Ambivalent Sexism and Attitudes Toward Women Who Engage in Premarital Sex in Turkey‪.‬

This study examined the relationship of ambivalent sexism, political conservatism, demographic variables (age, education, and gender), and prior sexual experience to Turkish men's and women's attitudes toward women who engage in premarital sex. Participants included 124 Turkish undergraduate students and 60 nonstudent Turkish adults. Benevolent but not hostile sexism uniquely predicted more negative views of women who engage in premarital sex once other variables were controlled Regression analyses demonstrated that for both men and women, older, mole politically conservative and less sexually experienced respondents and more educated men (but not women) respondents were more likely to disapprove of women who engage in premarital sex. Similarly, regression analysis revealed that men who were older, politically conservative, and less sexually experienced expressed stronger preferences for marrying a virgin. Both hostile and benevolent sexism predicted men's preference for marrying a virgin after all other Variables were controlled. Premarital sex may be viewed as acceptable (or even beencouraged) for men but can he stigmatizing for women. Although such traditional attitudes are currently less pronounced in Western nations (where attitudes about premarital sex are generally permissive: Iwawaki & Eysenck, 1978), traditional gender attitudes remain strong in many Asian and Middle Eastern societies, such as Turkey (Kocturk, 1992; Parla, 2001, India (Kanekar & Kolsawalla, 1983), Iran (Shapurian & Hojat, 1985), Morocco (Mernissi, 1982), Indonesia and Taiwan (Buss, 1989, as cited in Widmer, Treas, & Newcomb, 199g), and China (Higgins, Zheng, Liu, & Sun, 2002). The current study explored attitudes toward women who engage in premarital sex in Turkey, a relatively tradi0omd society in which women may still be significantly disrespected and penalized for having sex before marriage.