Sexism: Definition, Forms, History, and Responses

Parallel formation to racism

The German word sexismus is an Anglicism that originated as a translation of the English word sexism.

The English word sexism is a neologism coined by Pauline M. Leet as part of her lecture "Women and the Undergraduate" on November 18, 1965. She was then a professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

The neologism sexism is a parallel formation to the term racism (racism), which also spread worldwide during this time to counter discrimination against ethnic groups.

The term sexism was first used in writing in 1968 by the American author Caroline Bird (1915-2011). It quickly gained acceptance in the US women's movement of the 1960s. In itself, it is gender-neutral, but for a long time it stood exclusively for the devaluation of women, and research, with exceptions, also focused for a long time on sexism towards women. It is now considered that sexism also affects men, as well as transsexual and intersex people, and transgender people. The central dimension of modern sexism is understood to be the conscious or unconscious non-recognition (cf. defence mechanism) of continued discrimination against women.

The much older term misogyny, on the other hand, refers exclusively to the devaluation of women, femininity or non-masculinity within androcentric power relations. In research, the term misogyny continues to be used, but the term sexism dominates as a key term of gender-based discrimination.

Misunderstanding and narrowing of meaning in German

As with many Anglicisms, the direct adoption of an English term into German leads to a change in meaning - in this case, the adoption of the English word sexism as the German word Sexismus leads to a narrowing of meaning. For unlike English, the word sex in everyday German does not mean '(biological) sex', but 'sexual intercourse, sexual activity, sexuality'. The suffix -ism stands for a state of mind (examples: Capitalism, liberalism, socialism, militarism, anarchism, dualism). The word formation 'sex-ism' in German thus suggests the misunderstanding that sexism stands for an attitude of mind focused on sexual intercourse or that it is exclusively about discrimination based on sexuality (sexual coercion, sexual violence, sexual abuse).

The coexistence of the broader English term sexism and the narrowed German term sexismus favours misunderstandings and makes education and communication about gender-based discrimination in German more difficult. The narrowing of the meaning of the German word sexism thus obscures a considerable part of the gender-related, non-sexual aspects of discrimination that the English term refers to. In this respect, German-language education about sexism must always work against the narrowing of meaning that the German concept of sexism semantically entails.

The generic term sexism refers to the wide range of phenomena of discrimination. A better understanding is provided by research into institutional discrimination and everyday discrimination (see, for example, racist discrimination, institutional racism, everyday racism), which has been advanced since the 1960s, especially in the English-speaking world. In the case of sexism, too, institutional or institutionalised sexism and everyday sexism prove to be important bases of understanding. In the German-speaking world, there has been no such research tradition so far, but rather an obscuring of the social and everyday practical character of sexist phenomena through individualisation or personalisation.

Everyday sexism, institutional sexism, institutionalized sexism

A distinction between the terms everyday sexism, institutional sexism and institutionalised sexism has hardly been made so far. Scientific definitions point to the imprinting in everyday society, in the processes of social norming or institutionalization, as well as the imprinting of the associated institutions. Differences in terminology do not stem so much from differences in content as from different scientific terminological instruments and disciplines. Everyday sexism refers to "sexist attitudes shared by the vast majority of us because we live in a society where stereotypes and discrimination are the norm." "The vast majority of us will, to some extent, develop unwanted attitudes with prejudice and discriminatory behavior simply by living in a society where stereotypical information is abundant and discriminatory behavior is the norm." Sexism is based on gender-based social norms, which are "assumptions that a society holds about what is correct, acceptable, and permissible." Sexist norms do not have to be taught directly, but are adopted and perpetuated from childhood until other norms become accepted. As with other forms of discrimination, normative conformity in sexism leads to the "tendency to conform to the group in order to meet the group's expectations and gain recognition." The term institutionalised sexism makes it clear that there is also an institutionalisation of prejudice.

In the German-speaking world, the concept of everyday sexism was mainly discussed in academia and within feminism until 2012. In early 2013, a controversial discussion on sexism as an everyday phenomenon began. (See hashtag #aufschrei). Since then, it has also become increasingly common in German everyday and scientific language. Likewise, the Weinstein scandal and the hashtag #MeToo have been around since October 2017.

generic term sexism

Sexism is an "umbrella term" for a "wide range of individual phenomena" that "result in an unequal social status of women and men" and are institutionalized in societies . Because of institutionalization and societal pressure to conform, they can be difficult to overcome individually. Individual phenomena of sexism are grouped into three categories:

• category-based cognitions or gender-related stereotypes (gender stereotypes)
• Affects (prejudices)
• Behaviour (discrimination)

This definition includes men as possible addressees of sexism. Sexism is a component of "socially shared implicit gender theories" (gender belief system), in which "everyday assumptions about the sexes and their mutual relationships" are summarized.

Sexism, just like racism, is "an essentialism" that wants to attribute "the millennia of work on the socialization of the biological and the biologization of the social" to a "biological nature" and "inexorably derive all acts of existence" from it.

Depending on the scientific discipline, the definition of sexism focuses on different aspects.

Psychology and social psychology

In psychology and social psychology, sexism is often defined in terms of prejudiced (negative) attitudes and discriminatory behaviour towards people on the basis of their gender, or even more broadly as "stereotypical assessment, evaluation, disadvantage or preference of a person solely on the basis of their gender". These definitions include stereotyping, pejoratives (cf. dysphemism), and discrimination that can theoretically affect women and men equally. American social psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske define sexism as hostility toward women. Sexism produces the perpetuation of social roles, pushing women in particular into a subordinate position and into a position with less power than men.

Sociology

In sociological research, the structural aspect of sexism is emphasized (see also structural functionalism, social status). Here it is said that sexism is culturally conditioned, institutionally anchored and individually internalised. It is a perpetuated thinking, belief, opinion and action as social practice, which privileges men and subordinates women. Through this, women's actions are devalued and women (and men) are fixed to certain roles. This approach emphasizes the mechanisms of a discriminatory social system, in this case patriarchy, and examines the interconnections of sexism with other critical forms of domination of certain groups, such as racism, classism or ageism, handicapism or speciesism.

Postfeminism

In the post-feminist discourse radicalizing feminism, expecting or demanding that others embody gender norms is considered sexism. Related to this approach are discussions of heterosexist discrimination against gays, lesbians, and people who do not fit the standard gender concept.