Young people have sexist attitudes?: Exploration of ambivalent sexism and neosexism in University students

Abstract

This paper examines expressions of sexism in youth based on an exploratory study conducted among students (N420) of the Faculty of Social Sciences of a Spanish university (Castilla La Mancha University). The authors developed Spanish rating scales based on the theoretical viewpoint defined by Glick and Fiske (1996), known as the ambivalent sexism theory, comprising the components of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism and complementing it with the neosexism precepts proposed by Tougas, Brown, Beaton and Joly (1995). The results show the need to continue working on the analysis, understanding and prevention of sexist attitudes of the younger generation and to develop interdisciplinary research to address this issue comprehensively and provide tailored approaches to new expressions of sexism, which in general, are more subtle and difficult to perceive.