Of all the types of diversity, one that is arguably one of the most prevalent in American society is gender; specifically, sexism. Benevolent sexism is probably the sneakiest type, as it is often disguised as a compliment or some form of chivalry. In terms of the contact hypothesis, contact between men and women (in-group and out-group) would not currently meet the requirements for improving stereotyping on a large scale; the fact that women are still not seen as complete equals demonstrates just that (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Through a couple of examples, I will show how the contact hypothesis could possibly resolve conflict in terms of sexism, and suggest interventions in certain areas of life that may actually produce change.
Imagine a young college woman rushing out of a classroom. She is running downstairs to get across campus to her next class, which starts in ten minutes. As she is swiftly moving toward the exit to the building, a young man zooms ahead of her in order to open the door for her. As he is holding it open with a smile, the young woman stops in her tracks and says “Please don’t ever do that again.” The young man asks her why, as he was just trying to be nice. The girl responds to this with yet another question: “Well, would you have rushed ahead of me to open the door if I were a man?” The young man looked confused for a moment, then replied with, “Hmm…I see your point.” The woman says thank you, and walks outside to her class.
The above example, based on actual events, is a prime demonstration of benevolent sexism. The woman was more than capable of opening the door herself, which she was about to do before the young man opened it for her. Even though he was “just trying to be nice,” his actions implied that women need to be taken care of and catered to—the oldest form of sexism. If most of society inherently feels that women are not equal to men, how could having contact between the two groups (contact hypothesis) change society as a whole? Well, the aforementioned contact between one member from each group ended with more mutual understanding between the two; in this sense, the “perceived equality” between the two individuals seemed to resolve conflict (Schneider et al., 2012). However, this only applied on a microscopic scale. To have it apply on a larger scale, attitudes would need to be changed, possibly through social psychological interventions.
Unfortunately, negative attitudes within groups can perpetuate sexism as well; that is, women and men are both part of the problem. A study demonstrated that when women and men were both informed about, and encouraged to pay attention to, modern and benevolent sexism in their own lives, only the women’s attitudes changed (Becker & Swim, 2014). Men only developed negative attitudes toward sexism when they were encouraged to show emotional empathy toward women (Becker & Swim, 2014). It is possible this difference could be caused by the in-group, out-group mindset; women did not need to be encouraged to have empathy toward themselves, as they already feel that way about their own group (but they had no issue feeling hostility toward sexist men in the study). Similar interventions could be applied to important areas of life such as the workplace in order to encourage equal treatment of both genders, and achieve equality, shared goals and organizational support as outlined by the contact hypothesis (Schneider et al., 2012).
In typical workplaces such as offices or schools, women still fight against that glass ceiling (they can only climb so high in their jobs). An intervention to reduce sexism, and maybe even help equalize pay, could be done very cost-effectively via the internet. Both men and women could receive information about sexism via a website or emails. An experimental group could also attend workplace meetings about sexist attitudes, perhaps with videos demonstrating the harm that sexism does to society as a whole, not just individual women. If the group that receives both internet information and attends the meetings has more improved attitudes than the internet-only group, then such a combined plan could be applied to many workplaces. Over time, as sexism decreases, bigger changes such as equal pay could happen as a result. Participants in this plan could be monitored over time, and hopefully men and women would come to see themselves as part of one group working toward similar goals.
Unfortunately, it is human nature to not get along. There are in-groups and out-groups everywhere, and not just in terms of the gender barrier. As Schneider and Lesson 6 outline, there is a lot of understanding of why there is so much conflict among groups of people, but more still needs to be done in order to end it (2012). Regardless of whether we are men or women, and no matter how much we exclude members of the “out-group,” we are all still human beings.
References:
Becker, J.C., & Swim, J.K. (2014). Seeing the unseen: Attention to daily encounters with sexism as way to reduce sexist beliefs. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 227-242.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied social psychology:
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Educating men and women regarding sexism through websites and emails may be somewhat effective in reducing this issue, however, the effectiveness may only work for individuals who are interested in or concerned about issues surrounding sexism. Moreover, it would be extremely difficult to reduce sexism in unconcerned individuals through online education, for they would need to desire to seek this information to receive it in the first place. If there were methods of requiring all men and women to acquire online info regarding sexism, this may have more significant effects on reducing sexism. On the other hand, this seems too forceful and implausible. Your idea of requiring employees to attend workplace meetings on sexism, watching videos focused on the negative consequences of sexism, and educating themselves online about sexism may be more effective than the online intervention or workplace meetings alone. Still, these methods may backlash due to an overload of requirements for sexism education, which may encourage some employees to increase sexist behaviors. There is no perfect way of reducing sexism or other conflicts between different groups, be it gender, race, or age. However, it is better to try multiple interventions to see what works in certain situations with various groups rather than doing nothing at all to ameliorate the issue.