Sexism and discrimination

By Marilyn Frye’s conception of oppression, men cannot be oppressed. She sees sexism in terms of mainly its institutional and structural states, with interpersonal and personal expressions perpetuating the oppression. Because of her views, she concludes that men as a group cannot be oppressed. However, there are problems with her analysis and ultimately I will argue that men can be oppressed as a group - but only by other men. They can suffer under the institutional sexism that Frye describes but the institutions and structures are created by and mainly perpetuated by men.

It occurs in marriage, family life and in the workplace (Gollnick & Chinn, page). A century ago, most women could not attend college, had no rights to property or their children, could not initiate a divorce, and were not allowed to smoke or drink. In modern society, women’s rights are now protected by law and do not face the inequalities that the women a century ago dealt with. With laws in place to protect women’s rights, many people believe that men and women are treated equally. Unfortunately, society has expectations about how men and women should think, look, and behave based on gender alone creating discrimination against one gender. Sexism continues to be reinforced in our society and some are unaware of the extent of the discrimination. Modern sexism is characterized by “the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education and work)” (Swim et al, 1995). Women may be unaware of the inequality in society, while men may be unaware of the privileges of being male. In modern society, women hold lower-status jobs, work for men, and receive lower wages than men in the same position (Gollnick &

The Great Depression was the big economic crisis in the 1930’s. People lost their homes, their jobs, and their dignity. Not until the middle of the 1950’s did the stock market return to pre-depression levels. During this unfortunate time people hunted for good paying jobs, but were unable to find them. To this day class in this country is under scrutiny. The middle-class is vanishing before our eyes as the poverty level increases and the wealthiest class becomes larger. Not only was there great inequality in the U.S. during the great depression, but also there was still very strong dislikes toward anyone of color. Racism in this country is still prominent today along with class inequality.

Sexism is the prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex. Sexism is regarded mostly towards women. Sexism affects everyone but not effecting everyone evenly. For women, they suffer from sexism socially, educational, political, religious, social, etc. The idea of sexism is that the men have more power than the women. Women get judged differently than men do. Women get judged in the workplace which limits them to certain jobs. The stereotypes that women are under are unbelievable. Some stereotypes like women are bad drivers, women are bad at leadership, and that all women are good at cooking. I believe that sexism causes a break in our society that divides the two sexes apart from each other. Throughout St. John’s Prep, sexism is present with the female teachers. The workplace for women differs greatly from men. The Catholic Social teaching theme of community stands out most dominantly in the topic of sexism. Sexism effects women everyday in their life. They encounter obstacles that men don’t ever have to worry about. Throughout the idea of sexism, one must remember that the Catholic Social theme of community goes a long way in understanding that we are all equal in one body.

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

Racial discrimination and sexism are types of discrimination. Racial discrimination is a notion that race is the first or most significant of human qualities and abilities and that racial differences produce a built-in (quality of being better than everything else) of a particular subspecies. Sexism is detrimental, pre-decided wicked opinions, behavior, conditions, or attitudes that help develop prejudiced mental pictures of social roles based on gender. There are multiple differences between racial discrimination and sexism. How should we understand the difference between racial discrimination and sexism?

Gender discrimination in the workplace is a recurring issue in businesses today. Employees are given the right by their employers to be protected from discrimination and inequality in the workplace. In just about every business setting today, men and women work together in the same fields, jobs, and projects. However, it has only been up until (relatively) recently that men and women have been in competition for the same jobs. With the predetermined assumptions of the different roles between both men and women, there can be the tendency to see bias in the workplace. Discrimination can occur in many ways and impact anyone within that organization.

The American milestone in turning point for women after facing sexist discrimination and being treaded as property to men to fulfill traditional duties. Women understood that only way of liberation is by laws that can protect their quality rights to be considered independent human being with legal equal rights not based on their gender.

As discussed in class, there is no question that gender inequality continues to be widespread today. The gap, however, is progressively narrowing, and this is happening even though the values and attitudes of the traditionally patriarchic society still remain. For women, gender constructions that conceptualize females as being inferior to males has a negative impact in terms of

Throughout history we have made great strides towards gender equality but problems with sexism and discrimination still remain. In America, many people assumed that men and women were biologically different and should have different responsibilities. When the agriculture time was in effect, the women would have different jobs from the men. For an example, the men worked and brought home the essentials, and the women would stay at home, complete house duties and watch the children. These social constraints and guides become moral obligations to obey (Allen, p.199). According to Durkheim, “a group is moral if its behaviors, beliefs, feelings, speech, and styles, are controlled by strong group norms and viewed in terms as right or wrong” (Allen, p.131). This was the behavior that was supported by many people. It was a social fact and not argued to be changed. According the Durkheim, social facts are sui generis (Allen, p.199). Social facts are ways of acting and thinking, they embrace beliefs, practices, which eventually crystallize and limit the possible forms of individuals' actions and forms of consciousness (Allen, p.199).

Gender bias, also known as sexism, is a full of attitudes, laws, taboos, preferences, and behaviors that differentiates and discriminates against either sex. These may be a position of which male dominance and female subjugation in the modern society. It could also be a form of sexual stereotypes between men and women, these are commonly experienced in employment versus other positions. A final place that discrimination is faced is the academic environment, the female to male ratios are not in sync in certain programs and courses because of this and it is pressuring men and women to not go into certain fields and do what they love and please. Most advertisements on Television, magazines, newspapers, online ad’s, use a charged sexually image with a female as the star. Women are to be a pleasure for men, and nothing else. Many people have different opinions on genders and sexuality and that is okay, but sometimes you just need to keep them to yourselves.

"Gender discrimination, also known as sexism, refers to prejudice or discrimination based on sex and/ or gender, as well as conditions or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on gender" (Women and Gender Discrimination). Sexism is a social injustice that is not applied only to women but, to men as well. Certain personalities and characteristics are expected from both genders starting as children. Little girls are expected to play with dolls, while little boys are expected to play rough. These small seeds planted into children over time grow, and produce the men and women who make up society. In psychology you have a term called norm, a norm is an unwritten role, or expectation for how a group should behave (Pastorino, 2013). Men and women both make up separate groups. In each group norms have been formed on how members of the group should conduct themselves. Masculinity is often associated with competition, emotional detachment, aggression and violence (“Gender Issues in the Media”). Femininity is associated with softness, vulnerability, and being able to submit to men. Needless to say, norms are not always correct or right. When you have people within a group who do not comply with the norms presented, then sexism comes into play. Both men and women can experience sexism though majority of the criticism is focused towards women. Women and men are expected to pose certain characteristics and if they aren 't then they are looked at

Gender discrimination against women is out of control across the world and seeps into many aspects of women 's lives. This discrimination harms women in two ways. First, women directly experience stressful events. The experience of sexism is so common that some research suggests women can experience one to two instances of everyday sexism. But women aren 't only harmed by sexism through the physical stress caused by others. They are harmed to the extent that they internalize and adopt these sexist attitudes that can manifest as poor self-concept. This negative self-concept often obvious on a subconscious level, as women and men will demonstrate automatic negative biases against women (Ferguson, 2013).

Growing up I solemnly watched TV for entertainment purposes, never really thinking about some of the reoccurring themes I was seeing. It wasn’t until these past few years, that I have started to notice some, what may seem to be subtle, but actually blatantly obvious trends in the shows I was watching. Sexism, and gender inequality is quite present in many of the shows Americans are watching today, and that is an issue that needs to be addressed. Sexism can be seen in many ways, from minor insults made by characters, to the sexism, and gender binary, to the ratio of female actor, to male. Now, I am not telling you to stop watching or start boycotting some of your favorite shows, but it is good to notice where this popular issue can be

Our social justice issue is gender discrimination. Gender Discrimination is a major thing going on in our world today. Therefore, gender discrimination happens in things such as sports, education, health, employment, laws, and in different countries. Gender discrimination was a major thing in the past, and is still a major thing today. Men continually think women are weak, and so women are targeted more in crimes. They also think that women won't stand up for themselves, and women continually let men bring them down because they aren't brave enough. In jobs they believe women won't work, and that women aren't capable enough to do the job, so women end up getting paid less or have to work ridiculously short hours. Today in our century, women are targeted more than men because they are considered weak. Being labeled weak makes women are more vulnerable to at least one form of abuse. 1 in 3 women are abused in some form at a time of their life by a man. Women are targeted for crimes, such as home break-ins, because if they live on their own, they are thought to not be able to defend themselves that well. Women are also being killed all the time. In India, women are burned to death if they can't meet financial requirements, while men aren't. In Egypt, women are killed if they do something considered unclean in their family or outside their family. In South Asia more than 2 million baby girls are killed or abandoned to die because they are considered a financial burden to the