Sexism : A Two Way Street Essay

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

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.

Sexism is the ideology that maintains that one sex is inherently inferior to the other. Sexism or discrimination based on gender has been a social issue for many years; it is the ideology that one sex is superior or inferior to the other. Sexism does not only affect females, but also males. Men are very often victimized by social stereotypes and norms based on gender expectations. Sexism has appears in almost all social institutions including family, the media, religion, sports, the military, politics, and the government. However, although both genders are affected, men have benefited from sexism the most (Thompson 300-301.)

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.

Women first gained the right to vote on August 26, 1920 with the 19th amendment was approved, giving women full voting rights. Fortified by the constitutional victory in 1920, the handful of new women in Congress embarked on what would become a century-long journey to broaden women’s role in government. In the intervening years, the drive for more women’s rights encompassed the lives of the next generations of women. Even today, women are still fighting for their rights and stand up against prejudice. On the forefront of this movement are our women congresswomen who speak on behalf of all women. When Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidacy, controversial questions immediately surfaced about the role of gender in politics. Through Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2016, media is the principal propagator in showing bias and sexism.

Sexism has always been a major issue for women. It seems that today, everyone has to be careful of what they say and do so as to avoid offending someone. While everyone is busy worrying about extinguishing sexism towards women - which still is an issue that needs to be taken care of, who is concerned with sexism towards men? Sexism is just as much of an issue to men as it is to women.

Sexism is defined as the discrimination and bias towards one gender, that one gender is powerful and righteous compared to the other. Sexism has been the largest barrier between sexes to the point in which cultures as well as religions rely on misogyny to set limitation on women to make men feel more empowered. Sexism rooted about twenty five hundred years ago in which women were considered property to a man. Parents would trade their young women for more wealth. Till this day there has been a very misogynistic view towards how to properly maintain a household. A man is to hold the job in the house and provide for the family while a women stayed home to clean, cook, take care of her

While sexism is no longer as overt a practice as in the past, it is arguably just as pervasive. bell hooks’ life as an academic has been spent trying to breakdown the existent sexist barriers, which have prohibited women from achieving equality with men.

Women in the United States have acquired constitutional rights over the time; however, discrimination still exists. Sexism occurs frequently in the workplace. In fact, sexism is one of the main barriers that women face. For example, women in the same job as men usually earn less, even though both have the same education and skills that are require for completing the job. Indeed, paying women less than men for the same job is a blatant discrimination that could be solve by providing equality among genders. Sexism is a term that describes the inequality among genders. According to Guynn (2013) the issue of sexism occurs in many companies. Men usually think that women are not capable of completing certain task because they might not to be strong

“You bitches need to learn your places. You do not order a brute around and get away with it!”

Sexism, is a prejudice plain and simple. One of the earliest forms of violence directed toward women was the Witch Hunt Trials of the Middle Ages. Bishops debated whether a woman was really human at all. If her nose were too long, she had red hair, a humped back, or if she was exceptionally beautiful, she was thought to be a witch and was burned at the stake. There was an estimated nine million women burned during the Witch Trials. During the “Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960’s, feminist theorists explained that oppression of women was widespread in nearly all human society, and spoke of sexism instead of male chauvinism. Male chauvinists were usually individual men who expressed the belief that they were superior to women” (Napikoski). By the mid 20th century sexism was established and began to appear in advertising. Between the 1970’s and 1990’s women began to feel more equal to men until the 1980’s where they were portrayed as sex symbols on national television (The Origin and History of SEXISM). There are two main types of sexism, benevolent and hostile, and their definitions are opposite from one another. Hostile sexism is what most people perceive as sexism today as it seems sexism is occurring more and more often and is, notably, more vulgar. It is the notion that women are inferior or not as worthy; a belief that males are intrinsically superior. For many years women have been degraded and looked down upon with the idea that their place is in the kitchen with

The flip side of these apparent advantages to women is that the seemingly positive effects of benevolent sexism typically only apply to women who are gender-role conforming, rather than women as a whole. Women in traditional domestic roles may benefit, but there are negative consequences for those who do not fit these roles. The idea that women need to be protected or taken care of is in some lights flattering, but it also portrays women as childlike, helpless, incompetent, and as a result suited only for lower status roles. Women are also more likely to accept sexist restrictions on behavior when the reason given is benevolently sexist (Becker & Wright, 2011). By extension of these examples, benevolent sexism is just another way of justifying gender inequality and maintaining the current power dynamic of the patriarchy.

Discrimination and prejudice have both been a major problem in our society since the idea of gender and race contacted our brains. Everyone hopes that humankind will change and treat everyone equally and fairly, but this still has yet to happen. Mankind is still treating people as minorities without a second thought. Women are still stereotyped as being too feminine for a “man’s job”, such as construction or military forces. As well as, men being considered to manly to be able to perform jobs such as a nurse or even a single parent. Even today, the majority of the world 's population has the subtle thought of superiority in the back of their minds, granted it is unintentional in most cases. Although, racism and sexism has become less of a national issue, the two topics share multiple similarities considering discrimination is everywhere, and that it is impossible to avoid.

I find it interesting that you said, “I think individual sexism is more dangerous because it presents itself in the everyday lives of women, and it projects itself in institutional sexism because the system is built up of individual sexists who are in charge of hiring, firing, and policy creating.” I not too sure that this is a fair to put all of this on men. We assume that institutional sexisms occurs because men are in charge of hiring, firing but according to an article by Forbes called, “Top 10 Best-Paying Jobs For Women In 2011” 71% of Human Resource Managers are women. (Forbes.com) “Typically, sexism is thought of as hostility toward women, perpetrated by men. However, both women and men can (and often do) endorse sexist beliefs

Gender discrimination is an unfavorable treatment based on gender. It causes the elimination of individual’s right and opportunity (Reeves and Baden, 2000: 2). Gender discrimination usually disadvantages women because women are considered inferior in society. Virginia Woolf states that gender discrimination is a result of the imbalance power between men and women (in Dobie, 2012: 114). Apparently, women have already suffered the discrimination since a long time ago.