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This study examines the impact of personally experiencing sexual harassment on women's subjective well-being and perceptions of gender relations and society. We draw upon large-scale national probability panel data and utilize propensity score matching to identify (1) women who reported sexual harassment in the past year and (2) a matched control group of women who were comparable in outcome and demographic variables in the previous year but did not report sexual harassment (Nmatched pairs = 609). We then compare pre- and post-event levels of well-being and system justification across groups, including the perceived fairness of gender relations and society in general. Women who reported sexual harassment experienced significant pre-to-post declines in well-being (lower life satisfaction, higher psychological distress) and reductions in perceptions that gender relations, and broader society, are fair. Critically, these changes were significantly different than matched controls who did not show the same pre-post changes in well-being or system justification. These results provide robust evidence that sexual harassment has detrimental effects on well-being and document the previously unexamined effect of sexual harassment on women's reduced support for the (gendered) status quo, which has important implications for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent reversal of Roe v. Wade in the United States demonstrates both the precarity of reproductive rights and the need to identify the correlates of abortion support. Surprisingly, little is known about how the transition to parenthood impacts attitudes toward abortion. We address this oversight by utilising nine annual waves (2011–2019) of longitudinal panel data to examine rates of change in support for elective and traumatic abortion in the year(s) before and after participants became parents (N = 1,266). Consistent with population trends, support for elective and traumatic abortion increased in the year(s) before participants became parents. After the transition to parenthood, support for elective abortion continued to increase (albeit at a slower rate), whereas traumatic abortion support stopped increasing. These results demonstrate that the process of becoming a parent attenuates the growth of abortion support over time and highlight the need for robust policies that protect reproductive autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explores associations among sexism, gender, and support for two approaches to reduce men's violence toward women targeting (a) men's behavior to reduce male violence toward women and (b) women's behavior so that they can avoid male violence. The associations between sexism and support for these two interventions were examined in 21,937 participants in the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Survey. For both women and men, hostility toward nontraditional women (hostile sexism) was associated with lower support for targeting men to reduce men's violence against women. To a lesser degree, stronger attitudes that women who adhere to traditional feminine roles should be rewarded (benevolent sexism) were associated with greater support for targeting men to reduce men's violence. In contrast, both hostile and benevolent sexism were positively associated with support for targeting women to avoid men's violence. These complex and nuanced relationships could suggest that sexism perpetuates the idea that women are responsible for keeping themselves safe from men's violence while excusing men from accountability. This possibility has implications for addressing how society can be best engaged in the campaign against men's violence toward women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although being in a romantic relationship confers numerous benefits to well-being, research has yet to examine the possibility that ambivalent sexism moderates this association. Because benevolent sexism enforces the view that people are incomplete without a romantic partner, we hypothesised that benevolent sexism would enhance the well-being benefits associated with being in a serious relationship. Conversely, hostile sexism views women with suspicion and should therefore attenuate the benefits one derives from being in a serious relationship. We tested these hypotheses using a national sample of heterosexual women (n = 7980) and men (n = 4968) from New Zealand. As hypothesised, the benefits of being in a serious romantic relationship on life satisfaction were accentuated for those higher (versus lower) on benevolent sexism, but attenuated for those higher (versus lower) on hostile sexism. These data are the first known to show that ambivalent sexism moderates the positive effects of relationship status on well-being, thereby demonstrating the utility of integrating ambivalent sexism theory with the relationship literature for heterosexual women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Opposing Process Model outlining the pathways through which individual differences in Benevolent Sexism (BS) simultaneously enhance and attenuate support for gender equality of income and employment opportunity is presented. Results from a New Zealand electoral sample ( N = 336) indicated that BS predicted Hostile Sexism (HS), and thus indirectly opposition toward gender-related policies (a hierarchy-enhancing effect). For women, BS also directly predicted attitudes toward gender equality in the opposing, supportive direction (a hierarchy-attenuating effect). Analyses of a 9-month longitudinal sample of undergraduate women substantiated these results (Study II; N = 170). In stable societies, the dual opposing effects of BS seem to form a system where hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating processes tend toward homeostasis or equilibrium within the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines whether a pivotal event central to gender relations—marriage—is associated with changes in sexism. Drawing upon a nationally representative study assessing sexist attitudes across 14 years, event-aligned piecewise latent growth models examined change in hostile and benevolent sexism (1) across the years prior to marriage, (2) within the year immediately post marriage, and (3) across the years following marriage (N = 1,615). Matching average trajectories established in prior research, hostile sexism and women’s benevolent sexism showed small declines across the years prior to marriage. Immediately post marriage, however, men’s hostile sexism and women’s hostile and benevolent sexism significantly increased from pre-marriage levels, before returning to declining trajectories across the following years. By contrast, men’s benevolent sexism was stable prior to marriage, did not change within the year immediately post marriage, but then significantly departed from the pre-marriage trajectory by declining across the years following marriage. These novel findings reveal that investigating meaningful life events provides new insight into the factors that may be associated with changes in sexism. The results also open new avenues to advance understanding of the relationship experiences and motivations that may reinforce and reduce sexist attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]