The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) is an 22-item measure that captures the complicated nature of perceptions related to women, as perceptions can be positive and negative. Negative perceptions of women are described as Hostile Sexism in this measure. Positive perceptions of women are described as Benevolent Sexism; sub-scales include protective paternalism, complementary gender differentiation, and heterosexual intimacy.
Geographies Tested: United States of America
Populations Included: Female, Male
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
Hostile Sexism
1. Women exaggerate problems they have at work.
2. Women are too easily offended.
3. Most women interpret innocent remarks as being sexist.
4. When women lose to men in a fair competition, they typically complain about being discriminated against.
5. Many women are actually seeking special favors, such as hiring policies that favor them over men, under the guise of asking for "equality".
6. Feminists are making entirely reasonable demands of men.*
7. Feminists not seeking for women to have more power than men.*
8. Women seek power by getting control over men.
9. There are actually very few women who get a kick out of teasing men by seeming sexually available and then refusing male advances.*
10. Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash.
11. Most women fail to appreciate all that men do for them.
Benevolent Sexism
Protective Paternalism
12. A good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man.
13. Women should be cherished and protected by men.
14. Men should be willing to sacrifice their own well being in order
to provide financially for the women in their lives.
15. In a disaster, women need not be rescued first.*
Complementary Gender Differentiation
16. Women, compared to men, tend to have a superior moral sensibility.
17. Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess.
18. Women, as compared to men, tend to
have a more refined sense of culture and good taste.
Heterosexual Intimacy
19. Every man ought to have a
woman he adores.
20. Men are complete without women.*
21. No matter how accomplished he is, a man is not truly complete as a person unless he has the love of a woman.
22. People are often truly happy in life without being
romantically involved with a member of the other sex.*
*Items are reverse coded
Response Options:
Disagree strongly - 0
Disagree somewhat - 1
Disagree slightly - 2
Agree slightly - 3
Agree somewhat - 4
Agree strongly - 5
Items are averaged to create a total scale score or individually by the two subscales. Items #6,7,9,15,20, and 22 are reverse coded. A higher score indicates higher adherence to beliefs of sexism, paternalism, heterosexual intimacy, and/or gender differentiation.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491-512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491
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