Individual and Situational Factors Related to Young Women’s Likelihood of Confronting Sexism in Their Everyday Lives

Factors related to young women’s reported likelihood of confronting sexism were investigated. Participants were 338 U.S. female undergraduates (M = 19 years) attending a California university. They were asked to complete questionnaire measures and to write a personal narrative about an experience with sexism. Approximately half (46%) the women reported confronting the perpetrator. Individual factors (prior experience with sexism, feminist identification, collective action) and situational factors (familiarity and status of perpetrator, type of sexism) were tested as predictors in a logistic regression. Women were less likely to report confronting sexism if (1) they did not identify as feminists, (2) the perpetrator was unfamiliar or high-status/familiar (vs. familiar/equal-status), or (3) the type of sexism involved unwanted sexual attention (vs. sexist comments)

The Role of Implicit Measurement in the Assessment of Risky Behavior: A Pilot Study with African American Girls

With the aim of developing a novel strategy for identifying vulnerability for early sexual activity and adjustment problems, African American girls (n = 39) completed partially structured scenarios in which female characters of similar age faced circumstances characterized by varying levels of risk. Most girls indicated that they believed the characters would have sex, regardless of their own sexual history or the level of risk in the scenario. However, the combination of girls’ sexual history and girls’ predictions of characters’ behavior in the scenario provided more information regarding the girls at greatest risk for adjustment problems. Implicit techniques offer an additional strategy for identifying girls most vulnerable to adjustment difficulties in the context of early sexual activity

Understanding and overcoming challenges faced by working mothers: A theoretical and empirical review

Working mothers face different sets of challenges with regards to social identity, stigmatization, and discrimination within each stage of the employment cycle, from differential hiring practices, unequal career advancement opportunities, ineffective retention efforts, and inaccessible work-family supportive policies (Jones et al. in The Psychology for Business Success. Praeger, Westport, CT, 2013). Not only do these inequalities have negative effects on women, but they can also have a detrimental impact on organizations as a whole. In this chapter, we review several theoretical and empirical studies pertaining to the challenges faced by women throughout their work-motherhood transitions. We then offer strategies that organizations, mothers, and allies can use to effectively improve the workplace experiences of pregnant women and mothers. This chapter will specifically contribute to the existing literature by drawing on identity management and ally research from other domains to suggest additional strategies that female targets and supportive coworkers can engage into help remediate these negative workplace outcomes. Finally, we highlight future research directions aimed at testing the effectiveness of these and other remediation strategies, as well as the methodological challenges and solutions to those challenges associated with this important research domain. We call upon researchers to develop more theory-driven, empirically tested intervention strategies that utilize all participants in this fight to end gender inequality in the workplace

The motives underlying stereotype-based discrimination against members of stigmatized groups

We argue that the motivations that underlie stereotype-based discrimination against racial minorities and other stigmatized groups often fail to meet standard criteria for rational judgments. Stereotyping of such groups is often driven by threats to one's self-esteem and a desire to rationalize inequality, and declines when the perceiver is motivated to be accurate. Also, Bayesian racism-the belief that it is rational to discriminate against individuals based on stereotypes about their racial group-correlates highly with negative feelings toward minorities and the desire to keep low-status groups in their place, and correlates negatively with indices of rational thinking. The motives that drive social judgments call into question whether people engage in stereotype-based discrimination for rational reasons. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Stress and Coping with Racism and Their Role in Sexual Risk for HIV Among African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men

The deleterious effects of racism on a wide range of health outcomes, including HIV risk, are well documented among racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States. However, little is known about how men of color who have sex with men (MSM) cope with stress from racism and whether the coping strategies they employ buffer against the impact of racism on sexual risk for HIV transmission. We examined associations of stress and coping with racism with unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) in a sample of African American (N = 403), Asian/Pacific Islander (N = 393), and Latino (N = 400) MSM recruited in Los Angeles County, CA during 2008-2009. Almost two-thirds (65 %) of the sample reported being stressed as a consequence of racism experienced within the gay community. Overall, 51 % of the sample reported having UAI in the prior 6 months. After controlling for race/ethnicity, age, nativity, marital status, sexual orientation, education, HIV serostatus, and lifetime history of incarceration, the multivariate analysis found statistically significant main effects of stress from racism and avoidance coping on UAI; no statistically significant main effects of dismissal, education/confrontation, and social-support seeking were observed. None of the interactions of stress with the four coping measures were statistically significant. Although stress from racism within the gay community increased the likelihood of engaging in UAI among MSM of color, we found little evidence that coping responses to racism buffered stress from racism. Instead, avoidance coping appears to suggest an increase in UAI

A systematic review of the extent and measurement of healthcare provider racism

BackgroundAlthough considered a key driver of racial disparities in healthcare, relatively little is known about the extent of interpersonal racism perpetrated by healthcare providers, nor is there a good understanding of how best to measure such racism.ObjectivesThis paper reviews worldwide evidence (from 1995 onwards) for racism among healthcare providers; as well as comparing existing measurement approaches to emerging best practice, it focuses on the assessment of interpersonal racism, rather than internalized or systemic/institutional racism.MethodsThe following databases and electronic journal collections were searched for articles published between 1995 and 2012: Medline, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts. Included studies were published empirical studies of any design measuring and/or reporting on healthcare provider racism in the English language. Data on study design and objectives; method of measurement, constructs measured, type of tool; study population and healthcare setting; country and language of study; and study outcomes were extracted from each study.ResultsThe 37 studies included in this review were almost solely conducted in the U.S. and with physicians. Statistically significant evidence of racist beliefs, emotions or practices among healthcare providers in relation to minority groups was evident in 26 of these studies. Although a number of measurement approaches were utilized, a limited range of constructs was assessed.ConclusionDespite burgeoning interest in racism as a contributor to racial disparities in healthcare, we still know little about the extent of healthcare provider racism or how best to measure it. Studies using more sophisticated approaches to assess healthcare provider racism are required to inform interventions aimed at reducing racial disparities in health