Confronting and Reducing Sexism : Creating Interventions That Work

This special issue brings together and promotes research, theory, and policy on confronting and reducing sexism. The first section on "Confronting Sexism" presents articles that identify key aspects of situations and of individuals that are associated with confronting, and highlight variables that moderate the target's and ally's confronting behavior. The second section on "Interventions for Reducing Sexism" presents articles that examine optimal ways to reduce sexism, identify factors that affect the efficacy of interventions, and highlight structural and cultural influences that bolster sexism and prevent the acceptance of interventions.

Julia Becker is a professor of social psychology at the University of Osnabrueck (Germany). Her research focuses on ways to explain why disadvantaged group members tolerate societal systems that produce social and economic inequality and how legitimizing ideologies (such as sexism) help to maintain unequal status relations. Building on this, she is interested in people's motivation in activism for social change.

Matthew J. Zawadzki is a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University. His research investigates how psychological processes affect health with a focus on creating, testing, and implementing interventions to improve well-being.

Stephanie A. Shields is Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at The Pennsylvania State. Her research is at the intersection of human emotion, gender, and feminist psychology. Her current work focuses on development and testing of WAGES, perception of emotion regulation in others, and theoretical and methodological issues relevant to applying intersectionality theory in psychological research.