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Sexism social psychology
Sexism social psychology
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9 Pauline Sears’ (1908-1993) accomplishments and long career in the field of psychology are worth considerable attention. She not only furthered knowledge in child development, motivation and learning but did so in the face of sexist institutions and traditions. From the beginning of her academic career she was asked to leave her undergraduate program at Stanford University for failing to maintain “ladylike” behaviour. Sears’ acquiesced, but displayed her tenacity by exploring other employment opportunities and later returning to finish her degree. Sears would be confronted with more hurdles as two different employment opportunities were lost due to anti-nepotism laws in her graduate school years. Yet, these setbacks did not derail her
Sexism is a highly talked about issue read about online, seen in the news, and experienced in the day to day lives of many. The importance of this issue can be found in many writings. Authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Linda Hasselstrom, and Judy Brady have all discussed the topic of sexism in writings and how they affected their lives. Although each writer addresses the issue of sexism, each author confronts a different type of sexism; the kind we are born into, the kind we learn growing up, and the kind that is accepted by society at the end of the day.
Women and men are not equal. Never have been, and it is hard to believe that they ever will be. Sexism permeates the lives of women from the day they are born. Women are either trying to fit into the “Act Like a Lady” box, they are actively resisting the same box, or sometimes both. The experience of fitting in the box and resisting the box can be observed in two plays: Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House”. In Hansberry’s play, initially, Beneatha seems uncontrolled and independent, but by the end she is controlled and dependent; whereas, in Ibsen’s play Nora seems controlled and dependent at the beginning of the play, but by the end she is independent and free.
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
The Psychological World of Shirley Jackson Although Shirley Jackson had many psychological problems, she contributed greatly to society through her works. Shirley Jackson was a profound and ambivalent writer. She did not write to please the world, but she wrote to convey how she felt about society in the world. Her psychological problems did have an affect on her writing and it greatly connected with her life. Shirley Jackson was a very unwelcome writer in her time, and that is because many readers did not want to believe that what she wrote was true.
Basow, Susan A. Gender: Stereotypes and Roles. Third ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Pub., 1992. Print.
Mary Cover Jones was born on September 1, 1896 and died at the age of 91 in 1987 (Krasner, 1988). For many years, Jones was a typical housewife and mother. Yet, she wanted more. She wanted a career in the field of psychology. Just as everyone else, Jones struggled throughout her life to become the psychologist that she really wanted to be. She failed at attending specific colleges and seminars. However, she was not one to give up and finally ended up attending Vassar and Columbia University to obtain her degree in psychology. “Throughout her career Mary was quite involved in the child development/education field as parent/teacher/researcher/author” (Krasner, 1988, p. 91). Though she played many roles within the psychology field during her lifetime, Mary Cover Jones played more of a role within the field of developmental psychology rather than behavior therapy (Logan, 1980). Mary Cover Jones played a very important role in the world of psychology from day one by doing work within the direct area of children (the elimination of fear, self-conceptions and motivations of boys and self-conceptions and motivations girls).
... history, it is proven that gender changes along with social, political, and cultural change. Despite all, many women continue to face other kinds of discrimination. Women continue to experience sexism, the idea of traditional gender roles. Women are still thought to be more involved in taking care of their children and the household. Women often face unconscious stereotypes in the workplace as well. In some cases, women have a less change of obtaining better, and higher paying jobs. Women often don’t get promoted to higher positions in office, despite their qualifications and experiences. Female candidates running for public office experience forms of sexism as well. The variations and adaptions of society are evidence that reinforce the idea that gender is formed under social construction rather than the essence from biology alone.
(4) Gilligan. C, (1982). In a different voice, psychological theory and women's development. Harward University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Her childhood left her feeling lonely and hostile but she channeled it into something positive, which in turn became legendary. Despite the odds that were against her for simple being a woman, she made major contributions to psychology. She did not accept the norms of Sigmund Freud and challenged many of his notions. She paved the way for many psychologists, especially females or those who wanted to work in feminine psychology. Our reasoning for choosing Karen Horney was due to the fact that we are young women trying to break into the field of psychology as well. We were inspired by her bold effort to oppose Sigmund Freud despite his prestige position in the psychology community and the possible public ridicule that would surface against her. She is one of the very few women psychologists still mentioned today, which gained our respect immediately. However, we believed that she does not get the recognition she deserves, which is why we wanted to introduce her to the class. As we go through our psychology books, she is mentioned in very pages and the authors usually sum up her contributions in a paragraph or two. If we were able to write about Karen Horney and her legacy in psychology in over ten pages, why can’t they? It was a pleasure to research her contributions to psychology and we hope to have covered them in their
“Sexism is an oppression that is hard to avoid, as it is difficult to rid ourselves of the social institutions of gender that we have been taught at a very young age (“Sexism in Society”).”
“ Even though I taught my daughter the opposite, she still came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.” (Tan 92)
Shields, S. 1975. Functionalism, Darwinism, and the psychology of women. American Psychologist, 30(7) (1935-990X), pp. 739-754. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.hope.ac.uk/ehost/detail?sid=3fc226ef-3f32-4b57-9f0c-89acb4bcade1%40sessionmgr111&vid=4&hid=4101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=pdh&AN=1975-29522-001 [Accessed: 10th Jan 2014].
Both sexism and racism are violent and influence women significantly in their lives. All people from immigrants to natively born citizens of different backgrounds can feel the full effects of sexism and discrimination (Gregory Par. 2). Living the life as a woman has dramatically improved; however, they don’t nearly have the amount of equality that they deserve. Women are constantly surrounded by misogynistic mindsets on a daily basis that undermine a women’s intelligence; they are constrained to ideal body types; they are the automatic perpetrators of victim acts; women work hard, but in comparison to men, the reward is void. Actually, it was found that people are more likely to appreciate a girl’s cuteness and boy’s achievements, and this is exactly the kind of sexist impression that needs to be gone. Women go through multifarious unfortunate
In this essay I am looking at where Psychology as a discipline has come from and what affects these early ideas have had on psychology today, Psychology as a whole has stemmed from a number of different areas of study from Physics to Biology,
Gender-neutral parenting is a method for raising children, used by parents who have a passion to teach non-sexism and social justice to their children (Dumas 2014). It is rooted in a desire to maintain a child’s individuality and offer more outlets for self-exploration. For example, parents do not restrict their child, regardless of a boy or girl, to wear pink or blue, play with Barbie dolls or fire engines. Parents allow their child to freely explore what they are passionate about without attaching any labels. The concept of raising children with gender-neutral identities is considered feminist and extremely radical. Butler (1990) argues that gender is performative, arguing that the naturalness of gender is something that we do rather than something we are. Parents have the most influence on the gendering of children during infancy, foremost in handling expectations for behavior. They are also responsible for their own behavior as it related to the treatment of