A growing body of research demonstrates that gendered attitudes, even more than voter’s gender alone, have profoundly shaped political behavior and polarization across democracies. While most scholarship has examined sexism as attitudes toward women, our study broadens this perspective by incorporating (i) attitudes toward men and (ii) support for policies that discriminate against men. Drawing on ambivalent sexism theory developed by Glick and Fiske, we argue that both benevolent and hostile forms of sexism toward both women and men structure contemporary political divides and public support for discriminatory policies.
Using two original, nationally representative post-election surveys from Poland (2023 and 2025), we examine how sexism toward men and women predicts voting behavior and policy preferences. Our findings reveal that hostile sexism toward men significantly differentiates women who support left-wing, center-right, and far-right parties, while benevolent sexism toward both genders is associated with endorsement of policies that disadvantage men - specifically, unequal retirement ages and mandatory military service for men only. We also find that people who believe men are more discriminated against than women are substantially more likely to support far-right parties and candidates, suggesting that unequal policies may drive reactionary mobilization.
These findings extend existing research on the gender gap in political behavior by demonstrating that attitudes toward men independently influence political choices and policy preferences. Importantly, we incorporate measures from both the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) and the Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI), highlighting the neglected yet politically consequential role of sexism toward men. By linking these attitudes to concrete policy stances and voting outcomes, we uncover how benevolent sexism functions as a justification for institutionalized gender inequalities, while two-way hostile sexism fuels polarization between women and men.
In sum, our study contributes to the literature on inequalities and political behavior by showing that gendered attitudes operate as both causes and consequences of discrimination. Hostile attitudes sustain partisan polarization, whereas benevolent sexism sustains discriminatory policies.
