Sexism and racism, both are based on discrimination and prejudice. Racism defines as “any policy, belief, attitude, action or inaction, which subordinates or groups based on their race” (Wolf & Guin, p.2). Moreover, sexism defines as “that system by which women are kept subordinate to men” (Pharr, p.8). Both of them have a similarity which is based on discrimination and has to cause lots of pain for a huge number of people. To compare them, although racism has a history which is filled by horrible events, sexism’s effects increase while the globalization process. In the undeveloped country, the perception of men superiority goes on, and their customs and laws support this idea, because of that the rate of violence against women is still in high level. Some religious understandings or interpretations have an impact on this situation.
In undeveloped countries, sexism is more common due to the fact that women are treated like second class people. This situation is legitimized by beliefs, social norms, social institution, customary and formal law (Cohen, p.261). In addition, making a normative change is very difficult because society is structured itself according to this way of life. The toughness of the change can be seen in an example of a migrant family. After migration, the woman starts to adopt modern life, her clothes, behavior, and speech have changed but her husband dislikes these changes; as a result, the violence against woman increases, unfortunately. Today, the cultural exchange which is a part of the modernization causes the violence against women. In contrast, the condition of women in the developed country is likely to men (Cohen, p.266). This illustrates that sexism applies very harsh especially in undeveloped and developing countries.
Another underlying factor of sexism is religion. Glick, Lameiras, and Castro claim that “traditional religions often justify gender inequality” (as cited in Burn& Busso, p.1). Religious understanding of the place of women in society depends on how people interpret the scriptures or how people attach importance to religion in their individual life. However, many customs have a religious side; so especially in more conservative societies, gender role has an impact on religion. From Adam and Eve, there is always a distinction between genders. Furthermore, the language which is used in holy books is male-dominated. This kind of things create a discriminated perception between genders, generally, some sexist ideas occur, such as “man is superior to woman”. Man’s superiority can be seen in Islam and Muslim country; also it can be seen how the religion shapes the gender roles. Islamic law (Sheriah) or interpretations of religious people, pave the way for sexism by stimulating honor killing. For instance, in Pakistan religious people (mollah) are very effective in society, and this determines the women’s place in society. According to UNIFEM Violence Against Women: Facts and Figures report, every year, due to honor killing, more than one thousand women killed by their relative. Despite this horrible situation, there is not a dissuasive law (as cited in Cohen, p.263). It can be clearly seen that women’s lives are not as important as men’s, and this understanding has come from religious interpretations.
Violence is one of the similarities between racism and sexism. When we discuss that sexism or racism harm society more, actually we discuss which one has caused more violence. When racism is thought, the history has the horrible event which is caused by racism. Slavery which is based on racism is the one of the biggest shame of the world. Many slaves died during transportation and they pushed to work under harsh condition. Racism also caused the Civil War in America. Especially in Latin America, it was so bloody. In that sense, racism also harmed society too much. However, when we look at the today’s world, the balance has changed; racism is losing its effect day by day. On the other hand, sexism’s effect goes on without losing acceleration. According to Northern California Citizenship Project’s U.S. Voting Rights Timeline (2004), in 1868, black male started to count as citizenship and they could vote; however, in 1872, women started to vote (including white women). This shows racism loses its effect before sexism does. Another example is, Barack Obama is the first black president of the USA, but there is no woman president. Hence, the USA overcame racism problem but not sexism yet.
To conclude, racism and sexism are different types of discrimination. Racism is based on racist discrimination; sexism is men dominance over women. When we look at the history, it is obvious, racism caused more suffer such as slavery or civil war. But nowadays, it is losing its importance. On the other side, sexism has persistent impacts. Especially in undeveloped and developing country, because of conservative lifestyle and patriarchal society, women are subjected to violence, so sexism became a very significant problem. Another driving force of sexism is religion, many religions create discrimination between genders. As a result, sexism’s effects can feel nowadays’ society more than racism.
References
Burn, S. M.,Busso, J.(n.d.). Ambivalent Sexism, Scriptural Literalism, and Religiosity. Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/124123/ambivalent-sexism-scriptural-literalism-and-religiosity.pdf.
Cohen, M.F. (2006). The Condition of Women in Developing and Developed Countries. The Independent Review, 261-274.
Northern California Citizenship Project (2004). U.S. Voting Rights Timeline. Retrieved from: http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf.
Pharr, S. (1997) Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism. California: Chardon Press.
Wolf, R., Le Guin, C. (n.d.). Race and Racism. Retrieved from: http://www.pcc.edu/resources/illumination/documents/race-and-racism-curriculum.pdf.
(25.07.2013)
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