Women’s attitudes towards abortion-rights movement in Poland: the role of sexism and right-wing authoritarianism
Women’s attitudes towards abortion-rights movement in Poland: the role of sexism and right-wing authoritarianism

Summary/Abstract: The present study was inspired by the mass anti-government demonstra-tions organized by women after the further tightening of abortion laws in Poland. As aresult, salient social polarization emerged with a clear-cut division between those whocontested marches against the near-total abortion ban and those who supported them.In female participants (N = 291), we examined the role of two forms of sexism and right-wing authoritarianism in predicting an attitude towards the abortion-rights movement.In line with the hypotheses, the results showed that right-wing authoritarianism wasresponsible for the relationship between sexism and attitudes toward the abortion-rightsmovement. Benevolent and hostile sexism was negatively related to the attitudes towardthe abortion rights movement, but this relationship was partly explained by right-wingauthoritarianism. Our findings suggest that targeting right-wing authoritarianism mightbe crucial for changing the beliefs underlying both forms of sexism and attitudes towardthe abortion movement. It seems particularly important for benevolent sexism still mis-taken for protection rather than an ideology patronizing women and preserving genderinequality.

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