Attitudes Towards Feminist Movements: Role of Religious Fundamentalism, Ambivalent Sexism, System Justification

Abstract

The current research aimed to examine the attitudes towards feminist movements. The research studied the role of predictors for attitudes towards feminist movements among Pakistani adults. For this purpose instruments utilized were Attitudes Towards Feminist Movements Scale (developed in this study), Urdu translated versions of Multidimensional Religious Fundamentalism Inventory(Lith et al., 2011), Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), Gender Based System Justification scale (Jost & Kay, 2005) and Empathic Concern Sub-Scale from Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980). The research was completed in three studies. In the Study I, instrument for measuring attitudes towards feminist movements was developed. For this purpose, Focus Group Discussions (N = 44) were conducted. All of the discussions were transcribed and themes were identified using Thematic Analysis technique. Three major themes emerged were positive perception about feminist movements, negative perception about feminist movements and behavioral intentions. An item pool of 80 is generated based upon themes and codes, after performing Exploratory Factor Analysis (N = 350) two Factor solution for Attitudes Towards Feminist Movements scale was confirmed named as Positive Attitudes Towards Feminist Movements (PA) and Negative Attitudes Towards Feminist Movements (NA). In Study II, Gender Based System Justification Scale and Multidimensional Religious Fundamentalism Inventory were translated using Brislin‘s method (1980) and their factor structures were validated using IBM AMOS 22 on the sample of (N = 465). On the basis of results from Gender Based System Justification item 7 was excluded from scale total, whereas for Multidimensional Religious Fundamentalism Inventory Items 10 and 15 were not included in the scale total. In the Study III, hypothesis testing was done, on the sample of (N = 465), with men = 283, women = 182 with age range of 18-70 (M = 28.78; SD = 8.78). Results were calculated using IBM SPSS 22, regression analysis suggests that religious fundamentalism, system justification and ambivalent sexism negatively predicts attitudes towards feminist movements, but empathy neither predicted nor correlated with attitudes towards feminist movements. Regression analysis also suggests that religious fundamentalism positively predicted system justification and ambivalent sexism. Mediation analysis confirmed that system justification and ambivalent sexism acted as mediator between religious fundamentalism and attitudes towards feminist movements. However, empathy moderated the relationship between IX religious fundamentalism, system justification, ambivalent sexism and attitudes towards feminist movements. Men were scoring significantly higher upon negative attitudes towards feminist movements, sexism and system justifying beliefs, whereas, women scored significantly higher upon positive attitudes towards feminist movements. There was no significant correlation present between age and attitudes towards feminist movements. Individuals who identified themselves as feminist show more positive attitudes towards feminist movements, and individual who were more exposed to activities related to feminist movements also showed positive attitudes towards feminist movements. Individuals whose mothers were employed showed positive attitudes towards feminist movements. Findings of the study can be utilized to develop intervention plan which can induce empathy and critical thinking among individuals which will foster positive attitudes towards feminist movements. Limitations and suggestions of the study are also discussed.