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In this chapter, the author examines benevolent sexism as a form of performative kindness. Taking a feminist polemical approach, the author illustrates how being a ‘good girl’ requires submitting to occupy a subject position that attracts benevolent sexism. Benevolent sexism focusses on gendered discourses, such as what women wear and how they act, and it can be mistakenly construed as kind or flattering attention. Such gendered discourses are designed to keep women compliant and conforming to gendered roles, while limiting their voice and agency. A case study is presented which draws on biographical and popular press resources to illustrate how three highly placed American female political leaders, Francis Perkins, Federal Labor Secretary (1933–1945), Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State (2009–2013), and Kamala Harris, Vice President (2021–current), contend with sexism and public interest in their mode of dress and role as mothers. The author demonstrates how these women are punished with hostile sexism, historically and contemporarily, requiring them to tenuously negotiate between accepting benevolent sexism to avoid hostile sexism.

This study aims to determine the effects of sexism and unfavourable job conditions on women's mental and physical wellbeing in construction operations. In addition, this study will establish the mediating role of work morale in the association between workplace challenges and wellbeing.

Data for this study were obtained from women working in office environments, onsite professionals and those in trades. A total of 65 participants responded to the survey. The partial least square structural equation modelling method was applied to validate the measurement model and test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that benevolent and hostile sexism directly influences work morale and indirectly affects women's mental and physical wellbeing in the construction industry. Hostile sexism is the most significant challenge for female construction workers in New Zealand.

The finding is theory-building and challenges the assumptions that the nature of the construction industry has a bearing on the mental and physical health of women in construction. In addition, the finding is useful for creating positive work environments that are both inclusive and empathetic to the diverse needs of the modern-day construction workforce. Thus, reducing the challenges experienced by construction women's workforce.

The current study focuses on women and those who identified themselves as such. The conclusions show the relevance of work morale to their mental wellbeing. This exploratory quantitative study contributes to research by advancing understanding of the challenges women face in the industry and the consequences of those challenges on their physical and mental wellbeing.

This study aims to provide a psychometrically sound measure intended to capture perceived/experienced sexism in the workplace, the perceived/experienced sexism scale (PESS). PESS is used to consider the effects of perceived experiences of benevolent and hostile sexism at work, as well their relationships with perceived organizational support and the job attitudes of job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

This study revised the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick and Fiske, 1996) to create and validate the PESS. Amazon Mechanical Turk was used to collect two samples (220 and 183) of perceptions of female employees.

Results suggest perceived organizational support and trust perceptions mediate the relationships between perceptions of sexism and organizational outcomes of job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Existing measures of sexism are intended to identify and measure sexism by examining perpetrators’ actions or thoughts. However, researchers must make assumptions as to the effect such sexist acts or behaviors has on the target. Thus, this study provides a measure of sexism from the perspective of the target.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between ambivalent sexism (hostile and benevolent sexism) and managerial choice, considering organizational culture as a moderating variable. Additionally, the study addresses employees’ preference for working with same-sex managers as opposed to opposite-sex managers.

Data were collected from 245 white-collar employees working in a large-sized holding company in Ankara, Türkiye, using the survey method. PROCESS Macro was used to test the hypotheses.

Neither hostile nor benevolent sexism directly affected managerial choice. However, perceived gender equality within an organization was found to significantly affect the preference for working with female managers. Gender equality in organizational culture did not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between hostile and benevolent sexism and the inclination to work with women managers. Furthermore, the participants reported a tendency to work with same-sex managers independent of their sexist attitudes and perceived organizational culture.

This study sheds light on the literature by examining the joint effects of sexism and perceived gender inequality on the desire of working women managers. In doing so, this study differs from previous studies focusing solely on individual variables such as personality and sexism or situational variables as hindering factors for women’s attainment of managerial positions.

Previous research demonstrates the damaging effects of hostile sexism enacted towards women in the workplace. However, there is less research on the consequences of benevolent sexism: a subjectively positive form of discrimination. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing from ambivalent sexism theory, the authors first utilized an experimental methodology in which benevolent and hostile sexism were interpersonally enacted toward both male and female participants.

Results suggested that benevolent sexism negatively impacted participants' self-efficacy in mixed-sex interactions. Extending these findings, the results of a second field study clarify self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between benevolent sexism and workplace performance.

Finally, benevolent sexism contributed incremental prediction of performance above and beyond incivility, further illustrating the detrimental consequences of benevolently sexist attitudes towards women in the workplace.

In this study, the authors relate cultural masculinity to individual level sexist beliefs (hostile and benevolent sexism) and gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether hostile and benevolent sexism affect entrepreneurial intentions and whether this relationship is mediated by gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes.

The proposed relationships are explored using a sample of 192 participants from the USA and India with varying interest in starting a business. An online survey instrument was used to collect the data. Regression and mediation analyses were used to analyze the data.

The authors find that both hostile and benevolent sexism are positively related to entrepreneurial intentions of both men and women. However, only benevolent sexism is related to both the masculine and feminine gender traits ascribed to entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the authors find support that hostile sexism is actually positively related to feminine traits ascribed to entrepreneurs, albeit with a small effect size. The authors do not find any support that these results vary by participant gender; the findings are implicated for both men and women alike. The authors find that for both hostile and benevolent sexism only the feminine traits perceived as stereotypic of entrepreneurs partly mediate their relationship on entrepreneurial intentions.

The survey consists of cross-sectional, self-report data, and therefore the authors cannot conclusively infer causality. The direction of relationships found is of theoretical value. Only two countries are included in the sample limiting generalizability to other countries. Most of the participants in the sample reported some interest or experience in nascent entrepreneurial activities, which may limit the generalizability of findings to those without any prior interest or experience as a nascent entrepreneur.

The relationship between ambivalent sexism (both hostile and benevolent sexism) and both entrepreneurial intentions, and the gendered traits ascribed to entrepreneurs, has not yet been explored before this work. Using the lens of cultural masculinity, we present a theoretical model of how hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes facilitate or inhibit entrepreneurship via how entrepreneurs are perceived. This is the first study we know of which explores the relationship between Ambivalent Sexism and the gender attributes ascribed to entrepreneurs, and how these gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes in turn are related to entrepreneurial intentions.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The relationship between perceptions of sexism and job outcomes of job satisfaction and turnover intentions is mediated by perceived organizational support and trust.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Purpose – This study examines the relationship between endorsement of positive stereotypes of women and support for women's rights to shed light on the role that endorsement of positive stereotypes may play in maintaining social stratification.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses data collected from a web-based survey of 181 male undergraduate students in six different universities and colleges to examine the relationship between the endorsement of positive stereotypes of women and support for women's rights. The paper examines four ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to determine the relationship and utilizes the statistical software Stata 9.2.

Findings – Rather than a simple direct relationship, the findings suggest that the relationship between the endorsement of positive stereotypes and support for women's rights varies based on the level of hostile sexism. Increased endorsement of positive stereotypes of women was associated with decreased support for women's rights among males with the lowest level of hostile sexism, but the opposite relationship was found for males at the mean and the highest level of hostile sexism.

Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that endorsement of positive stereotypes plays a unique role for males who do not endorse traditional sexist attitudes. Although data are not available to clarify what processes might be undergirding the relationship, the author suggests directions for future research.

Practical implications – Given the relationship found, prejudice reduction interventions that rely on the promotion of positive stereotypes of various social groups should be closely examined to determine if they actually foster attitudes that are detrimental for the eradication of social stratification.

Originality/value – This study is one of the first to examine the possible negative impacts of endorsement of positive stereotypes of women on gender stratification through a moderated relationship with levels of hostile sexism.

The aim of my chapter is to draw on conceptualisations of sexism, racism, epistemology of white ignorance and critical race theorists’ critiques of white feminism to examine critical management studies (CMS) practices. The purpose of the chapter is to acknowledge the contribution of CMS feminists and look to how we can go beyond current practices to include antiracism in our feminisms. In particular, I show how sexism, racism and white ignorance are collectively produced in CMS and operate through mundane, and avoidable, organisational and pedagogical processes. I respond to the editors’ call for chapters by offering a practical politics through the idea of a killjoy manifesto, taking inspiration from the writings of Sara Ahmed. An important part of is that is for white feminism in CMS to attend to critiques from racially minoritised academics, activists and workers. Whilst challenging, I hope the chapter provides practical and theoretical resources and encouragement.

Current events such as the #metoo and #timesup movements have ushered in an era of heightened awareness of sexist organizational climate. Increasingly, supporters have called for top-down changes, demanding that organizations embrace a culture of accountability. Accordingly, the current study proposed and investigated the concept of benevolently sexist organizational climate and explored the impact on women's state self-esteem, while testing for the potential moderating effects of power and gender.

The current experimental study utilized a video video-based manipulation to introduce benevolently sexist organizational climate with a 2 (content of communication) x 2 (gender of communicator) x 2 (status of communicator) between-subjects design. The hypotheses were tested using an analysis of variance moderation model, based on a sample of 652 women.

Results indicated a significant two-way interaction between benevolently sexist organizational climate and power on self-esteem. Specifically, results suggested that benevolently sexist organizational climates have a greater negative impact on women's self-esteem when a supervisor communicates the information on the climate as opposed to a coworker.

Benevolently sexist climate had a deleterious impact on women's organizational outcomes especially when communicated by a supervisor. These findings can be used for guidance on the development of training and interventions targeted at mitigating the prevalence of benevolently sexist workplace climate.

This study was the first to propose the concept of a benevolently sexist organizational climate. Additionally, the study demonstrated the negative impact of a benevolently sexist organizational climate on women's state self-esteem providing important implications for organizations. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.