Neosexism Scale: Assessment of Contemporary Gender Beliefs and Attitudes [NS-11]

Description

The Neosexism Scale (NS-11) was developed by Tougas, Brown, Beaton, and Joly (1995) to assess contemporary and more subtle forms of sexist attitudes. The concept of neosexism refers to gender prejudice that is not necessarily expressed through openly discriminatory beliefs, but rather through the denial, minimization, or questioning of persistent gender inequalities.

Neosexism may be reflected in beliefs that women have already achieved equality, that gender discrimination is no longer a significant social problem, or that policies intended to promote gender equality are unnecessary or excessive. In this sense, the construct captures modern forms of sexism that may coexist with an explicit endorsement of equality as a general social principle.

Objective

The primary objective of the NS-11 is to provide a quantitative assessment of contemporary sexist attitudes and beliefs concerning gender equality.

More specifically, the scale can be used to examine attitudes related to the denial or minimization of gender discrimination, resistance to initiatives promoting gender equality, perceptions of women’s social and professional advancement, and reactions to affirmative action or equality-based policies.

The instrument is particularly useful in social, organizational, educational, and gender research because subtle forms of sexism may be more difficult to identify than traditional and explicitly hostile sexist attitudes.

Structure and Scoring

The NS-11 consists of 11 self-report statements assessing contemporary beliefs about women, gender inequality, and efforts to promote equality.

Responses are commonly provided using a Likert-type scale, typically ranging from 1 (“Strongly Disagree”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree”), depending on the version used.

Some items are formulated in the opposite direction and therefore require reverse scoring before calculating the overall score. Researchers should follow the scoring instructions of the specific validated version being administered.

A total score or mean score can then be calculated across the items. Higher scores generally indicate stronger neosexist attitudes, including a greater tendency to minimize gender inequality or oppose measures designed to address it. Lower scores indicate weaker endorsement of neosexist beliefs.

The NS-11 should generally be interpreted as a continuous measure rather than through diagnostic cut-off points.

Applications

The Neosexism Scale has applications in social psychology, organizational research, gender studies, education, and workplace research. It can be used to investigate relationships between gender attitudes and variables such as support for equality policies, attitudes toward women in leadership positions, perceptions of discrimination, organizational climate, gender-role beliefs, and support for affirmative action.

The scale may also be applied in comparative studies examining differences across demographic, occupational, educational, or cultural groups.

In intervention research, the NS-11 can be useful for evaluating changes in gender-related attitudes following educational programs, diversity initiatives, or awareness interventions designed to reduce gender bias.

Psychometric Properties

The original work by Tougas et al. (1995) supported the use of neosexism as a distinct construct related to, but not identical with, traditional sexist attitudes. The scale was also associated with resistance toward affirmative action and policies intended to improve women’s social and occupational position.

Subsequent research has compared the Neosexism Scale with other measures of contemporary sexism and has generally supported its usefulness for assessing subtle gender prejudice.

As with any psychological scale, researchers using the NS-11 in a new linguistic or cultural context should examine its internal consistency, construct validity, factor structure, and measurement equivalence. Validation is particularly important when translated or culturally adapted versions are employed.

References

Tougas, F., Brown, R., Beaton, A. M., & Joly, S. (1995). Neosexism: Plus ça change, plus c’est pareil. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(8), 842–849. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167295218007

Campbell, B., Schellenberg, E. G., & Senn, C. Y. (1997). Evaluating measures of contemporary sexism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1), 89–102.

Swim, J. K., & Cohen, L. L. (1997). Overt, covert, and subtle sexism: A comparison between the Attitudes Toward Women and Modern Sexism Scales. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1), 103–118.

Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56(2), 109–118.

Bareket, O., & Fiske, S. T. (2023). A systematic review of the ambivalent sexism literature: Hostile sexism protects men’s power; benevolent sexism guards traditional gender roles. Psychological Bulletin.