Influence of age, marital status and environment on sexism in Nigeria

Abstract

This study attempts to find out the demographic factors for the ingrained sex discrimination in Nigeria.779 research participants comprising of 267 participants drawn from the rural areas in Ekiti State and 512 from the urban centres; 353 old people (aged above 35 years), 426 young participants and 393 single and 386 married participants, randomly selected from residents in Ekiti State, completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) developed by Glick and Fiske (1996). Participants’ age ranges between 15 and 69 with a mean age of 31.91. The independent ttest statistics was employed to test whether age, marital status or environment of living will significantly influence sex discrimination. Results showed that age [t (777) = -3.24, p<.01], marital status [t (777) = -2.23, p<.05] and environment of living [t (777) = 3.21, p<.01] are significant factors influencing hostile sex discrimination (sexism) in Nigeria. Results also indicated that benevolent sex discriminations are not significantly influenced by age, marital status and environment of living. The findings were discussed in the light of available literature.

Keywords: Environment, Age, Marital Status, Sexism, Nigeria.