The differential association between social capital and benevolent sexism belief by gender in Japan

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: Benevolent sexism, defined as glorifying behaviors found to follow traditional gender roles, can lead to gender inequity and prejudice. Recent studies revealed the dark side of social capital on health through discrimination against outsiders. In the context of benevolent sexism, men and women who do not conform to traditional gender roles may be subject to discrimination. However, empirical studies on the association between social capital and benevolent sexism belief are scarce. We aimed to examine the association between social capital and benevolent sexism belief. Methods: This study used data from a large online survey conducted from September to October 2021 in Japan (n = 27,952; 13,752 men and 14,200 women). We measured benevolent sexism belief by the Benevolent Sexism Scale for Japanese and individual-level social capital via a questionnaire. We examined associations between both individual-level social capital and prefecture-level social capital, and benevolent sexism after adjusting for covariates, stratified by sex. Results: Among men, both individual-level and prefecture-level social capital were associated with higher benevolent sexism beliefs (coefficient: 0.20 (95%CI: 0.09, 0.32) and 0.17 (95%CI: 0.01, 0.33), respectively). In contrast, among women, individual-level social capital was inversely associated with benevolent sexism belief (coefficient −0.43 (95%CI: −0.54, −0.31)), and prefecture-level social capital was not associated with benevolent sexism belief (coefficient: 0.03 (95%CI: −0.10, 0.16)). Conclusion: This study suggested that both individual and community social capital may accelerate benevolent sexism among men, while individual social capital plays a protective role in benevolent sexism among women.