Self-Silencing to Sexism

    Authors

    J. K. Swim; K. M. Eyssell; E. Q. Murdoch;M. J. Ferguson

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Soc. Issues

    Keywords

    COLLEGE-STUDENTS; SOCIAL COSTS; DISCRIMINATION; PREJUDICE; RESPONSES; ATTRIBUTIONS; EXPERIENCES; DEPRESSION; ETHNICITY; IMPACT; Social Issues; Psychology, Social

    Abstract

    Women's endorsement of beliefs that prioritize others' voices over their own (i.e., self-silencing beliefs) predicted behaviorally self-silenced to everyday, interpersonal forms of sexism. Self-silencing beliefs, which are consistent with prescriptive gender roles for women, indicate that one should avoid conflict in relationships, put others needs over one's own, accept a discrepancy between one's personal and public self, and judge one's behaviors by external standards. Results from a diary study indicate that the more U.S. college women endorsed self-silencing beliefs the less likely they wanted to respond to sexist incidents and, if they wanted to respond to incidents, the more they verbally restrained their responses to everyday sexism and other stressful incidents. The results suggest that, when addressing women's tendency to self-silence to incidents, one should address women's gender-role consistent beliefs about how they should behave in interpersonal interactions.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Social Issues

    Volume

    66

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    493

    Last Page

    507

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000281550500005

    ISSN

    0022-4537

    Share

    COinS