Ambivalent sexism and the polarization of gender stereotypes

The present study examined the hypothesis that the degree to which stereotypic judgments of female and male subcategories tend to show polarization is dependent on the strength of ambivalent attitudes people hold toward women and men. Subjects were asked to rate on a series of (positively or negatively valued) feminine and masculine attributes two target categories, a traditional female type (housewife) or a traditional male type (manager) and a nontraditional female type (career woman) or a nontraditional male type (softy). Subsequently, subjects' attitudes toward females and males, respectively, were assessed. Measures of within-dimension ambivalence (incompatible evaluations within a given dimension) and cross-dimension ambivalence (incompatible evaluations across two different dimensions) were computed. In line with predictions, ambivalent sexists (as compared to nonsexists) produced a higher degree of polarization in their judgments of female and male subcategories. This effect held both for polarization within a given stereotype dimension (femininity or masculinity) and for polarization across the two dimensions. Moreover, degree and direction of both forms of polarization were strongly dependent on the specific stereotype dimension and the female or male subcategory considered.