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I think you've made an important distinction here. An action is sexist if it is a material discrimination against a person because of their gender. However, the
by reso 14y ago
I think you've made an important distinction here. An action is sexist if it is a material discrimination against a person because of their gender. However, there are emergent patterns in environments with large gender-asymmetries which cause one gender to have a very different experience than the other.
One man making an advance on a woman might be okay, but several making the same advance on the same day is going to become very uncomfortable. Do we call this sexist? No individual is making any action to cause discrimination, there are simply environmental factors that create an imbalance.
I think a lot of the issues surrounding women in tech are emergent from this asymmetry, and not strictly "sexism" as I have defined it above.
- ruthburr 14y agoHi guys, a lot of people have made the point that the behaviors that I'm calling out are not so much "sexist" as they are inappropriate, sexual and in general skewed toward women. I agree, "sexist" may not capture all of the shades of meaning I address in the post. Inappropriate captures it better. I'll jump in and update the post to say as much later today. Really appreciate your thoughtful responses.