Title: Sexism and Violence Against Girls and Women | Safe @ School
Headings: Sexism and Violence Against Girls and Women
Sexism and Violence Against Girls and Women
Description
Targeted groups
Explicit Forms of Sexism
Subtle forms of sexism
Pressure to be Sexual

Content: It becomes clear that inequality is still a reality when Canadian social conditions affecting women are exposed. The frequency of sexual assault and all forms of violence against women and girls is another key indicator and devastating consequence of inequality (see Women’s Inequality, produced in September, 2008 by the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, at westcoastleaf.org ). Sexism has not disappeared, though it may have grown new sprouts connected to the systemic roots of inequality. Description
Sexism is predicated upon the notion that biological sex divides men and women into distinct, separate and hierarchically-ordered groups. What emerges from this social arrangement is the primacy of men and everything that is considered “masculine” over women and everything that is considered “feminine”. The result is the undervaluing, hatred or disparagement of everything and everyone labelled feminine, known as “misogyny” (see Glossary ). Unequal power relations between men and women result in various forms of male dominance (for example, sexual assault and violence against women). These filter through society’s institutions and down to interactions between individual men and women. Sexism is inextricably and profoundly connected to homophobia through gender-based discrimination, with insidious consequences for the way people learn to behave and to identify as girls and boys, women and men. A strict polarization between what is considered “masculine” and what is considered “feminine” (behaviour, attributes, appearance, activity, etc.)