This lecture will discuss the belief that one sex --usually the male-- is superior to the other and should dominate the most important areas of political, economic, and social life. This belief expresses itself in behavior and attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on gender. As a result of this practice, sexist discrimination has minimized opportunities for girls and women in countries around the world.
The presentation will explore how sexism is discrimination based on gender, and how social attitudes, stereotypes, and cultural elements promote and perpetuate discrimination. I will give examples from Africa, the Middle East and South West Asia, the regions of the world that I know best.
I will also discuss the intersection of power and sexism. Given the historical and in many situations the present imbalance of power, where men as a class are privileged over women as a class, an important yet often overlooked part of the term sexism is prejudice plus power. The equation “prejudice + power” is an important dimension of sexism. This is not to say that the disenfranchised cannot be prejudiced -- many of them are -- but it is harder for them to implement sexism within systems given that they lack the power to manipulate systems. The disenfranchised are not actually working within the systematic framework of advantage created by the majority to privilege themselves over girls and women as a class.
