Exploring Indian Women’s Understanding of Benevolent Sexism

Abstract

Sexism has been described as any practice based upon the idea that a person is inferior because of their sex, resulting in differential behavior against them. One component of sexism is benevolent sexism, which presents itself as a patronizing attitude towards women. Research indicates women exposed to benevolent sexist attitudes suffer damage to their self-esteem as well as perceptions of self-competence. However, despite this evidence supported impact, people were found to not pay attention to benevolent sexism. To increase discourse regarding benevolent sexism, this study explores Indian women’s understanding and awareness of benevolent sexism using a qualitative approach. Seventeen women from the upper middle class with a mean age of twenty-four were interviewed with the help of a validated interview guide. Audio transcription was done to create edited transcripts. The data obtained was analysed using Braun and Clarke’s model of thematic analysis. From the results, we understand women’s understanding of benevolent sexism to be present in the background of how they comprehend womanhood and gender. Two global themes were identified: ‘being a woman’ and ‘sexism.’ The findings hold significance as they provide a deeper understanding of women’s understanding of sexism, which could provide useful information to tackle the hegemonic phenomena.