Views on Gender and Aging among Working Men and Women in Colombia

Abstract

This research’s goal was to evaluate beliefs about gender (benevolent and hostile sexism), and aging (positive and negative stereotypes), work and sexual harassment, and ageism, as well as the association between them, in a sample of Colombian men and women of 18-30 (M = 25.3, SD = 3.26), 31-45 (M = 37.6, SD = 4.44), and 45-75 (M = 53.56, SD = 5.8) years of age, using a self-report questionnaire that included validated and adapted scales for the Colombian context. Using ANOVAs we evaluated differences in beliefs about gender and aging, and in harassment and age-discrimination at work, as a function of sex and age. Regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between beliefs and experiences. Altogether, men reported significantly higher levels of sexism, but hostile sexism prevailed among both men and women. Participants older than 30 reported more positive aging stereotypes than younger ones. Young women reported more sexual harassment experiences, but older women reported more work harassment. Additionally, positive aging stereotypes may protect against harassment at work. In all, beliefs about gender and age seem to have a differential impact on men and women of different age groups at work