Sexism now: It’s still here

When talking about sexism, women are often reminded of how bad it used to be for us. Once upon a time we couldn’t vote or own property after marriage. Until a landmark case in 1982 (Olivia Newton-John and A Flock of Seagulls were in the charts!), we could be refused service in a pub. But sexism now still pervades, in more subtle ways many of us recognise.

A little bit of history (since it’s Women’s History Month):

The Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave the vote to women over 30 if they (or their husband) owned property. In 1928 the Equal Franchise Act gave all women over the age of 21 the same right. A huge step, you might think, although since the first petition to Parliament occurred in 1832, it was a long time coming.

Ditto with other areas of sexism.

• Rape within a marriage wasn’t made illegal in the UK until 1994 (when Four Weddings and a Funeral came out). For decades previously, it wasn’t even recognised as a ‘thing’.
• Until very recently only a father’s name and signature was recorded on a marriage certificate in England and Wales.
• Although it’s been 50 years since the Equal Pay Act was passed, Gender Pay Gap reporting was only mandated in 2018 (and only for companies with over 250 employees), again showing the glacial speed that women gain equal rights in the UK.

The situation now: Overt versus subtle sexism

Overtly sexist behaviour like putting up topless posters in a workplace kitchen or asking a woman if she’s ‘on the rag’ are almost universally condemned. But what about telling women how they should dress or look for work? That’s still going on, with women sent home for ‘not wearing heels’, Black women told to change their hair and the pressure (and real unspoken drawbacks and benefits) to wearing makeup.

Sometimes twenty-first-century sexism is so subtle we’re not quite sure what’s really going on, and if we do call it out, we’re told we’re making ‘something out of nothing’. But most of us know: If you feel something’s not right, you’re usually right on the money. The guy who stands just a little too close? See if he does that to his male colleagues. Getting vague feedback at work that focuses more on your personality and less about your actual job? Studies have shown that the feedback and targets men receive are more specific than what women hear, which, in turn, makes it harder for women to show how well they’ve performed in their next appraisal.

Sexism in ‘regular life’ we all recognise

Or consider regular life experiences such as buying a car or getting a plumber in, where the experience of being ignored while the salesperson talks to the man or talked down to is common. In a January 2020 survey, the car-buying website Find-and-Finance looked at the top things women hate about car buying: Second on the list was ‘How can I help you, sir?’ Given that even single women often take a guy – any guy – on certain shopping trips or errands to avoid being ripped off demonstrates how frequent the talking-to-the-man-thing happens. And how women experience it as a part of ‘regular life’.

How lockdown has affected women

In the Zoom era, more women have reported being told to pile on the make-up or dress more sexily even for video calls, according to a 2020 survey by employment law firm Slater and Gordon. Meanwhile lockdown brought more problems for women. Plan International UK polled more than a thousand young women aged 14-21 at the beginning of the 2020 lockdown and found that cat-calling and even sexual assault were still going on despite fewer people on the streets. Whether fewer people means fewer witnesses and emboldened men, we don’t know, but women have said they are more concerned about their safety when venturing out.  

We’ve got further to go in combatting sexism

With modern-day sexism it’s often hard to take a stand. We’re reminded ‘how far we’ve come’, told we’re being ‘snowflakes’ or accused as being part of the ‘woke’ crowd or piling on with #MeToo. But we should take a stand, if we want it to stop. Often we see that change is difficult and in many ways, there’s no real incentive for men (aka the Patriarchy) to change things, even though it doesn’t always serve them well either.

We’d love to hear your experiences, – to reassure each other that we’re in this together and share our ideas to deal with it.

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