Sexism: Inequality and Gender (Essay Sample)

Sexism: Inequality and Gender
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Sexism: Inequality and Gender
Many of the women in the society today are often faced with gender discrimination. In addition, women also experience a number of inequalities in entirely all aspects of their life, given a society that is largely dominated by their male-counterparts. Sexism, also a form of discrimination, also takes different forms and can be witnessed from different perpetrators from different environments. It has been established out that the effect of encountering sexism on the part of women, leads to such things as stress, depression, in addition to many anxieties. However, it is also suggested that the impact of such discrimination on women varies and largely depends on the manner in which women give responses to the various sexism events (Becker, Zawadzki, and Shields, 2014).
Research indicates that the issue of sexism also extends beyond the physical conditions of women. Here, majority of the women involved are often times affected the many of the sexist remarks that are directed to them by men. Moreover, with such remarks, many women experience a number of negative feelings and emotions, especially in areas they are the target point. Even those women who become witnesses of such tragic events are never spared at all; instead, they equally receive the same treatment.
It has also been significantly found out that sexism remarks have the ability in order to shape the manner in which women think, act, or sometimes feel about men in general. Women’s reactions to overhearing sexist remarks, particularly how specific sexist incidents affects the feelings of women has been under scrutiny and many researchers have had to report differently on this issue. When women are asked to rank their hostility, depression, anger as well as anxiety towards men, how biased they think men’s comments can be, their wish to move against men, how they feel in regard to their gender, various responses arise in relation to individual experiences.
The results might indicate that women are more likely to think about themselves in terms of gender identity, which as a result, would make majority of these women to feel or exhibit greater anger as well as initiative in order to take immediate action towards men, especially when men make sexist utterances. What this suggests is that, women experience feels or emotions in line with the manner that a situation might harm them or sometimes benefit them, as compared to the way such a situation can affect them personally. In essence, women and men are both implicated in personal instances of sexism. In fact, sexism is fundamentally detrimental to every person. In particular, majority of women are largely implicated given the fact that women always suffer the direct negative consequences because they are often the prime targets.
On the other hand, men are too affected by sexism actions. In situations in which a man’s prejudiced behaviors are ascribed to his gender, many of the male perpetrators influence the manner in which women in the society look at and react to their male counterparts.
The study undertaken by Ayres et al (2009) evaluated the probability of women reacting to sexism actions. The study entailed 338 women aged between 19 years and above and who have completed their undergraduate degree. These women were then requested in order to complete a questionnaire as well as write their individual accounts of their varied experiences concerning sexism. The results of this study revealed that 46 percent of the women who participated directly confronted or reacted to the perpetrators. In addition, the study also tested both the individual facts such as previous experiences as well as situational factors such as the level of familiarity. It was reported that majority of the women were, in fact, less likely in order to confront sexism if they did not recognize as feminist, the perpetrator was not familiar, as well as when the form of sexism involved redundant sexual attentions.
In yet a different study by Miller and Kaiser (2004), the authors performed an analysis where they sought to determine the probability of women confronting the issue of sexism in their day-to-day lives. The mental appraisals of sexist incidents of women, including perceptions, holding that solution would only be achieved through confrontation, as well as their feelings of anxiety projected the women’s probability of confronting the perpetrators.
As it can be inferred from the a...