Internalized Sexism & Civic Choices
We’ve been discussing internalized sexism a lot this year! Everyone is asking about internalized sexism as a barrier that moderate women face, and we’re getting a lot of questions about how internalized sexism has impacted civic life and current events recently. Let’s dive into some frequently asked questions about internalized sexism.
What is internalized sexism?
Internalized sexism means taking in negative messages about the perceived inferiority of women and attributing them to yourself and/or other women. All women hold some degree of internalized sexism because we’re raised and socialized in a sexist society!
What does internalized sexism look like?
Some examples of internalized sexism sound like1:
“I think that men are more rational decision-makers than women.”
“I look to the men in my life for political knowledge more than the women in my life.”
“These days, society seems to punish men just for acting like men.”
In some 2024 focus groups, Galvanize Action heard similar statements from women talking about women in leadership, and specifically about Kamala Harris. They said “Other countries won’t think she is strong enough or smart enough.” and “I don’t want a president who can get walked all over,” both of which strongly indicate some internalized sexism at play.
How does internalized sexism impact civic choices?
Galvanize Action’s 2024 psychographic modeling research showed us that internalized sexism is one of the traits that can strongly predict civic behavior, including vote choice. Like racial resentment and trust in government, the level of internalized sexism someone holds is predictive to a statistically-significant degree. Read details here.
This holds true when we survey women about their political choices. Take a look at this survey from November 2024 and observe differences between women with low (teal bars) levels of internalized sexism and those with higher levels (pink bars) of internalized sexism.
Just 9% of the moderate white women who said they’d vote for Kamala Harris were high in internalized sexism, but 38% of those who said they would vote for Trump had high levels. Conversely, only 8% of moderate white women who said they were voting for Trump were low in internalized sexism compared to 36% of similar Harris voters. This is a pretty stark difference!
How does Galvanize Action know how much internalized sexism women hold?
We can’t just ask women “how sexist are you?” because of social desirability bias: most people would simply say they aren’t sexist at all. Instead, we ask women to agree or disagree with specific statements that help us understand how they think about women and gender roles.
For learning purposes only, try this simplified (and fully anonymous) survey yourself to get a rough feel for how it works:
That should help you get a basic sense of how we can measure traits like internalized sexism and how much sexism was “average” in one survey we fielded. Try taking it more than once so you can see what happens as your answers change!
What can we do about internalized sexism?
Sexism doesn’t just hold women back in personal and professional life; our unique research shows us that barriers like internalized sexism hold women back from standing up for democracy and fundamental rights, too. Our work supports women in overcoming or sidestepping those barriers so each of us can play a role in building an America where all people of all genders can thrive. This year we will conduct comprehensive research on the ongoing and emerging barriers and opportunities among moderate women, with a focus on unconscious biases such as internalized sexism and racial resentment. This will help Galvanize Action and its partners develop ads, new media programming, and long-term interventions that help reduce sexism and strengthen our democracy.
- Modified from Piggott, M. (2004). Double jeopardy: Lesbians and the legacy of multiple stigmatized identities. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis). Psychology Strand at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
