Modern Sexism Scale
Also known as: MSS, Swim Modern Sexism Scale, Neosexism
The Modern Sexism Scale, developed by Janet Swim and colleagues in 1995, distinguishes between old-fashioned (blatant) sexism and modern (subtle) sexism, paralleling work on old-fashioned versus modern racism. The accompanying Old-Fashioned Sexism Scale captures openly endorsed beliefs in women's inferiority and prescribed traditional roles, while the Modern Sexism Scale captures covert sexism expressed through denial of continuing discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and resentment of policies perceived as special favours.
Key highlights
- Detects covert, contemporary sexism that overt scales miss once blatant sexism becomes socially undesirable.
- Distinguishes old-fashioned from modern sexism with separate subscales, mirroring the validated old-fashioned/modern racism distinction.
- Predicts consequential outcomes such as biased candidate evaluations and opposition to gender-equality policies.
- Brief and easy to administer, with established reliability and a clear conceptual basis in attitude-change theory.
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
Use the Modern Sexism Scale when you need to detect subtle, contemporary sexist attitudes that overt measures miss, particularly in samples where blatant sexism is socially undesirable and shows little variance. It suits research on hidden prejudice, opposition to equality policies, biased evaluation, and the structure of gender attitudes. Pair it with the Old-Fashioned Sexism Scale when you want to contrast blatant and subtle forms, or with the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory when you also need to separate hostile from benevolent sexism. It is less appropriate when the construct of interest is paternalistic or seemingly positive attitudes toward women, which modern sexism does not capture.
Strengths & limitations
- Detects covert, contemporary sexism that overt scales miss once blatant sexism becomes socially undesirable.
- Distinguishes old-fashioned from modern sexism with separate subscales, mirroring the validated old-fashioned/modern racism distinction.
- Predicts consequential outcomes such as biased candidate evaluations and opposition to gender-equality policies.
- Brief and easy to administer, with established reliability and a clear conceptual basis in attitude-change theory.
- The modern-sexism items are partly tied to specific policy debates and perceptions of discrimination that can date as the social context changes.
- It does not capture benevolent or paternalistic sexism, so it gives an incomplete picture of gender attitudes when used alone.
- Like all self-report attitude measures, it remains vulnerable to impression management, though less so than blatant scales.
- The boundary between 'denial of discrimination' and accurate beliefs about social change can be contested, complicating interpretation in some contexts.
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
How does modern sexism differ from old-fashioned sexism?
Old-fashioned sexism is blatant: open endorsement of women's inferiority and traditional, unequal roles. Modern sexism is covert: it manifests as denial that discrimination against women still exists, antagonism toward women's demands for equality, and resentment of policies seen as special favours. The scales measure them separately because a person can reject blatant sexism while still holding the subtler modern variety.
Is modern sexism the same as hostile sexism in the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory?
They are related but distinct. Hostile sexism in Glick and Fiske's inventory captures openly antagonistic, dominating attitudes toward women, and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory pairs it with benevolent sexism — subjectively positive but patronising attitudes. Modern sexism centres specifically on denial of discrimination and resentment of women's demands, and does not include the benevolent dimension, so the constructs overlap without being interchangeable.
What is neosexism and how is it related?
Neosexism, introduced by Tougas and colleagues, is a closely parallel construct describing a conflict between egalitarian values and lingering negative feelings toward women, expressed largely as opposition to measures intended to help women. It was developed around the same time as the Modern Sexism Scale and shares its core idea that contemporary sexism is subtle and rationalised, which is why the two are often discussed and sometimes used together.
Sources
- 1.Swim, J. K., Aikin, K. J., Hall, W. S., & Hunter, B. A. (1995). Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(2), 199–214.
- 2.Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491–512.
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Modern Sexism Scale. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/gender-studies/modern-sexism-scale