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Optimizing the Measurement of Sexism in Political Surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2021

Brian F. Schaffner Open the ORCID record for Brian F. Schaffner [Opens in a new window]
Brian F. Schaffner*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Tisch College, Tufts. University, Medford, MA02155, USA
*
Email: brian.schaffner@tufts.edu
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Abstract

Political scientists are paying increasing attention to understanding the role of sexist attitudes on predicting vote choices and opinions on issues. However, the research in this area measures sexist attitudes with a variety of different items and scales. In this paper, I evaluate some of the most prominent contemporary measures of sexism and develop an approach for identifying optimal items based on (1) convergent validity, (2) predictive validity, and (3) distance from politics. I find that a subset of items from the hostile sexism scale exhibit the most desirable measurement properties and I conclude by recommending a simple two- to five-item reduced hostile sexism battery that will allow scholars to efficiently, validly, and consistently measure sexism.

Keywords

scale usagemeasurementsexism
Type
Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 364 - 380
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology

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Footnotes

Corresponding author Brian F. Schaffner

Edited by Jeff Gill

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