A SOCIOLOGY PROJECT ON

SEXISM
F.Y.B.M.M

ANEES FATIMA RIZVI 34

SAYED MASOOMA 36
 Topics Sub-Topics
Generalization & Types of Sexism
Partition
Stereotypes
Legal status
Domestic violence
Rape
Education
Professions
Marginalization
Mandatory military service
Sexism against transsexuals
Sexism and sexual The sexual revolution
expression
Sexual objectification
Pornography
Prostitution
Sexism and language Sexist and gender-neutral language
Anthropological linguistics and
gender-specific language
Re appropriation and reclamation
Occupational sexism Gender wage gap
Sexual discrimination
SEXISM

Sexism, a term coined in the mid-20th century, is the belief or

attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to, less competent, or
less valuable than the other. It can also refer to hatred of, or
prejudice towards, either sex as a whole (see misogyny and
masonry), or the application of stereotypes of masculinity in
relation to men, or of femininity in relation to women. It is also
called male and female chauvinism. Sexist is the adjective form
of the noun sexism. Sex discrimination is discrimination on the
basis of sex or gender.

GENERALIZATION AND PARTITION

In philosophy, sexist attitudes can be understood or judged on

the basis of the essential characteristics of the group to which an
individual belongs—in this case, their sexual group, as men or
women. This assumes that all individuals fit into the category of
male or female and does not take into account intersexed people
who are born with a mixture of male and female sexual
characteristics. This also assumes a significant degree of
homogeneity in the characteristics of men and women
respectively, and generally does not take into account the
differences that exist within these groups. XY males and XX
females who are genetically one sex but have developed the
characteristics of the opposite sex during the foetal stage are
usually considered with respect to their phenotypes under this
system.

Certain forms of sexual discrimination are illegal in many

countries, but nearly all countries have laws that give special
rights, privileges, or responsibilities to people of a particular sex.

Types of Sexism
The view that men are superior to women is a form of sexism.
When expressed by men, sexism against women may be called
male chauvinism. Related terms are misogyny, which implies a
hatred of women, and gynophobia, which refers to a fear of
women or femininity.

The idea that men benefit from certain rights and privileges not
available to women is referred to as male privilege. The idea that
women benefit from certain rights and privileges not available to
men is referred to as female privilege.

The view that women are superior to men is another form of

sexism, and when expressed by a woman may be called female
chauvinism or misandry. The hatred of men is called misandry,
while androphobia refers to the fear of men or masculinity.

STEREOTYPES

Gender stereotypes are formed at an early age with men and

women being identified with particular occupations. Much work is
being done to challenge such gender stereotyping, especially to
encourage women to enter professions which have traditionally
been a largely male domain, such as construction and
engineering. The June 2002 Review by the Social Science
Research Unit, University of London concluded that tackling
gender stereotyping at the primary school stage is vital, as it
develops early and quickly. Various interventions were reviewed
including the use of fiction in challenging gender stereotypes.

For example, in a study by A. Wing, children were read Bill’s New

Frock by Anne Fine. The content of the book was discussed with
them. Children were able to articulate, and reflect on, their
stereotypical constructions of gender and those in the world at
large. There was evidence of children considering ‘the different
treatment that boys and girls receive’, and of classroom
discussion enabling stereotypes to be challenged.

LEGAL STATUS

U.S. and English law subscribed until the 20th century to the
system of coverture, whereby "by marriage, the husband and
wife are one person in law; that is the very being or legal
existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage."

Not until 1875 were women in the U.S. legally defined as persons
(Minor v Happersett, 88 U.S. 162),and women did not receive the
vote in the U.S. until 1920 and in the U.K. until 1918.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence and Violence against women

In the most serious cases of domestic violence men dominate.

Women are much more likely to be murdered by an intimate
partner, regardless of who started the fight. Among the persons
killed by an intimate partner, about three quarters are female,
and about a quarter are male: in 1999, in the US, 1,218 women
and 424 men were killed by an intimate partner, regardless of
which partner started the violence and of the gender of the
partner.[8] In the US, in 2005, 1181 females and 329 males were
killed by their intimate partners.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control in conjunction with the

American Psychiatric Association found that of heterosexual
relationships involving violence, 50.3% involve non-reciprocal
violence, and of that 50.3%, women were the instigators 70.7%
of the time, although "physical injury was more likely to occur
when the violence was reciprocal."Linda Kelly states in her thesis,
Disabusing the Definition of Domestic Abuse: How Women Batter
Men and the Role of the Feminist State in the Florida State
University Law Review that domestic violence is equally the
province of women.

In a UNICEF survey, the percentage of women aged 15–49 who

thought that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife
under certain circumstances, was 90% in Jordan, 85.6% in
Guinea, 85.4% in Zambia, 85% in Sierra Leone, 81.2% in Laos,
and 81% in Ethiopia.

In a U.S. survey of 5,238 adults regarding the attitudinal

acceptance of intimate partner violence, participants were more
accepting of women hitting men, and were consistently more
likely to tolerate the violence if they were first asked about
women hitting men rather than the reverse.

Rape

Analysis of perpetrators of rape against women has been argued

to reveal a pattern of hatred of women and pleasure in inflicting
psychological and/or physical trauma, rather than sexual interest.
Feminists have argued that rape is not the result of pathological
individuals, but rather of systems of male dominance and from
cultural practices and beliefs that objectify and degrade women.
Mary Odem and Jody Clay-Warner, along with Susan Brownwiller,
consider sexist attitudes to be propagated by a series of myths
about rape and rapists.They state that contrary to these myths,
rapists often plan a rape before they choose a victim,[15] and
that acquaintance rape is the most common form of rape rather
than assault by a stranger. Odem also states that these rape
myths propagate sexist attitudes about men by perpetuating a
myth that men cannot control their sexuality.

Education

Women in the past have been excluded from higher

education.When women were admitted to higher education, they
were encouraged to major in subjects that were considered less
intellectual; the study of English literature in English and U.S.
colleges and universities was in fact instituted as a field of study
considered suitable to women's "lesser intellects."Recently more
women than men have entered postsecondary institutions.

Research studies have found that discrimination continues today:

Boys receive more attention and praise in the classroom in grade
school,and "this pattern of more active teacher attention directed
at male students continues at the postsecondary level."Over time,
female students speak less and less in classroom settings.A
possible reason for the increased attention paid to boys in school
is that girls earn higher grades than boys until the end of high
school. It is also possible that boys are discriminated against by
the school system, as girls in some districts achieve higher
grades despite scoring the same or lower than boys on
standardized tests.

Professions
Women have historically been excluded from participation in
many professions. When women have gained entry into a
previously male profession, they have faced many additional
obstacles; Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive an
M.D., and Myra Bradwell, the first female lawyer, are examples.

Professional Discrimination continues today, according to studies

done by Cornell University and others. It has been hypothesized
that gender bias has been influencing which scientific research
gets published. This hypothesis coincides with a test conducted at
the University of Toronto led by Amber Budden. Based on the
results of this study, almost 10 percent of female authors get
their papers published when their gender is hidden.

Some experts believe that parents play an important role in the

creation of values and perceptions of their children. The fact that
girls are asked to help their mothers do housework, while boys do
technical tasks with their fathers, seems to influence their
behavior and can sometimes discourage girls from performing
such tasks. Girls will then think that each gender should have a
specific role and behavior.

A 2009 study of CEOs found that more men occupying the

position were overweight or obese than men in the general
population, while the reverse held true for female CEOs.The
leader of the study stated that the results "suggest that while
being obese limits the career opportunities of both women and
men, being merely overweight harms only female executives --
and may actually benefit male executives."
At other times, there are accusations that some traditionally
female professions have been or are being eliminated by its roles
being subsumed by a male dominated profession. The assumption
of baby delivery roles by doctors and subsequent decline of
midwifery is sometimes claimed to be an example.

Marginalization

In 1997, the Canadian Advertising Foundation ruled that a

National Ad campaign that featuring Nicole Brown Simpson's
sister Denise with the slogan, "Stop violence against Women" was
in fact portraying only men as aggressors, and that it was not
providing a balanced message and was in fact contributing to
gender stereotyping by portraying men as the more violent
gender. (The murder of Nicole Simpson also included the murder
of Ronald Goldman).

Mandatory military service

Many countries around the world make it mandatory for males to

join the military, but not females. Men at 18 years of age in the
United States are required to register for military conscription to
be drafted to war or military service. Women are not required to
register with the Selective Service System and have no obligation
to serve in the military in the case of a draft. Mandatory military
service is sometimes cited as an example of discrimination
against men.

Sexism against transsexuals

Transphobia

Transphobia refers to prejudice against transsexuality and

transsexual or transgender people, based on their personal
gender identification (see Phobia - terms indicating prejudice or
class discrimination). Whether intentional or not, transphobia can
have severe consequences for the person the object of the
negative attitude. The LGBT movement has campaigned against
sexism against transsexuals. One form of sexism against
transsexuals is how many "women-only" and "men-only" events
and organizations have been criticized for rejecting trans women
and trans men, respectively.

Sexism and sexual expression

The expression of sexual intimacy is a part of the human

condition. However, various aspects of human sexuality have
been argued as having contributed to sexism.

The sexual revolution

During the sexual revolution, there was a change in the cultural

perception of sexual morality and sexual behavior. The sexual
revolution has been known as the sexual liberation by feminists
since some saw this new development in the West as a leveling
ground for females to have as many choices concerning their
sexuality as males—hoping to eliminate the problematic
virgin/whore dichotomy of traditional Western society.

Ariel Levy argues that the current state of commercial sexuality

has created a "Raunch Culture".She argues that there has been a
commercialization of the sexual objectification of women; a
cultural, largely Western development that she criticizes as being
limiting for men and women. Some feminists argue that rather
than being liberating, that a "pornification" of Western society has
reduced and equated allows men to condemn women for their
sexuality whether it is seen as modest or virile, a no-win situation
and a double standard since they argue that this does not apply
to men.

Sexual objectification

It is argued that sexual objectification is a form of sexism. Some

countries, such as Norway and Denmark, have laws against
sexual objectification in advertising. Nudity itself is not banned,
and nude people can be used to advertise a product, but only if
they are relevant to what is being advertised. Solving, head of
Norway's Kreativt Forum, an association of the country's top
advertising agencies explained: "You could have a naked person
advertising shower gel or a cream, but not a woman in a bikini
draped across a car."

Pornography

Feminist views on pornography

Radical feminists hold the view that pornography contributes to

sexism, arguing that in pornographic performances for male
spectators, actresses are reduced to mere receptacles—objects—
for sexual use and abuse by men.

Prostitution

Radical feminists argue that prostitution is a sexist practice,

which exploits women and which is the result of the existing
patriarchal societal order, hence the laws from Sweden, Norway
and Iceland, where it is illegal to pay for sex, but not to be a
prostitute (the client commits a crime, but not the prostitute).
These feminists believe that the assumptions that the bodily
integrity and sexual pleasure of women are irrelevant, that
women exist for men's sexual enjoyment, and that men cannot
control themselves and are entitled to sex at any time, underlie
the whole idea of prostitution, and make it an inherently
exploitative, sexist practice.

Sexism and language

Gender-neutral language

Sexual dichotomies exist in language, though it is disputed

whether certain language causes sexism, sexism causes certain
language or that they are both caused by something else.

Sexist and gender-neutral language

Nearing the end of the 20th century, there is a rise in the use of
gender-neutral language in western worlds. This is often
attributed to the rise of feminism. Gender-neutral language is the
avoidance of gender-specific job titles, non-parallel usage, and
other usage that is felt by some to be sexist. Supporters feel that
having gender-specific titles and gender-specific pronouns either
implies a system bias to exclude individuals based on their
gender, or else is as unnecessary in most cases as race-specific
pronouns, religion-specific pronouns, or persons-height-specific
pronouns. Some of those who support gender-specific pronouns
assert that promoting gender-neutral language is a kind of
"semantics injection" itself.

Anthropological linguistics and gender-specific language

Unlike the Indo-European languages in the west, for many other
languages around the world, gender-specific pronouns are a
recent phenomenon that occur around the early-20th century. As
a result of colonialism, cultural revolution occurred in many parts
of the world with attempts to "modernize" and "westernize" by
adding gender-specific pronouns and animate-inanimate
pronouns to local languages. This ironically resulted in the
situation of what was gender-neutral pronouns a century ago
suddenly becoming gender-specific. (See for example Gender-
neutrality in languages without grammatical gender: Turkish.)

Reappropriation and reclamation

Reappropriation (aka reclamation projects) describe a cultural

process by which certain groups reclaim or re-appropriate terms,
symbols, and artifacts that were previously used to discriminate.
Within the English language, terms like 'bitch' and 'slut', which
had been historically used as pejorative sexist remarks against
females. They have since been used to refer to a "strong,
independent, unattached female" and a "sexually liberal,
hypersexual female". Similarly, terms like 'girlie men' and
'tranny', which has been historically used as pejorative sexist
remarks against transsexes, have since been used to refer to the
varying degree of transexuality for "pre-operation" and "non-
operation" as whether they had undergone or will undergo sex-
reassignment or not. The success of these cultural process has
been disputed.

On the flip side, the word 'dude' as a pejorative has crossed the
sexes and is being applied to males. In politics, the term 'girlie
men' has also been used by Governor Schwarzenegger to attack
his political opponents, who are not transsexes. This has led to
Schwarzenegger being accused of being sexist.

Occupational sexism

Occupational sexism refers to any discriminatory practices,

statements, actions, etc. based on a person's sex that are
present or occur in a place of employment. One form of
occupational sexism is wage discrimination, which is prohibited in
the US.

Gender wage gap

Income disparity

See also: Male–female income disparity in the United States

Women have historically earned less than men; the reasons for
the current wage gap are the subject of controversy.

In the 19th century and for much of the 20th, women were paid
less than men for the same work. In the United States, this
eventually led to the passing of the U.S. Equal Pay Act in 1963.
At that time, women earned approximately 58 cents to a man's
dollar.

Today, women in the United States are estimated to earn roughly

75 percent of the income of men.The difference in wages is
reduced when factors such as hours worked and experience are
controlled for. For instance, one study found that while women
earn 69 cents for every dollar a man earns 10 years after
graduating college. When experience, education, training and
personal characteristics were controlled for, however, women
earned over 96 cents for every dollar a man made 10 years after
graduating college.Unmarried women without children may earn
15 to 20 percent more than males in the same situation,
depending upon geographical location in the US.

Women are less likely to negotiate raises, and when they do

negotiate, they are less likely to receive them.David R. Hekman
and colleagues found that women are less likely to negotiate
because they are less valuable in the marketplace than equally
well performing white men Hekman et al. (2009) found that
customers who viewed videos featuring a black male, a white
female, or a white male actor playing the role of an employee
helping a customer were 19% more satisfied with the white male
employee's performance and also were more satisfied with the
store's cleanliness and appearance. This despite that all three
actors performed identically, read the same script, and were in
the exact same location with identical camera angles and lighting.
Moreover, 45 percent of the customers were women and 41
percent were non-white, indicating that even women and minority
customers prefer white men. In a second study, they found that
white male doctors were rated as more approachable and
competent than equally-well performing women or minority
doctors. They interpret their findings to suggest that employers
are willing to pay more for white male employees because
employers are customer driven and customers are happier with
white male employees. They also suggest that what is required to
solve the problem of wage inequality isn't necessarily paying
women more but changing customer biases. This paper has been
featured in many media outlets including The New York
Times,The Washington Post,The Boston Globe and National Public
Radio.Perhaps because women are less valuable to customers
than men, women are more likely to work part-time, to take
more time off for their children, and join lower status professions.

Research done at Cornell University and elsewhere indicates that

mothers are 44 percent less likely to be hired than women with
otherwise identical resumes, experience, and qualifications, and,
if hired, are offered on average $USD 11,000 a year less than
women without children.Exactly the opposite form of
discrimination is indicated for men; those without children earn,
on average, $7,500 less than men with children.

A factor that is used by some authors, such as Warren Farrell, to

partially explain the wage gap is the fact that the majority of
victims of workplace accidents are male. For example in Canada,
the rate of workplace accidents was 30 times higher for men than
for women in 2005 and in the U.S. 93% of people killed in the
workplace in 2008 were men.

A study by Schilt and Wiswall found that female-to-male

transsexuals earn an average of 1.5% more after their transition,
whereas male-to-female transsexuals earn an average of 32%
less.
Sexual discrimination

Though sexism refers to beliefs and attitudes in relation to the

gender of a person, such beliefs and attitudes are of a social
nature and do not, normally, carry any legal consequences. Sex
discrimination, on the other hand, may have legal consequences.
Though what constitutes sex discrimination varies between
countries, the essence is that it is an adverse action taken by one
person against another person that would not have occurred had
the person been of another sex. Discrimination of that nature in
certain enumerated circumstances is illegal in many countries.

Sexual discrimination can arise in different contexts. For instance

an employee may be discriminated against by being asked
discriminatory questions during a job interview, or because an
employer did not hire, promote or wrongfully terminated an
employee based on his or her gender, or employers pay
unequally based on gender. In an educational setting there could
be claims that a student was excluded from an educational
institution, program, opportunity, loan, student group, or
scholarship on account of his or her gender. In the housing
setting there could be claims that a person was refused
negotiations on seeking a house, contracting/leasing a house or
getting a loan based on his or her gender.

Socially, sexual differences have been used to justify different

roles for men and women, in some cases giving rise to claims of
primary and secondary roles, While there are non-physical
differences between men and women, there is little agreement as
to what those differences are.
The United Nations has stated (2006) that women struggle to
break through a "glass ceiling", and that "progress in bringing
women into leadership and decision-making positions around the
world remains far too slow."The Special Adviser to the Secretary-
General on Gender Issues, Rachel Mayanja, said, "The past ten
years have seen the fastest growth in the number of women in
parliaments, yet even at this rate, parity between women and
men in parliaments will not be reached until 2040."

The term "glass ceiling" is used to describe a perceived barrier to

advancement in employment and government based on
discrimination, especially sex discrimination. In the United States,
the Glass Ceiling Commission, a government-funded group,
stated: "Over half of all Master’s degrees are now awarded to
women, yet 95% of senior-level managers, of the top Fortune
1000 industrial and 500 service companies are men. Of them,
97% are white." In its report, it recommended reverse
discrimination, which is the consideration of an employee's
gender and race in hiring and promotion decisions, as a means to
end this form of discrimination.

Transgendered individuals, both male to female and female to

male, often experience problems which often lead to dismissals,
underachievement, difficulty in finding a job, social isolation, and,
occasionally, violent attacks against them.