Unsurprising new study links anti-choice views to sexist attitudes

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You don’t say. A new study links opposition to abortion to sexist attitudes toward women. 

The study examines the relationship between sexism and abortion through the lens of the Ambivalent Sexism Theory. The psychological theory holds that sexist attitudes about women come in two main forms: a hostile version and a benevolent version.

Benevolent sexism describes the belief that women are nurturing, caring and gentle, but cannot function properly without protection from a strong male partner. Kathleen Connelly of the University of Florida has summarized benevolent sexism as the belief that “women are wonderful, but weak.”

Hostile sexism, on the other hand, represents overt antipathy or dislike of women. Both forms of sexism maintain that women should be subordinate to men.

In their study of 627 male and female students from six universities, the researchers found African American and Asian American respondents were significantly less likely to be against abortion than were white respondents. Unsurprisingly, students who were more religious tended to have the strongest anti-abortion views.

The study also confirmed its main hypothesis: that sexist attitudes were correlated to anti-abortion views. As individuals increasingly endorsed either hostile or benevolent forms of sexism, they also tended to increasingly endorse anti-abortion views.

Differentiating between hostile and benevolent sexism is useful in explaining the fact that just as many women as men hold anti-choice views. As the researched note, “While women have been shown to endorse forms of hostile sexism somewhat infrequently, women’s endorsements of benevolent sexist beliefs are quite common.”

Indeed, the idea that “women are wonderful, but weak” clearly seems to be the underlying sentiment of much of the anti-choice movement’s “gentler” side. Recall the crisis pregnancy center workers who felt they were protecting women from abortion as “an adult tells a child not to touch a hot stove.” No, that’s not screaming “Die, whore!” at women entering a clinic. But it’s no less sexist.