Janina Pietrzak

Distinguishing institutional identification from academic goal pursuit: interactive effects of ethnic identification and race-based rejection sensitivity.

We examined the interactive effects of ethnic identification (EI) and race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race) on institutional outcomes among African American college students. We distinguished between effects on institutional identification on the one hand and academic goal pursuit (e.g., staying in school, grade point average [GPA]) on the other. Supporting the utility of this distinction, we found that EI and RS-race interacted to predict these outcomes differently. Higher EI in combination with higher RS-race predicted reduced identification with the institution (Studies 1, 2, and 3a). This combination, however, did not lead to decreases in GPA over time. Moreover, EI was positively related to intentions to stay in school as well as to GPA increases among those lower in RS-race (Studies 1 and 3b). Implications for understanding identity negotiation vis-à-vis performance in institutional settings are discussed.

Ambivalent Sexism and Religion: Connected Through Values

Sexist attitudes do not exist in a limbo; they are embedded in larger belief systems associated with specific hierarchies of values. In particular, manifestations of benevolent sexism (Glick and Fiske 1996, 1997, 2001) can be perceived as a social boon, not a social ill, both because they are experienced as positive, and because they reward behaviors that maintain social stability. One of the strongest social institutions that create and justify specific hierarchies of values is religion. In this paper, we examine how the values inherent in religious beliefs (perhaps inadvertently) propagate an unequal status quo between men and women through endorsement of ideologies linked to benevolent sexism. In a survey with a convenience sample of train passengers in Southern and Eastern Poland (N = 180), we investigated the relationship between Catholic religiosity and sexist attitudes. In line with previous findings (Gaunt 2012; Glick et al. 2002a; Taşdemir and Sakallı-Uğurlu 2010), results suggest that religiosity can be linked to endorsement of benevolent sexism. This relationship was mediated in our study by the values of conservatism and openness to change (Schwartz 1992): religious individuals appear to value the societal status quo, tradition, and conformity, which leads them to perceive women through the lens of traditional social roles. Adhering to the teachings of a religion that promotes family values in general seems to have as its byproduct an espousal of prejudicial attitudes toward specific members of the family.

A Broader Conceptualization of Sexism: The Case of Poland

One way in which sexism is distinct from many other types of prejudice is its ubiquitous and ambivalent nature. Women are either revered or reviled, depending on whether they fulfill or violate expectations concerning their gender roles. Ambivalent sexism theory describes the underlying ideologies and the varied consequences of such ambivalent attitudes. Although the distinction into hostile and benevolent attitudes seems to be universal, the content of the dimensions, developed mainly with white middle-class US student samples, might be inadequate when applied to other groups and cultures. The aim of this chapter is to show aspects of sexism not included in AST but relevant in groups with different economic, cultural, and historical backgrounds. We focus on Poland, where gender attitudes have been influenced by a unique blend of romantic models and patriotic sentiments, Catholic Church teachings, the sociocultural legacy of communism, and, most recently, the rapid system transformation. We distinguish three additional springboards for sexism: (1) the conviction that the fundamental role of a woman is that of the mother (together with the assumption that women’s goals should be subsumed under others’ goals and needs); (2) the responsibility for aesthetics that is placed upon women; and (3) a belief in women’s resourcefulness. These basic tenets form a richer structure of prejudice not encapsulated by the sub-dimensions of AST and, as we will argue, are of substantial importance for the everyday lives of women and the maintenance of the gender hierarchy in society at large.