According to University of Auckland research, fathers and moms who feel men should have power and authority in society and the family are less sensitive to their children during family interactions.
The research was the first of its kind.
“Sexism has been known for decades to predict negative behaviors toward women, ranging from discrimination to violence,” explains lead author Professor Nickola Overall of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. “Our study suggests the effects flow through to poorer parenting.”
Researchers measured parents’ responsiveness, including warmth, involvement, engagement, and sensitivity toward their children, by videotaping family groups in the laboratory.
The less responsive parents exhibited higher degrees of “hostile sexism,” an academic term for attitudes favoring male authority and hostility against women who challenge men’s social dominance. According to Overall, the findings for dads were predicted and emphasize that the negative effects of men’s sexist attitudes may also include poorer parenting.
Sexism has been known for decades to predict negative behaviors toward women, ranging from discrimination to violence. Our study suggests the effects flow through to poorer parenting.
Professor Nickola
It was surprising to learn that moms who agreed with aggressive sexism were more likely to be less responsive parents. “It could be that these mothers follow the father’s lead in family interactions, which leads to less engaged parenting,” she said. “Another possibility is that mothers protect their traditional role as caregiver by restricting the father’s parental involvement, which reduces responsiveness to the children.”
“Responsive parenting is critical to healthy child development, and its absence can lead to behavioral problems, emotional problems, and lower academic achievement.” There is no confirmation of causation in the University of Auckland study, and alternative explanations cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, the laboratory context will have influenced participants’ behavior, reducing the chance of displays of the most punishing parenting, for example.
“Despite these caveats, the current studies emphasize the importance of understanding how, why, and when sexist attitudes affect parenting – a pivotal and overlooked domain that is intricately connected to the power-differentiated gender roles that reinforce gender inequality,” Overall and her co-authors wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
“The novel results offer new directions in understanding the broader impact of sexist attitudes on children across generations,” says Overall. “There is also more to understand about why women continue to agree with sexist attitudes despite the harm they have for women and children.”
According to Overall, the link between less responsive parenting and mothers and fathers displaying “benevolent sexism,” a phrase for attitudes romanticizing traditional gender roles by highlighting the virtues of males as providers and guardians and women as caregivers, did not exist.
The first section of the study included 95 mixed-gender couples and their five-year-old children. Observing families as they worked together to build a cardboard tower, the researchers discovered a statistical link between hostile sexism and less responsive parenting. The association was replicated in a second research of 281 couples and their children observed in two different household tasks.
To establish levels of sexism, parents had answered questions such as:
- Most women fail to appreciate fully all that men do for them
- Women seek to gain power by getting control over men
- Women exaggerate problems they have at work
- Once a woman gets a man to commit to her she usually tries to put him on a tight leash
- Women are too easily offended
- Both men and women can hold these beliefs and some women agree strongly with them
According to research published in 2000, Chile and South Africa were scored high for “hostile sexism,” whereas Australia and the Netherlands were ranked lower. New Zealand was not included in the study.
“Improving child health and wellbeing is connected to improving the attitudes that confine women and men to specific roles, and vice versa,” Overall says.
