Masculinity ideology and gender equality: considering neosexism

The aims of this study are to investigate the relationship among traditional masculinity ideology, neosexism, and gender equality. Specifically we tested the effect of neosexism as a mediational variable. As expected, our results showed that men maintain more traditional masculinity ideology and more neosexist beliefs than women. Also masculinity ideology is negatively related to gender equality in men, but in women there is no relationship. The results of the mediation tests confirm that masculinity ideology is a good predictor of gender equality and it is mediated by neosexism, but only for men. The relevance of these findings with reference to neosexism as an obstacle to equality is discussed.