“Blessed Is He Who Has Not Made Me a Woman”: Ambivalent Sexism and Jewish Religiosity

This study explored the relationships between Jewish religiosity and ambivalent sexist attitudes toward men and women. Drawing
on ambivalent sexism theory and Judaism’s views of gender relations, it was hypothesized that religiosity would be positively
related to benevolent sexism and benevolent attitudes toward men. The hypotheses were tested in a convenience sample of 854
Israeli Jews (471 women, 355 men) who completed measures of ambivalent sexism, ambivalence toward men and religiosity. Controlling
for the effects of age, education and marital status, religiosity predicted more benevolent sexist attitudes for both men
and women. The findings also revealed negative associations between Jewish religiosity and hostile attitudes, mainly among
men. That is, more religious men were less likely to express hostile attitudes toward men and women. These findings attest
to the complex relationships between religiosity and sexist attitudes, and underscore the importance of investigating the
impact of diverse religious traditions on gender attitudes.