in Turkey. Accordingly, we aimed to explore the associations among benevolent/hostile sexism and Hofstede's five dimensions of culture values at the individual level. Turkish young adults responded to scales of Ambivalent Sexism and Hofstede's Culture Dimensions. First, men reported higher scores on benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, masculinity, and power distance than did women. Second, benevolent sexism was positively correlated with hostile sexism in both gender samples. Besides, benevolent sexism and hostile sexism were positively correlated with masculinity, collectivism, long-term orientation, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. Third, culture dimensions of collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity positively predicted benevolent sexism, whereas collectivism, long-term orientation, power distance, and masculinity positively predicted hostile sexism in the sample of women. In addition, collectivism, power distance, and masculinity positively predicted benevolent sexism whereas power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity positively predicted hostile sexism in the sample of men. Results have shed light on the literature by suggesting that sexist attitudes and culture dimensions are related constructs.