Page 188 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

7. GENDER DISCRIMINATION
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Jewish people). There are also pitied outgroups, or unsuccessful, nonthreat­
ening outgroups (e.g., elderly and mentally or physically handicapped).
These groups are disrespected because of their low status, but liked for
their human qualities. As a result, such groups are stereotyped in terms
that reflect the disrespect and warmth of the dominant group.
In this typology, women fall into one of the two ambivalent groups.
Within the ambivalent sexism framework (Click & Fiske, 2002), benevo­
lent sexism treats women as warm but incompetent. Traditional women
are here held up as exemplars of the desirable human quality (e.g., gentle,
loving, nurturing), but perceived as incompetent and disrespected. Rela­
tions between dominant male groups and the female subgroups to which
they feel benevolent sexism are characterized by paternalistic relations, in
which heterosexist gender roles are respected and women are perceived as
nonthreatening (i.e., not in competition with men). Alternatively, women
who are viewed as not warm, but respected, are subjected to hostile sexism.
These are the women respected for their high status and, in turn, perceived
as competent, but disliked for their lack of human qualities. In other words,
different kinds of prejudice turn against these different types of women;
hostility is directed toward nontraditional women and paternalistic benev­
olence toward traditional women (Click, Diebold, Bailey-Werner, & Zhu,
1997).
In both cases, however, stereotyping is a means of system justification;
high status groups that hold power stereotype low status groups in a way
that reinforce and maintain the status quo, which is a feature of both hostile
and benevolent sexist responding. For example, the Ambivalent Sexism In­
ventory (Click & Fiske, 1996) conceptualizes hostile sexism as involving
dominating power relations, competition across gender roles, and tension
over heterosexual control. Nontraditional women are perceived as chal­
lenging men's societal and cultural power along each dimension, and are
therefore stereotyped in negative trait terms. Whereas benevolent sexism is
also associated with the ascription of positive stereotypic traits to women,
it also is associated with heterosexist power dynamics. Benevolent sexism
entails paternalistic power relations, cooperation around complementary
gender roles, and idealized heterosexual intimacy.

SITUATIONAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DISCRIMINATION

Social psychologists have suggested that the default perceptual tendency
is to judge others in terms of the social categories to which they belong. In
other words, it has been assumed that perceivers automatically interpret
and make sense of information about others with reference to their beliefs
about groups to which those individuals belong (e.g., gender stereotypes)