Women’s Microaggressions Scale (WoMenS): A Comprehensive Sexism Scale

Abstract

Sexism is pervasive but often manifests as microaggressions against women, which are subtle, covert forms of gender discrimination. Thus, we developed the Women’s Microaggressions Scale (WoMenS) based on an existing theoretical taxonomy and content analysis of social media data. Two separate studies were conducted for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). EFA supported an eight-factor, correlated structure and CFA supported a bifactor model, with eight specific factors and one general WoMenS factor. Overall, reliability and validity of the WoMenS were mostly supported in two samples. Specifically, the WoMenS subscales and body surveillance were positively correlated; the general WoMenS was positively correlated with anxiety, depression, body surveillance, and another measure of sexism but not life satisfaction. Furthermore, general WoMenS explained variance in anxiety and body surveillance above and beyond that explained by an existing sexism measure.