Feminism vs Sexism

Sexism vs Feminism

Feminism

Feminism: (definition by the Riveters)
The movement organised around the belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.

Discrimination

There are two main types of discrimination that are faced by women:

1) Direct discrimination - where someone is treated differently because of their characteristics, e.g. being a woman. For example, if a lecturer said you couldn't wear trousers to do a presentation where you had to be 'dressed smartly' that would mean a woman had to wear a skirt or a dress. That is direct discrimination.

2) Indirect discrimination - where an event, service etc is more accessible for use by one group of people than another. For example, if you were a single parent who wanted to be a course rep but all the meetings happen in the evening when you have to take care of your children. That is indirect discrimination.

Some discrimination against women occurs because of biological differences between men and women. For example, a breast-feeding woman might need more breaks during a long meeting than a man. To not allow those breaks would disadvantage that woman. Because work and education places have been dominated by men, a culture of sexism still exists.

Scary Statistics

• The Gender Equality Duty was introduced in 2007. This requires public authorities, including Universities, to promote gender equality and eliminate sex discrimination.
• The foreign office gets 250 reports of forced marriage a year
• Women make up less than 20% of MPs and ethnic minority women make up just 0.3% of MPs.
• A home office report from 2002 found domestic violence to have a higher rate of repeat victimisation than any other crime.
• Women working full-time are paid on average 17% less than men (or 36% less if they work part-time)
• Two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner
• On average, a woman is assaulted 35 times before her first call to the police (Jaffe, 1982)
• 74% of men would report a dog being beaten to the RSPCA or Police, but 53% would report domestic violence to the police.
• 96% of executive directors of the UK's top 100 companies are men.
• Domestic Violence accounts for nearly a quarter of all recorded violent crime in England and Wales - one in four women will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime.
• 167 women are raped everyday in the UK.
• 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of female genital mutilation in England and Wales.
• More than 60 million women are 'missing' from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
• At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
• The Russian government estimates that 14,000 women were killed by their partners or relatives in 1999, yet the country still has no law specifically addressing domestic violence.
• The number of women in jail has more than doubled over the past 10 years ? because the courts are getting harsher, not because women are committing more crime.
• Up to 70% of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
• Out of every 100 rape cases reported to the police, just six end in the rapist being caught and punished.
• One incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute

Contact the Women's Officer: womens@umsu.manchester.ac.uk or 0161 275 2939