Please note: This is my first time ever messing with video/audio software. If anything is off, I am sorry. I did not know what I was doing. I did not edit in fear of messing up something. -Sorry! I tried my best!

 

• Hi! My name is Cyndi.

 

• “Yo, Is This Racist?” advice podcast, and today I will discuss sexism. I decided on sexism because of the rude comments I have seen on social media about Vice President-elect Mrs. Harris. Many people (not only men but women also) saying sexist comments. I will not focus on Mrs. Harris, but more on her position as a woman in general.

 

• According to Harvard Business School’s article, throughout most of the centuries (we were the other for centuries), women were the property of their husbands. Property laws or another name for it is “coverture”. The woman was like her underage child or a slave and could not own her property or control her earnings (except under certain conditions).                                                                                                                       

 

• If the husband died, the wife could not oversee her children. Widows did have the right of “dower,” a property right they brought into the marriage as well as to life usage of one-third of their husbands’ estate. Though a married woman was not able to sue or sign contracts on her own, her husband often did have to obtain her consent before he sold any property his wife had inherited.

 

• Women fought for the 19^th What is the 19^th amendment of the United States Constitution? The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed American women the right to vote, a right is known as women’s suffrage and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest.

• The movement for women’s rights started in the year 1848 on the national level with the Seneca Falls Convention. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. After the convention, the demand for the vote became a focus of the women’s rights movement. Besides Stanton and Mott, another well-known activist was Susan B. Anthony. These three women plus many other women activists raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights to women. After years of battling, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19th Amendment.

 

 

 

 

• However, women of color would have to keep fighting for their rights. Black men and women faced intimidation and often violent disapproval at the polls or when attempting to register to vote. It would take more than 40 years for all women to achieve voting equality.

 

• When did the coverture end? Catherine Allgor, wrote for The National Women’s History Museum states, “The short answer is that it has been eroded bit by bit. But it has never been fully abolished. The ghost of coverture has always haunted women’s lives and continues to do so. Coverture is why women weren’t regularly allowed on juries until the 1960s, and marital rape wasn’t a crime until the 1980s.” She admits it goes on today in ways of employment, housing, taxes, or real estate matters.

 

• Sexism is alive and well. What is sexism? To cover everything, I decided to get the definition of sexism from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Sexism prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against women and girls. Although its origin is unclear, the term sexism emerged from the “second-wave” feminism of the 1960s through the ’80s and was most likely modeled on the civil rights movement’s term racism (prejudice or discrimination based on race). Sexism can be a belief that one sex is superior to or more valuable than the other sex. It imposes limits on what men and boys can and should do and what women and girls can and should do. The concept of sexism was originally formulated to raise consciousness about the oppression of girls and women, although by the early 21st century it had sometimes been expanded to include the oppression of any sex, including men and boys, intersexual people, and transgender people.                   

 

• I would like to discuss one of my admired women: Rosalind Franklin. She was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She was highly intelligent but received a raw deal. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely recognized after her death.

 

• Her discovery of the DNA structure in 1953; however, since she was a woman, recognition of her work was not rewarded at that time. She passed in 1958 of ovarian cancer at the age of 37. The gentlemen she worked in the laboratory would take claim to her work in 1962 (her photo, their data) and they won the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

• This is only one example of a million examples of sexism.

 

• I stumble over a project called “everyday sexism”. Women write about their everyday episodes of sexism. One example: Isabel wrote “I was in 8th grade and I got an anonymous note in my locker telling me to kill myself. My locker was right in front of the cameras. I went to the school’s dean of conduct who is in charge of the cameras to see who sent it to me. I went there and he told me that I was overreacting and that it was probably a boy who liked me and wanted to get my attention. Long story short I never found out who it was.”

 

• First, this is wrong on many levels. It was handled wrong. Someone wished death on this child. The adult male did not take it seriously. This is letting the young female know she is unimportant. This could have affected her emotional state.

 

• What should have been done? It should have been taken seriously. She was being bullied and not a flirtation gesture. Whoever wrote the letter should have been suspended for such behavior.

 

• According to Forbes, there are three ways to address subtle sexism and they are: Permit yourself to be offended; Call sexism out for what it is; & Counter subtle sexism.

 

• Permit yourself to be offended – Let it be known you did not like their comments and politely say “I appreciate those comments to stop”. Do not suppress your negative feelings.

• Call sexism out for what it is – “Explain why you were troubled by the comment and how it reinforces harmful gender stereotypes and could hurt morale in the office. Keep your tone calm, collected, and professional. Make it clear that these comments aren’t appropriate or appreciated.”

 

• Counter subtle sexism – In Forbes article, they explain with an example, “if someone says about a female coworker “We’re so lucky to have her on the team to keep us organized – we needed a mom around here,” you could counter by highlighting her accomplishments and skills: “Well, that doesn’t seem relevant, but I do know that by streamlining our salesforce last year, she dramatically increased profits.”

 

• The muse has additional opinions on how to handle sexism: Practice Your Puzzled and Unconcerned Reaction – “Some comments deserve to be reported, but sometimes that’s not a great option. Sometimes the person making the comments deserves a playful—and yet condescending!—mocking. “Did you just say that…in a meeting? Tone it down, buddy.” Look at some other people on the team like, “Get a load of this guy.” Lock him out. He’s ridiculous. Move on. You’re the adult here.
• Another from the Muse is: Blame it on Generational Differences!                                                           
• “If your male boss is making the comments, he’s probably kind of older, right? Say your boss implies that women are bad at math.
• You say: “Wait, what are you saying?” Make sure your voice is neutral–you might as well be asking, “What does this ancient hieroglyph mean?”
• “Don’t get all feminist on me. I was just saying that being good at math is mostly a guy thing. You know.”
• Give a confused look, and then shrug. “Ha, at my school we all had to take calculus to even think about getting into college. Must be a generational thing.” Say it cheerfully–you just kind of called your boss old.
• You’re cool, he’s cool. You respect generational differences—it’s all part of the beautiful tapestry of diversity. If he keeps at it, ask him some questions about what college was like “back then.” If he says his math classes were all guys, respond with amazement, as though he is telling you about riding a horse and buggy to school. You’re not offended–you’re enthralled by his stories about the olden days. If he tries to push your buttons, respond with, “Wow, that’s so interesting! Things have changed so much!”
• Of course, most real-life interactions along these lines are notably shorter. So just keep this in your arsenal: [Shrug] “Must be a generational thing.”

 

• Women have come a long way in the past century alone. We are no longer the “other” – like women once were. It has been 100 years since voting became legal for women. As women work beside men, sexism is real and living well. Women must voice their opinions openly to men to let them know sexism is not right. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, sexism does not only affect women; however, it mainly focuses on women. Intersexual and transgender people are affected and men and boys can be affected as well. We must work side by side and achieve our goals we must put sexism to the side to be victorious.
• Thank you for listening!

 

Works Cited

Allgor, C. (2012, September 4). Coverture: The Word You Probably Don’t Know But Should. Retrieved from National Women’s History Museum: https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/coverture-word-you-probably-dont-know-should#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%20is%20that,a%20crime%20until%20the%201980s.

Beilock, S. (2020, January 7). How To Address Subtle, ‘Friendly’ Sexism At Work. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sianbeilock/2020/01/07/how-to-address-subtle-friendly-sexism-at-work/?sh=46d59b56350c

Dziura, J. (n.d.). 6 Ways to Shut Down Sexist Comments at Work. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from The Muse: https://www.themuse.com/advice/6-ways-to-shut-down-sexist-comments-at-work

Editors, B. (2020, June 15). Rosalind Franklin. Retrieved from Biography: https://www.biography.com/scientist/rosalind-franklin

Editors, H. (2020, August 14). 19th Amendment. Retrieved from History: https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendment-1

Masequesmay, G. (n.d.). Sexism. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism

The Everyday Sexism Project. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2020, from Everyday Sexism: https://everydaysexism.com/

Women and the Law. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2020, from Harvard Business School: https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/wes/collections/women_law/