Evolution of Hostile Sexism and Benevolent Sexism in a Spanish Sample

The aim of this research is to evaluate the evolution of ambivalent sexism toward women (ASI: Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Glick and Fiske, 1996) and men (AMI: Acttitude toward Men Inventory; Glick and Fiske, 1999) with a Spanish sample between 18-65 years of age (n = 1003). The results show that sexist attitudes toward women and men are conditioned in different ways according to sex and age. Women as well as men have a more hostile attitude towards the opposite sex; but men have benevolent attitudes toward both men and women. Moreover, there are similarities between the sexes in relation to their benevolent attitudes toward men. It is very interesting to point out that below the age range of 38-42, there are fewer sexist attitudes and there are significant differences between the sexes about sexist attitudes toward women. We conclude that in order to explain the evolution of sexist attitudes toward men and women, we must take into account not only generational changes but also cultural and historical changes.