How American Sexism Has Changed Over The Years, But It Is Far From Perfect?

Whereas in recent decades major strides toward gender equality have been made, sociologists are quick to point out that much remains to be done if inequalities in the United States are ever to be eliminated. Behind much of the inequalities seen in education, the workplace, and politics is sexism, or prejudice and discrimination because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption that men are superior to women.

It is easy to take a quick look at our world and see no trace of sexism. Unfortunately, the statistics that surround this topic do no support that statement. Huffington Post reports that women make up only 21 of the S&P 500’s CEOs. This is only one example of the way sexism affects every woman’s life. In our society, sexism is still a terrible reality for women everywhere.

Sexism is defined as prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex, and is a topic that has been on and off the media throughout the years, becoming more prevalent in the 21st century. Many iconic figures throughout the ages have spoken out for women, people like Mahatma Gandhi, who said “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking, or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; to me, the female sex is not the weaker sex.” Sexism has been around for about as long as the human race, dating back to biblical times and beyond. A woman’s traditional role in the family has been that of the cook, the cleaner, the child raiser, and the gardener.

Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.

Over the last several decades, great strides have been made when it comes to eliminating sexism and progressing towards gender equality. However, sexism is still ingrained in our everyday culture. This is evident in the fact that in 2017 women earn about 80 cents to a man’s dollar and are less likely to be promoted within the workplace. It’s an unfortunate fact the most women will experience some form of sexism throughout their lives. In this paper, I will address my personal experiences with both hostile and benevolent sexism, how the two forms of sexism differ, and how these experiences have affected me.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” However, I will not be silent. Sexism is a thing of the past, present, and future. Women have never been seen as equal to men. This idea and concept affect how women carry out their lives. Women may act different or speak different just based on society's thoughts about their gender. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and in today’s society it is clear that because of women’s perceived “weakness”, men now dominate women legally, physically and financially.

During the early history in America women were deprived of some of the many rights given to the male citizens. It has almost been a century since women were awarded the right to vote in the United States. It’s been half a century after the Equal Pay Act was established. “The Equal Pay act led to a reduction in the wage gap, but wage differences based on sex persist” (Korgen & Giraffe, 2015). Sadly, there is still a lot of prejudice towards women in the workplace. Bigotry towards women in the workplace has been dominant through the years. Many perceive women as being weak and not able to effectively provide their leadership duties in their workplaces due to their emotions (weaker sex). Positions in leadership are often given

When turning on the TV, a car commercial appears with men justifying driving an expensive and powerful sports car by complaining about what females in their lives require. Though women slowly gain economic power, the media never represents them as leaders thus reflecting American culture’s view of women. Sexism prevails in American culture and workforce, teaching sexism while denying its presence. Americans must shift their culture to impede sexism because it oppresses women.

In the fight for equality, it is obvious to defend against forms of sexism that are used for antagonization. However, chivalrous attitudes that cast women as weak and in need of men are often ignored. Social psychologists have studied the effects of benevolent sexism using experiments testing one’s performance shortly after being labeled as incompetent. Benevolent sexism is not a series of compliments, but rather a threat to one’s ability to think, learn, and perceive information. The workplace is an environment of which benevolent sexism occurs most often and one of which most are familiar with. Benevolent sexism in business does not allow men and women to achieve the same goals within the work place. Forcing an individual into a social role can limit them to only specific simple tasks that do not allow for maximum personal growth.

While studying art and popular culture in class, our class came across a very interesting topic and story. Throughout time everything has changed in humanity, in the way that humans look at one another. Now in the 1980’s when the whole AIDS and HIV epidemic started that’s when the whole world saw the disgrace in each other. Now in class learning about the disgrace that women had upon the world because of HIV and AIDS has really changed in a way that women are not allowed to be free within themselves anymore. The woman of today have to deal with sexism, classism and even racism just in order to survive in this world. But even through all of this women are still strong and fight for what they believe in and never give up, no matter what

For decades, history tells us a lot about sexism: women are deemed to be inferior to men. Since the 20th century, many women and feminist groups have protested to gain equal rights; these groups claim that—to a great extent—discrimination against women still exists in today’s society. But is this really true? Are women still heavily discriminated in the United States? Logic says otherwise—sexism might still be present today but it’s certainly not as bad as people claim it to be. The issue is much smaller than how feminists portray it.

The article I read was You’re Sexist. And So Am I from USA Today. This article went into discussing how everyone has internalized sexism, believing in sexism in their head, whether they like to believe it or not. This is because society teaches people norms that women must follow in order for them to be respected. As we have discussed in class, this is the idea of subjectivity because all of these social codes are predetermined and that makes them very difficult to change. One example of this was in the article when it talked about how women often chose their careers around them someday becoming mothers. Women are expected to have children and then take time off from work to raise their children. No one believes that men should be expected to stay at home and raise children because it is not the societal norm. Therefore when a woman chooses a career around impending motherhood, she is falling into subjectivity.

Some people say that sexism no longer exists in the workplace, yet only "19%" of women are in a presidential or chief position at work(Bomey ). Women are less likely to be hired for a job despite having all the qualifications, women earn less than men, and women are continuously harassed in the workplace. Despite the fact that women are capable to "perform with the same skill and success" as men, the issue of gender discrimination still continues to rise( ). In society, sometimes it can be difficult to recognize issues of sexism not only at work but in life. With the failure to realize gender discrimination and harassment in the world, educating people on the issue of sexism can make the workplace a success.

The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.

“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.