Examples Of Subtle Sexism

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Subtle sexism is the unconscious sexism in our society that tends to be passive, in that it is so entrenched in society it is considered ordinary. Swim et al. (2004) define subtle sexism as representing “unequal and unfair treatment of women that is not recognized by many people because it is perceived to be normative, and therefore does not appear unusual” (p. 117). It is often through language that subtle sexism appears. When people state “he” did something instead of “he or she” or “one”, when the statement is meant for all genders, they are using gendered language that is exclusive to women. This is linguistic bias or linguistic sexism. Although this sexism is passive, evidence show women feel it actively. The Stout & Dasgupta (2011) paper