ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Joy of Sexism? A Multinational Investigation of Hostile and Benevolent Justifications for Gender Inequality and Their Relations to Subjective Well-Being Jaime L. Napier & Hulda Thorisdottir & John T. Jost Published online: 11 November 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Previous research on system justification theory suggests that beliefs that rationalize inequalities are related to subjective well-being. We examine how “complementary” (hostile and benevolent) justifications of gender inequality may serve a palliative function for both men and women. Using multilevel modeling and data from 32 countries (N’ s=362 to 5160), we find that relationships between hostile and benevolent justifications and life satisfaction are moderated by the degree of gender inequality at the national level. In relatively egalitarian nations, individuals who endorse “complementary” justifications are higher on life satisfaction compared to those who endorse an exclu- sively hostile justification. In nations with high gender inequality, there is no difference in life satisfaction for those who endorse exclusively hostile vs. complementary justifications. Keywords System justification . Complementary stereotypes . Subjective well-being Introduction In a 1999 interview for the PBS television series People’ s Century (2009), conservative and anti-feminist activist Colleen Parro spoke fondly of her traditional upbringing in the 1950’ s. When asked to recall her reaction to the feminist movement, she responded: To me success was having a good husband and a good family and a happy life... When Betty Friedan and the feminists began their activities, and the feminist movement began to rear its head in our society, I was a young mother raising two children. I guess that was the early 60’ s. I thought, “How strange! What is wrong with this woman? What are these people so angry about?” I didn’t know any feminists. Everybody I knew was not oppressed and was very happy and was not miserable, and we were all enjoying raising our families. Life isn’t fair—we’d always been brought up to know that and understand that. But I think most of us, because we had a fundamental belief system ... understood that there’ sa reason for adversity (People’ s Century 2009) There was, indeed, quite a bit of “adversity” for many American women during that time. Until 1965, for instance, it was legal for employers to exercise gender-based discrimination in hiring (Martin 1976). The laws also failed to protect women from physical forms of adversity. For example, the state of New York began to grant divorces to victims of domestic violence in 1966, but only if there was evidence that a “sufficiently” large number of beatings had taken place (Martin 1976). Until 1970, in Parro’ s hometown of Chicago (as well as many other cities) battered women who left their husbands were denied welfare support (Schechter 1982). J. L. Napier (*) Department of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT 06511, USA e-mail: jaime.napier@yale.edu H. Thorisdottir University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland J. T. Jost New York University, New York, NY, USA Sex Roles (2010) 62:405–419 DOI 10.1007/s11199-009-9712-7