Perceived Partner Sexism and Stigma Consciousness: How \u27Prince Charming\u27 Undermines Relationship Satisfaction

Perceived discrimination (outside of the relationship) relates to negative relationship outcomes, moderated by stigma consciousness (DeHart, 2017). Women who report higher (versus lower) levels of perceived partner benevolent sexism (i.e., perceptions of one\u27s partner\u27s endorsement of sexist attitudes) experience more negative relationship outcomes as well (Hammond & Overall, 2013; Hammond & Overall, 2014; Hammond & Overall, 2015). In addition, relationship partners adopt more traditional gender roles after becoming parents, which fosters benevolent sexism (Trillingsgaard, Baucom, & Heyman, 2014). In this study, married or cohabiting women with children were randomly assigned to either a sexism manipulation or control condition, prior to completing relationship outcome measures. We tested whether relationship outcomes differed depending on the level of chronic perceived partner sexism women reported. Contrary to my predictions, we found that women who report higher levels of perceived partner sexism experienced more negative relationship outcomes when they were high (versus low) in stigma consciousness, but only in the control condition. For women who report lower levels of perceived partner sexism, there was no effect of stigma consciousness on relationship outcomes found in either condition. Findings suggest that chronic perceived partner sexism moderates the relation between stigma consciousness, condition, and relationship outcomes. However, the pattern of results contradicts previous research, theory, and our predictions and merits additional research