Sexual Discrimination

8/2/2019 Sexual Discrimination

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Sexism, also known as gender discrimination orsex discrimination, isthe belief that a characteristic inherent in one's sex necessarily adverselyaffects one's ability, even though that characteristic does not necessarily havethat effect. The belief is generally false regarding the people who are sojudged. However, when the adverse effect necessarily is a consequence of a

difference between sexes, it is generally not sexist to identify or act on thatrelationship. Whether a particular effect does or does not necessarily follow aparticular sex difference is a subject of analysis in various fields of scholarshipand many scholarly findings have changed over the years.

Sexism is a form of discrimination or devaluation based on aperson's sex, with such attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional

stereotypes of gender roles. The term sexism is most often used in relation todiscrimination against women, in the context of patriarchy.Sexism involves hatred of, or prejudice towards, a gender as a whole

or the application of gender stereotypes. Sexism is often associatedwith gender supremacy arguments.


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sex hatred fears anti-discriminatory

female misogyny gynophobia feminism

male misandry androphobia men's rights/feminism

intersex misandrogyny androgynophobia LGBTIQ

transsex cissexism transphobia LGBT


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Cultural stereotypes are engrained in both men andwomen and these stereotypes are a possible explanation forgender inequality and the resulting gendered wage disparity.

Women have traditionally been viewed as being caringand nurturing and are designated to occupations which

require such skills. While these skills are culturally valued, theywere typically associated with domesticity, so occupationsrequiring these same skills are not economically valued.

Men have traditionally been viewed as thebreadwinner or the worker, so jobs held by men have been

historically economically valued and occupations predominatedby men continue to be economically valued and pay higherwages.


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Empirical studies have found widely shared cultural beliefsthat men are more socially valued and more competent than womenat most things, as well as specific assumptions that men are betterat some particular tasks (e.g., mechanical tasks) while women arebetter at others (e.g., nurturing tasks). Gender stereotypes canfacilitate and impede intellectual performance.

For instance, stereotype threats can lower women'sperformance on mathematics tests due to the stereotype thatwomen have inferior quantitative skills compared to men's.Stereotypes can also affect the assessments people make of theirown competence.

These "biased self-assessments" have far-reaching effectsbecause they can shape men and womens educational and careerdecisions.


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In 2008, the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD) found thatwhile female employment rates have expanded

considerably and the gender employment and wage

gaps have narrowed virtually everywhere, women still

have 20% less chance to have a job than men on

average and they are paid 17% less. The report also

found that despite the fact that almost all OECDcountries, including the U.S., have established anti-

discrimination laws, these laws are difficult to enforce.

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.


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The glass ceiling effect is also considered a possible contributor tothe gender wage gap or income disparity. This effect suggests that genderprovides significant disadvantages towards the top of job hierarchies whichbecome worse as a persons career goes on.

The term glass ceiling implies that invisible or artificial barriers existwhich prevent women from advancing within their jobs or receivingpromotions. These barriers exist in spite of the achievements or qualificationsof the women and still exist when other characteristics that are job-relevantsuch as experience, education, and abilities are controlled for.

The glass ceiling effect also indicates the limited chances of womenfor income raises and promotion or advancement to more prestigiouspositions or jobs. As women are prevented by these artificial barriers fromreceiving job promotions or income raises, the effects of the inequality of theglass ceiling increase over the course of a womans career.


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A 2009 study conducted by David R. Hekman and colleagues foundthat customers who viewed videos featuring a female and a male actor playing

the role of an employee helping a customer were 19 percent more satisfiedwith the male employee's performance, suggesting customer bias as areason why men continue to earn 25 percent more than equally-well performingwomen.

In a second study, they found that male doctors were rated as moreapproachable and competent than equally-well performing women. They

interpret their findings to suggest that employers are willing to pay more for maleemployees because employers are customer driven and customers are happierwith male employees.

They also suggest that what isrequired to solve the problem of wageinequality is to change customer biases, not

necessarily to pay women more.


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Women in the past have generally been disadvantaged fromhigher education. When women were admitted to higher education theywere encouraged to major in subjects that were considered less intellectual;the study of English literature in American and British colleges anduniversities was in fact instituted as a field of study considered suitable to

women's "lesser intellects".Since 1991, however, the proportion of young women enrolled in

college in the U.S. has exceeded the enrollment rate for young men, andthe gap has widened over time. Women now make up the majority54%of the 10.8 million young adults enrolled in college in the U.S.

Research studies have found that discrimination continues today:

boys receive more attention and praise in the classroom in grade schoolalong with more blame and punishment, and "this pattern of more activeteacher attention directed at male students continues at the postsecondarylevel". Over time, female students speak less and less in classroomsettings.


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Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancybased upon the predicted gender of the baby. The selective abortion offemale fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value malechildren over female children, especially in parts of People's Republic ofChina, India, Pakistan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Caucasus.

A son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn andsupport the family; a daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off toanother family, and so will not contribute financially to her parents.

The patriarchal structure of a society is the single most importantfactor skewing the sex ratio in favor of males, accentuated in some culturesby the burden of raising a dowry for a daughter's marriage.

Openness to the very concept of sex selection is a significantfactor: among societies which practice selective female abortion nowadays,many were systematically practicing female infanticide (either directly or bywithholding postnatal care from children of undesirable sex) long beforeabortion became a viable option.


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Despite the increase in women in the labor force since the mid-1900s, women are still responsible for the majority of the domestic choresand childcare. While women are splitting their time between work and careof the home, men are pressured into being the primary economicsupporter of the home.

Despite the fact that different households may divide choresmore evenly, there is evidence that supports that women have retained theprimary caregiver role within familial life despite contributionseconomically.

This evidence suggest that women who work outside the homeoften put an extra 18 hours a week doing household or childcare related

chores as opposed to men who average 12 minutes a day in childcareactivities.

In addition to a lack of interest in the home on the part of somemen, some women may bar men from equal participation in the homewhich may contribute to this disparity.


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Some men's rights writers say that marriage isunfavorable to men, particularly the financial

consequences of divorce. Father's rights advocatesclaim that there is a continuing societal bias favoringwomen as custodial parents in the face of "no-fault"divorce laws and is unjust to men when marriages fail.

Some claim that this leads to men avoiding marriage,calling it a "marriage strike.


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Selling a wife, largely historical, is a sexist custom. Wife selling wasthe practice of a husband selling his wife, in some cases to a new husband.The English custom of wife selling largely began in the late 17th centurywhen divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. At

least one early 19th-century magistrate is on record as stating that he didnot believe he had the right to prevent wife sales, and there were cases oflocal Poor Law Commissioners forcing husbands to sell their wives, ratherthan having to maintain the family in workhouses.

At that time, two types of wife selling were recognized, bothconsidered illegal. The first type was when a husband sold his wife to a man

with whom she had been committing adultery. The second type was when ahusband sold his wife because she had betrayed him or because they wereno longer able to get along.

During the Ming Dynasty, it wasgradually established that only wife sellingwhich was motivated by adultery should

be punished.


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Gender inequality and discrimination is argued to cause andperpetuate poverty and vulnerability in society as a whole. Household andintra-household knowledge and resources are key influences in individuals'abilities to take advantage of external livelihood opportunities or respondappropriately to threats.

Despite acknowledgement by institutions such as the World Bankthat gender inequality is bad for economic growth, there are many difficultiesin creating a comprehensive response. It is argued that the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) fail to acknowledge gender inequality as across-cutting issue.

Gender is mentioned in MDG3 and MDG5: MDG3 measures gender

parity in education, the share of women in wage employment and theproportion women in national legislatures. MDG5 focuses on maternalmortality and on universal access to reproductive health. However, eventhese targets are significantly off-track.

Sexual Discrimination

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