It's His Right,It's Her Duty: Benevolent Sexism and the Justification of Traditional Sexual Roles

This study tested the effects on social perceptions of sexual marital rights and duties of ambivalent sexist ideology and information about the benevolent sexist ideology of a husband, portrayed in a hypothetical marital vignette. In addition, the perception of whether hypothetical forced sex between husband and wife is considered rape was explored. For one half of the participants (college students), the husband was presented as high in benevolent sexism (BS); and for the other half, no information about his ideology was given. Results showed that participants in the first group ranked sexual marital rights (for him) and duties (for her) more highly, and regarded forced sex as rape to a lesser extent. Positive relationships were also found between participants’ BS and these ratings. Moreover, participants’ perceptions of marital rights and duties played a mediating role in the relationship between their BS and their perception of forced penetration as rape. Finally, an interaction was found between participants’ and husbands’ BS in the perception of marital rights and duties: The influence of participants’ BS was higher when the husband was presented as a benevolent sexist man. Results highlight the role of sexist attitudes in the interpretation of marital rape.