The global decline in sexism: A multilevel meta-analytic review of trends in countries' hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and gender inequality over time.

Abstract

The continued prevalence of sexism and gender inequalities across the world is a priority for research. We meta-analyzed all research since the inception of ambivalent sexism theory (1996-2023) that measured hostile sexism (i.e., derogatory attitudes) or benevolent sexism (i.e., patronizing attitudes) toward women. Using 1,097 samples from 81 countries, we considered evidence for principles of ambivalent sexism theory, including the extent to which endorsements of hostile sexism and benevolent sexism (a) differed across years, (b) were associated with one another, and (c) were associated with countries' gender inequalities. Multilevel meta-analytic models indicated that endorsement of sexism generally followed trajectories of small declines over years, provided robust evidence that sexism is "ambivalent" because hostile sexism was consistently associated with greater benevolent sexism, and suggested that people's greater endorsement of hostile sexism in a country predicted greater gender inequality in that country, although this association was attenuated in later samples. Implications of these tests informed theoretical gaps in need of research: investigating why the declining trajectories of sexism were stronger in some countries relative to others, identifying the most appropriate markers of gender inequality, and specifying the time lags between experienced inequalities and endorsement of sexism. Our multilevel meta-analysis provided initial information about the cross-country patterns of ambivalent sexism and established a need for longitudinal cultural research to identify the origins of ambivalent sexism and its consequences for gender inequalities across the world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).