Can sexism involve both negative and positive feelings toward women? Glick and Fiske (1996) present a theory of sexist ambivalence and validate the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), measuring both hostile and benevolent sexism.
The authors explain that the ASI captures two positively correlated parts of sexism that reflect opposite views of women. The first is Hostile Sexism, which involves open antipathy toward women. The second is Benevolent Sexism, which represents a tone toward women that feels subjectively positive to sexist men. Glick and Fiske propose that both hostile and benevolent sexism stem from three sources of male ambivalence: paternalism, gender differentiation, and heterosexuality.
Across six studies involving 2,250 participants, the authors confirmed the inventory’s convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes toward women. Looking at the individual components, the Hostile Sexism scale connects to negative attitudes and stereotypes about women, while the Benevolent Sexism scale connects to positive attitudes and stereotypes, though only among nonstudent men. Finally, Glick and Fiske include the full ASI alongside scoring instructions to help researchers continue exploring sexist ambivalence.
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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