A Scoping Review of Measures Assessing Gender Microaggressions Against Women

While considerable knowledge exists about blatant gender discrimination and violence targeting women, less is known about gender microaggressions. To understand gender microaggressions’ frequency, prevalence, and effects, researchers need robust quantitative measures. To advance gender microaggressions scholarship and support researchers’ efforts to identify high-quality measures, we conducted a psychometric scoping review. We identified 24 original, quantitative, multi-item measures designed to assess gender microaggressions or related constructs. Included measures needed at least one item assessing gender microaggressions and be used with adult women in the United States. Results indicated an increase in the number of measures including gender microaggressions’ items in recent years, with a major expansion in the number of named gender microaggressions’ measures. We found limited reporting of demographic information. Psychometric testing and characteristics varied across measures. While most ( n = 20) reported internal consistency reliability, only two-thirds ( n = 16) reported undergoing validity testing. When examining microaggressions named measures ( n = 10), we found inconsistent adherence to microaggressions’ theoretical and conceptual foundations. Substantial work remains to develop a “gold standard” measure that does not conflate subtle and blatant acts, assesses the full thematic range of gender microaggressions, and is psychometrically valid across different social contexts and diverse groups of women.