Ambivalent Sexism

In an attempt to understand more fully the nuances of gender-based prejudices, Peter Glick and Susan Fiske developed the idea of ambivalent sexism in the late 1990s. Although sexism has been the subject of academic interest for more than 100 years, Glick and Fiske sought to examine these attitudes in a more nuanced way, looking at the possibility of complex sexist attitudes that may entail both positive and negative attitudes toward women.

To understand ambivalent sexism, one must first understand its components: paternal and caring attitudes, or benevolent sexism, and aggressive and mistrusting attitudes, or hostile sexism. Together, these two attitudes are known as ambivalent sexism, as they imply attitudes that are seemingly both positive and negative.