Vicarious Sexism

[Page 1751]Vicarious sexism (VS) refers to instances when an individual indirectly experiences gender discrimination by empathizing with someone who directly experienced the discrimination. As gender roles have changed over the years and more women are in the workforce than in previous decades, there has been a demand for equal treatment of all individuals regardless of gender. Generally, the presence of discrimination against a person or group can create a stressful environment for the victims and can have an adverse impact on biopsychosocial functioning. Similarly, a bystander of discrimination who identifies with the victims may also experience these adverse effects. Vicarious discrimination is typically discussed in the context of trauma, also termed vicarious trauma (VT) or secondary traumatic stress (STS). This entry will briefly discuss VT ...