Summary: Ambivalent sexism theory was incubated during a series of phone conversations, a scouting visit, and some pilot testing before Peter arrived at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (then Susan's home institution) for the 1993–1994 academic year. We had already started work on our new, theory-based measure (a year was too short to start and complete such a project). Had we known that others had already begun constructing contemporary sexism scales (including Janet Swim, with whom Peter had gone to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, and Rupert Brown, whom Susan knew from trips to Europe), we might never have pursued the course we took. In this case, ignorance was an advantage.
