When men make sexist comments, they insult all women within earshot and negatively influence how they feel towards men in general, say researchers writing in Sex Roles.

The University of Connecticut team examined women's reactions to overhearing a catcall remark and, in particular, how observing a specific sexist incident impacts women's feelings and attitudes towards men.

They asked 114 undergraduate female students to watch a video and imagine themselves as bystanders to a situation where a man made either a sexist catcall remark ("Hey Kelly, your boobs look great in that shirt!") at another woman or simply greeted her ("Hey Kelly, what's up?").

 Students then rated their anxiety, depression and hostility levels, their anger and fear towards men, how prejudiced they thought the comment was, their desire to move against or away from men in general, as well as how strongly they felt about their gender identity as a result of witnessing the sexist remark.

 Women were more likely to think about themselves in terms of their gender group identity and, as a result, feel greater anger and motivation to take direct action towards men, in general, when they are bystanders to sexism. In other words, they experienced emotions and motivations in line with how the situation may help or harm women as a whole, rather than how it might affect them personally as individuals.

The work highlights how men and women in general are implicated in individual instances of sexism and that sexism is bad for everyone, the authors say.

They conclude: "Women are obviously implicated because they suffer direct negative consequences as targets of prejudice and, as the current work demonstrates, indirect consequences as bystanders. But sexism also harms men as well. Whenever a single man's prejudiced actions are attributed to his gender identity, male perpetrators impact how women view and react to men more generally."


Citation: Stephenie R. Chaudoir, Diane M. Quinn, 'Bystander Sexism in the Intergroup Context: The Impact of Cat-calls on Women’s Reactions Towards Men', Sex Roles, March 2010; doi: 10.1007/s11199-009-9735-0