Sexist Practices Research Articles

The development of ambivalent sexism: Proposals for an expanded model.

The United Nations' Goals for Sustainable Development highlight gender inequality as a pervasive problem around the world. Developmental psychologists can help us understand the development and consequences of sexism in people's lives. I highlight ambivalent sexism theory as a promising framework for this work; and I offer recommendations for expanding the theory. Ambivalent sexism theory distinguishes between hostile sexism and benevolent sexism as complementary processes perpetuating and maintaining men's dominance and heteronormativity in society. I summarize how these two forms of sexism emerge during childhood and adolescence; and I review the negative manifestations of hostile and benevolent sexism during adolescence and adulthood. Next, I chart several directions for expanding the ambivalent sexism model. These include addressing sexism directed towards gender-nonconforming, sexual-minoritized, and gender-minoritized youth (in addition to sexism towards girls and women); taking into account the gender and sexual identities of both perpetrators and targets of sexism; considering a broader array of hostile and benevolent sexist practices than captured in existing measures; taking into account cultural variations and intersectionality in how ambivalent sexism is enacted; conducting more research on ambivalent sexism in childhood and adolescence and designing effective programs to reduce and to prevent ambivalent sexism beginning in childhood.

Sport pedagogy and feminism: what is known and what is missing? Findings from a scoping review

ABSTRACT Background Worldwide, to play sports is proclaimed a right. Yet its sexist practices insist on cultivating a hegemonic gender culture to keep ‘others’ away and deprive them from its potential educational benefits. Sport feminisms have been vocal on the gender oppressions operated in the field and have claimed pedagogy has a role to play in social transformation through a liberating education. Purpose We aimed at analyzing the academic production about sport pedagogy and feminism published in articles globally, to answer when, where how and by whom the studies were developed; what is known and what is missing. Method We conducted a scoping review searching for sport pedagogy and feminism and their related terms combined. Selection was delimited by studies informed by feminist approaches discussing sport pedagogy from recreational to elite level. Findings Our review covered 46 studies from the last three decades when Global North English-speaking countries have dominated the scene, both as investigation settings and authorship. Studies presented two main trends. The most substantial were investigations reporting gender inequalities, especially with women coaches; followed by others exploring pedagogical alternatives for more equitable sport experiences. Together, studies have demonstrated that the ‘patriarchal gender game’ is still on and the ‘deviants’ from the cis-hetero-white-able-bodied-male ideal continue to suffer systematic prejudice and discrimination in sport, inclusive through sexist coaching. But they also showed ‘the tactics of the equity gender game’ is counterattacking with pedagogical strategies to welcome girls, women and gender-diverse people in sport. Discussion Undoubtedly, the dialogues between sport pedagogy and feminisms have contributed greatly to challenge sexism through education, but the game is not over. The invisibility of black women, women with disabilities and queer people in studies evidenced the need for more intersectional approaches. Coach development initiatives should be critically examined and rethought. The predominance of studies and researchers from Global North English-speaking countries denoted that voices and knowledges from Global South are missing. More than empathizing with gender inequalities, we long to see feminist sport pedagogy engaging in the reinvention of the ways we learn, practice, teach and coach sport. More democratic, diverse and audacious research designs grounded in the commitment to guarantee sport as an educational experience for everyone seem promising ways to be explored.

The pervasive lack of gender diversity in the boardroom: The inconvenience of ambivalent sexism

Orientation: Redressing gender inequality in the boardroom remains a persistent challenge for organisations, both globally and in South Africa.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to highlight the need for policymakers to ensure that efforts to redress gender inequality in the boardroom have a firmer, more ethical foundation based on exploring dimensions of sexisms.Motivation for the study: Women continue to be under-represented in the boardroom. This study is concerned with determining whether benevolent sexism might provide some explanation for this form of gender inequality.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative study was conducted, with 172 board members, C-suite executives, directors and senior managers of publicly listed companies completing a self-reported questionnaire and a survey that measured hostile sexism and benevolent sexism.Main findings: The findings showed no significant difference between the different age categories in the sample. However, there was a significant difference in benevolent sexism between men and women, with women exhibiting higher scores, which was indicative of the condonation of benevolent sexism. The findings also showed a significant correlation between hostile and benevolent sexism, suggesting that benevolent sexism legitimises sexist behaviours.Practical/managerial implications: Mechanisms to address gender inequality in the workplace need to be simultaneously clear and nuanced because of the deep psychosocial beliefs among men and women that constrain efforts to arrest gender discrimination.Contribution/value-add: The pervasiveness of ambivalent sexism contributes to the persistent lack of gender diversity, particularly as it pertains to the condoning and perpetuation of sexist practices by both sexes. While no causation can be inferred, there is substantive corroborative research globally attesting to the effects of sexism on decision-makers’ actions in different contexts, including in South Africa.

Hidden figures: Women’s experiences in management graduate courses in Brazil

This study examines the sexism practiced in the academic environments of Management graduate schools in Brazil. We investigate how sexist practices manifested in the intersectionality of gender, race, and class affect female researchers’ training in Management graduate schools. Universities are spaces where students learn to be scholars and receive education and training in various disciplines. Based on oral history interviews conducted with six Brazilian graduate students in Management studies, we show from an intersectional perspective how sexism is practiced in this field. Our contribution lies in initiating a broader and more open debate about sexism to enable members of graduate institutions to acknowledge and help mitigate sexist practices observed in Management researchers’ training processes. We concluded that understanding how sexism takes place in the Management field leads to reflections capable of promoting transformations in management education, research practices, and the society.

Mulheres gamers: Performatividades de gênero no consumo feminino de eSports

ABSTRACT Purpose: Women’s increasing interest in eSports is an emblematic phenomenon. However, they have been facing discriminatory sexist practices based on a discourse focused on establishing gender inferiority. Thus, the present research aims to investigate how gender performativities are produced in eSports consumption by women gamers. Originality/value: Due to a lack of discussions about female eSports consumption, the current study explores gaps in consumer culture research literature based on theoretical and epistemological concerns. Butlerian concepts of performativity are used to help better understand the conduct produced in discussions about female eSports consumption. Design/methodology/approach: An interpretive content analysis (ICA) of 44 interviews was carried out to help better understand women gamers’ perception of their experience in games, and in the cultural scenario itself, the eSports consumers’ social network is formed by both practitioners and game enthusiasts. Findings: The current analytical effort identified two dimensions: “Fight like a girl!” and “Girls just want to have fun!”. It was possible to perceive that even gender performativities with different interests work as gender discourse reproducers and spreaders in both dimensions when they take place without due diligence. Ultimately, this is a complex market dispositif capable of leading the eSports scenario to a patriarchal system among its consumers.

Sexism without sexists: Gender‐blind frames in police work

AbstractThis article examines policewomen's experiences of work in the Singapore Police Force (SPF). In recent years, female officers in the SPF have accomplished many “firsts,” alluding to women not only succeeding in entering the male‐dominated profession but attaining equal status as their male counterparts. Based on in‐depth interviews and content analysis, however, policewomen in the SPF are still confronting various forms of gender discrimination, with female officers navigating masculine norms, a gendered division of labor, and sexual harassment at work. How can we explain this disjuncture between the SPF's rhetoric of gender neutrality and policewomen's reality of gender inequality? We argue that first, the SPF as an organization, and some policewomen themselves, adopt gender‐blind frames to interpret any forms of gender discrimination, by insisting that they do not see gender or that gender does not matter in the organization. Second, sexist practices have evolved from overt to covert forms of gender discrimination. Because of this shift in how gender discrimination manifests in the organization, the SPF and some policewomen do not perceive those practices as sexist but as normal, everyday language and behavior. This article seeks to identify those amorphous forms of sexism enacted upon policewomen that, in turn, reflect the recursive relationship between individual‐level interactions and structurally embedded occupational practices.

Learning through play or learning sexism through play? Why critical gender literacy matters in kindergarten education

ABSTRACT Play is a highly valued pedagogy in early learning settings around the world. Supporters of play have emphasised the benefits of this approach in promoting children’s development and learning and their alleged freedom to choose, explore, and follow their interests. Feminist research, however, has shown that play contexts can be key sites that perpetuate gender inequalities. Building on this scholarship, I apply a critical feminist lens to examine the gendered effects of a recent shift in a Canadian province towards full-day play-based learning in kindergarten. Analysis of ethnographic data collected in two classrooms reveals that not all children may benefit from play-based learning. Instead, the findings show that the play settings in this study implicitly propagated patriarchal values that upheld hierarchal gender divisions and legitimized sexist practices among children in play. Specifically, in this paper I examine the subordination of girls through role allocations in the big blocks center. Given these findings, I discuss the need for critical gender literacy and transformative action among early education stakeholders.

LOOK, LOOK! THIS SHRINE IS LEAKING RED “MENSTRUAL ACTIVISM IN NINA PAGALIES’ GRAPHIC TEMPLES”

Menstruation is a physiological phenomenon that has long been associated with taboos and myths that justify women's exclusion from religious ceremonies and the public realm. Many cultures around the world consider menstruating women as unholy and polluting, often associating them with filth that must stay beyond the threshold of shrines and places of worship. Owing to the negative attributes associated with menstruation, the equation between women’s bodies and divinity gets problematized leading to their polarised conception. Such beliefs culminate into sexist practices that often undermine women’s rights and freedom and become instruments of perpetuating gender-based violence against them. The controversy of Sabarimala Temple in India stands as testimony to the above statement. This paper explores graphics from a collection titled ‘Temples’ by a German illustrator, Nina Pagalies, anthologized in The Elephant in the Room: Women Draw their World. Her work, Temples, explore varied experiences and attributes of female sexuality that are beautifully dovetailed to the idea of religion and purity by depicting women’s bodies as shrines and temples, thus reconciling the otherwise polarised view of female sexuality and the divine. This paper unravels how the Pagalies’ visuals subvert the notion of dirt and impurity associated with menstruation to support the narrative that rather celebrates it. It undertakes a semiotic analysis of the ‘gendered blood’ and other motifs to understand how these visuals are transgressive. Subsequently, the paper closes with the view that the illustrations valourize the ‘female blood’ and debunks patriarchal modes of representation by carving a democratic vista for feminine expression advocating the permission of menstruating females into temples.

Heteronormative Representations of the Family and Parenting in Public Policies: Implications for LGBTIQ+ Families

This research analyzes the discourse of the Chilean State Program: “Chile Crece Contigo”, a program aimed at supporting the upbringing of children. We wonder about representation in the discourses of family and parenting, especially regarding LGBTIQ+ families. To do this, we compiled the materials available on the program website, which are particularly directed at the sphere of family and parenting. We carry out a documentary analysis, based on an approach to the post-structuralist analysis of public policy to identify how and what is the representation of the problem that public policies seek to solve. The results show only heteronormative perspectives to understand families, where sexual diversity within its constitution is almost invisible. At the same time, the exercise of parenting is represented as a materialization of sexist practices that reproduce stereotypes roles. Thus, this reinforces the idea that heteronormativity establishes an articulating axis of public policy that regulates the life of the subjects, maintaining differentiating parameters regarding the consideration of an expected behavior in society based on sex/gender. It is concluded that gender stereotypes supported by heteronormative models cause the marginalization of a significant percentage of families that do not fit into the imaginary of public policies under these heteronormative models, such as LGBTIQ+ families.

Culture, complaint and confidentiality: an autoethnographic exploration of sexual harassment

ABSTRACT This article explores the impact of sexual harassment on one teacher – the paper’s author and, in doing so, opens up conversations about the micro-realities of gendered harassment in educational institutions. By using autoethnography as a method of inquiry and writing from the unique perspective of the survivor-researcher, the author sheds light on how sexual harassment is enacted through gendered language, the normalization of sexist practices, and power-relations in ways that inform whose voice is heard and whose gets silenced. By placing personal testimony and documentary evidence within a poststructuralist theoretical framework, feelings of powerlessness are merged with critical reflexivity and scholarly reflection to offer insights into the ways that institutional discourses and practices nurture and/or neuter individuals’ efficacy and career potential.

The Athena SWAN Process to Promote Gender Equity in Third-Level Education in Ireland

Introduction: Sexism and misogyny remains an ongoing threat to optimal health and medical services. An important factor in health and medical services is the education and training pipeline into these careers. A substantial body of literature demonstrates the impacts of sexism in third-level education and training institutions developing future health service staff. Athena SWAN accreditation is a benchmark designed to counter such institutional and individual sexist practices in education settings to foster equality. In recent years the Athena SWAN process has expanded to include professional and administrative staff, as well as academics. This process has also evolved to move beyond a narrow focus on gender, to also include other crucial issues such as race, sexuality and gender identity. Methods: This examination is based on the author’s role as a participant observer and critiques the Athena SWAN process in an Institute of Technology in Ireland. Results: This examination identifies a substantial number of deficits in the Athena SWAN process, as well as also identifying institutional resistance strategies to such gender equality work. Conclusion: The current Athena SWAN process in Ireland is critically flawed. Suggested strategies for those engaged in such work into the future are outlined.

Muslim Refugee Girls in Malala Yousafzai’s We Are Displaced

The research intends to find out the kinds of discrimination faced by the refugee girls and also life experiences of the refugee girls that related to the author’s life. Malala as the writer of the memoir We Are Displaced describes her experiences as a Muslim woman who is often treated unfairly both in the homeland and in the host land. As Malala had seen many discriminations in many places, she was inspired to write all discrimination as the movement against that discrimination. Therefore, feminism is a study of efforts to change gender roles, sexist practices, and sexual norms that often limit personal development. This research uses content analysis, especially close textual analysis. The results of this research show that there are 3 kinds of discrimination of the refugee girls. They are: 1) Racial Discrimination, 2) Gender Discrimination, and 3) Social Class Discrimination. This research also shows that some of the refugee girls have the same life experience as the author based on educational value, they are: 1) Independence value, 2) Creativity value, 3) Social Concern value.

The Challenges of the Indonesian Government in Eliminating Gender Bias Practices: The Perspective of Kinship Systems in Indigenous Peoples and Regulations

Gender bias is a condition that indicates the existence of a preference for one of the socially and culturally constructed traits inherent in men and women. Gender differences in treatment harm certain genders. The losses mentioned are related to family and social status contexts. This paper is a normative study using a normative-legal approach, focusing on legal discrimination and observing gender practices in regulation through indigenous kinship systems and literature research. This paper aims to examine gender bias practices, and government efforts to prevent and overcome gender bias practices in Indonesia. Sexist practices are found in Indigenous peoples’ lives, regulations, and government policies. Government efforts to prevent and control include ratification of international regulations and ratification in the form of legal instruments. However, other measures are needed from a prevention perspective such as: Political involvement of governments in socialization in the form of an improved understanding of indigenous peoples, the revision of rules that may lead to

University, neoliberalism and hegemonic bodies: narratives of international students in Chile

ABSTRACT This article investigates the production of neoliberal subjectivities in Latin American international students in Chilean universities. In last years, Chile have registered plenty political uprisings regarding its economic, social and gender inequalities. The premise is that Chile is a country where Neoliberalism is rooted not only in the form of political and economic guidelines, but as rationality. It proposes that these forms of thought-action reinforce typically male success stereotypes, dismissing bodies challenged of non-hegemonic paths. Narrative interviews with doctoral students in Chile are used to describe how the topic of academic excellence sustained by the Chilean neoliberal university market materializes differently in each body. Students report the interpellation of success discourses affecting their bodies and relating their nationhood, gender and sexualities experiences to feelings of diminishment, loneliness, discrimination, etc. I argue that the presence of neoliberal rationalities in the Chilean university favours the exercise of sexist practices, naturalized as market practices, and impose normative adjustments on the gender and sexuality performance of students.

Sexism and the Left: Three Case Studies

Many Left organizations pride themselves on their commitment to women’s liberation, and socialist feminism is a real and important current of Left praxis. Nonetheless, there is also a long history that demonstrates a remarkable persistence of sexist practices within socialist organizations. This article suggests that sexist practices, as well as feminist analyses of and responses to sexism, have been epistemologically minimized, dismissed, distorted and ultimately forgotten, enabling a normalization of patriarchal hegemony on the Left, and producing what the late Charles Mills termed an “epistemology of ignorance.” To demonstrate this, the article draws on three case studies, spanning recent and distant history of socialist organizing: the crisis of the International Socialist Tendency and Socialist Workers’ Party UK (2010-13); the founding period of the International Socialists in Canada (1975-6); and the Bolshevik-Menshevik division in Tsarist Russia (1902-3). The argument is based on extensive original research including four decades of personal archives from socialist and feminist praxis.

DISCOURSE, KNOWLEDGE AND (HETERO)PATRIARCHY: A CASE STUDY OF THE HONOUR KILLING OF QANDEEL BALOCH

This study employs a Feminist Epistemic Discourse analysis of the Facebook comments posted by social media users in Pakistan in response to the honour killing of a social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch. The study focuses on misogynist and sexist knowledge and practices of knowledge dissemination, where information is condensed and interpersonally charged through (de)legitimation strategies which embody hegemonised heteropatriarchal ideologies and values. To represent and synthesise people’s misogynist and sexist knowledge, and to justify the honour killing of Baloch, the social media users make use of selective knowledge constructed from the combinations of various popular discourses, supported by the references to selected religious scripture. This study is a part of a more detailed study on Gendered Epistemic Discourse Analysis (GEDA) which aims to focus on the relationship between discourse, knowledge and heteropatriarchy. Such studies will provide deeper insights into socio-cultural contexts where honour killing is practiced, and facilitate further development of feminist approaches to discourse, knowledge and socio-cultural context.

Ageing on the internet: Feminist perspectives on sexist practices

This research article undertakes a timely interrogation of the anti-woman digital practices on social media environments, particularly Twitter – specifically, practices seeped in gender bigotry and ageism. It introduces the relatively unexplored concept of digital temporality vis-à-vis digital feminist analysis, and relies, to a limited extent, on empirically examining Indian Twitter primarily and American and Australian Twitter to a lesser extent. The article analyses how image-aesthetics for women, dependent on their age (manifested in appearance and perception of women’s digital image), are a patriarchy-propped digital trend and how that promotes a culture of digital ageism, predicated on women’s appearance. This study also examines and establishes how women users on Twitter are susceptible to continual ageing as images on the digital screen and how digital ageing is a gendered phenomenon. The scope of this article is to examine digital ageism from theoretical perspectives, and offer empirical examples from news portals and Twitter media to substantiate some crucial arguments. This project, of course, also opens more scope to quantitatively account for digital ageism through detailed empirical studies as is also the scope to examine the various subversive tools that could potentially be utilized in gendered rubrics to defy or negate sexist ageism on social media.

“He Says, She Says”: Sexism and Sexual Harassment in Higher Educational Institutions of India

Results of a survey among current and former female students of colleges and universities in India show that subtle and explicit sexist practices are perpetuated in campus spaces by both male students and faculty members. Moreover, one in ten respondents reported being sexually assaulted by at least one person from their educational institutions. Further, we present a dynamic three-player game-theoretic model. The results highlight the role of institutions in lowering incidences of sexual harassment, and also incorporate the feminist critic of institutional responses in this context, thereby underlining the crucial role of both institutional action and cultural norms.

Evaluation of an Intervention Program Based on Mobile Apps to Learn Sexism Prevention in Teenagers

The fight against sexism is nowadays one of the flagship social movements in western countries. Adolescence is a crucial period, and some empirical studies have focused on the socialization of teenagers, proving that the socialization with the surrounding environment prevent sexist practices. In a previous work, we developed and tested the effectiveness of a mobile app, called Liad@s , with the goals of helping teenagers to prevent sexism and build healthy couple relationships. In this article, we carry out a study where (using a real situation) we compare the effectiveness of the Liad@s app in front of traditional interventions like a workshop about sexism for teenagers. Also, we evaluate the usability of the app and the user satisfaction with this application. In this study, our primary hypothesis is that the effectiveness of using our mobile application, in terms of knowledge acquired about sexism, would be at least as good as attending the workshop. Our secondary hypothesis is that the user satisfaction with the mobile application would be higher than the one with the workshop, causing a preference for the app. The results of this study show significant differences in learning appeared between gender and between the two different procedures when separately evaluating the data collected from both hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) questionnaires. These results validate our primary hypothesis. Also, most of the population under study preferred the mobile app in front of the traditional workshop, validating also our secondary hypothesis.

Snapchat and affective inequalities: affective flows in a schooling assemblage

Gendered power relations and cyber-objectification can be produced through Snapchat in schooling contexts. The research illustrates how social media circulates affect in an Australian high school setting. While “Snapchatting” can evoke joy, it can produce gendered inequities. This research details affective inequalities associated with Snapchat use. Affective inequalities (“lad culture”, “rape culture” and “everyday sexism”) are produced through texts, images and videos and are normalised through the gendered material-discursive relations in schools. Through making new material entanglements visible, the subtle sexist practices associated with misogyny in schools can be surfaced and recognised. Explicit critiques of misogyny are required to support gender equity in schools. This article contributes to the literature both as new material school-based research, and as an exploration of the gendered implications of Snapchat technology use among young people. It addresses the need to challenge masculine sexual entitlement, both online and in schools.