Sexism

Origins

Sexism, according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, is “prejudice or discrimination based on sex, especially discrimination against women” or “behaviors, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.” Although now a household word, the term sexism was actually coined during the 1960s women's movement. According to gender historian Fred R. Shapiro, the term most likely originated during Pauline M. Leet's address, “Women and the Undergraduate,” to the Student-Faculty Forum at Franklin and Marshall College in 1965. At the forum, Leet described the “sexist” mentality of individuals within the literary community. The term later appeared in print in Caroline Bird's “On Being Born Female” (1968) and Sheldon Vanauken's “Freedom for Movement Girls—Now” (1968). By 1968, Bird and Vanauken had used the term to denote the general tendency to judge women as inferior on the basis of sex.

In Education and the Workplace

After the release in October 1963 of The Presidential Report on American Women, by the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, individuals like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), and groups like the National Organization for Women (established in 1966) fought sexism in all aspects of society. However, they focused the brunt of their early attention on eliminating “sexism,” “sex bias,” and “sexual discrimination” in education and the workplace.

Their efforts led to the passage of Title IX (originally part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and later amended in the Education Amendments of 1972), which guaranteed that “no person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal funds,” and the Equal Rights Amendment (proposed in 1972), which would have amended the U.S. Constitution by guaranteeing equal rights on the basis of sex. Although the Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified by the requisite number of states, laws like Title IX and (once prodded by NOW) enforcement agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) allowed women to gain considerable ground in education and the workplace.

Women have made huge strides in education since the passage of Title IX. According to the U.S. census, in 2008 women made up 55 percent of all college undergraduates, compared to just 44 percent in 1972. Likewise, women entered historically male-dominated disciplines, such as engineering, medicine, and law, in greater numbers. In 1972, women earned less than 10 percent of all medical and law degrees and 0.7 percent of all engineering degrees; by 2009, women made up approximately [Page 328]45 percent of all medical and law students and 20 percent of all engineering students. With greater access to education, women have advanced to an extent in the workplace. For instance, following the passage of Title IX, in the first half of the 1970s, the number of women lawyers doubled. In 2009, women composed a little more than 30 percent of practicing lawyers and physicians and 12 percent of all practicing engineers.

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