Women are being warned about issues associated with men being chivalrous towards them.

A Deakin University psychology lecturer said innocuous acts such as holding a door open for a woman, or offering help carrying a heavy object when it’s not needed, were rooted in benevolent sexism.

Dr Beatrice Alba, who cited research going back to the 1990s, told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings that chivalry or “construct of benevolent sexism has a dark side”.

“It puts women on a pedestal, but underlying all of that is the assumption that women are somehow less competent than men, and that’s the dark side of it all,” she said.

“Less traditional women are punished with far more harsh attitudes.

“If the act is done by a person who believes that men have to play particular roles in society, and one of those is being chivalrous towards women, then there’s every likelihood that he scores high on a measure of benevolent sexist attitudes.

“The problem with that is it correlates to hostile sexism – those really negative, suspicious attitudes towards women.

Tap PLAY below to hear more of their fascinating chat.

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