Many of the women expressed discouragement at how many comments they have received that, while seemingly complimentary, somehow still felt wrong. These comments may have focused on appearance rather than content, or called attention to the relative lack of women in science. They can cause a feeling of unease, particularly when [the woman] is in the position of trying to draw attention towards her work rather than towards personal qualities like her gender or her appearance.
This phenomenon as benevolent sexism, which is a subjectively positive orientation of protection, idealization, and affection directed toward women that, like hostile sexism, serves to justify women’s subordinate status to men (Glick et al., 2000, p. 763) For women in male-dominated fields, or those who simply want to be seen as strong – it creates a damaging stereotype. It is a significant predictor of nationwide gender inequality, independent of the effects of hostile sexism.
When the women read statements illustrating benevolent sexism, they were less willing to engage in anti-sexist collective action, more likely to think that there are many advantages to being a woman, and more likely to engage in system justification, a process by which people justify the status quo and believe that there are no longer problems facing disadvantaged groups (such as women) in modern day society.
In my experience the people who do this are doing this subconsciously, with zero malicious intent. It's almost charming how they seem to think calling attention to a scientist's femininity is a compliment. Almost.
To be fair, I don't really feel that strongly about it either. It's mild irritating and tends to be drowned out in the tsunami of frustration that I encounter on a daily bases from other quarters.
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