{"id":53245,"date":"2020-07-16T13:53:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=53245"},"modified":"2020-07-16T13:53:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:53:58","slug":"how-women-react-to-sexism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-women-react-to-sexism\/","title":{"rendered":"How women react to sexism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Every day, women are subjected to sexist remarks and behaviors: sexist harassment in the public space, sexist remarks at work, unwanted sexual invitations … No area is spared, no place.\u00a0Launched in 2017 to collect testimonials from students, doctoral students and young researchers, the\u00a0\u201cPaye ta fac\u201d site<\/a>\u00a0had shown that the academic world was no exception.<\/p>\n

Faced with these attacks, women put in place strategies.\u00a0They can, for example, choose to react hot and tell their interlocutor that their words or behaviors are inappropriate in order to directly oppose sexism.<\/p>\n

However, studies show that\u00a0this reaction is not<\/a>\u00a0the most common remedy.<\/p>\n

We will try to understand why by studying what happens between the moment when a man makes sexist remarks towards a woman and that when this one reacts.<\/p>\n

Situation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For this, we observed and analyzed real interactions between a woman and a man, our accomplice.\u00a0The task to be performed during the interaction was as follows: selecting candidates to participate in a survival test on a desert island.<\/p>\n

The participant and the accomplice were seated opposite each other and had cards showing the main characteristics of the people to be selected.<\/p>\n

During the interaction, while looking at his cards, the accomplice made three sexist remarks linked to traditional gender roles.\u00a0The first affirms that women are responsible for the domestic sphere while the following two reflect a vision of women as a sexual object.<\/p>\n

During the interaction, the two people were filmed by a device of small cameras located on the table.<\/p>\n

At the end of the conversation, the participant was taken to a separate office to answer a questionnaire.\u00a0In the questionnaire, we asked participants to remember three moments from the experience and to answer questions.\u00a0The questionnaire allowed us to measure the emotions, the perception of sexism and the reasons why each participant had reacted in this way.\u00a0Finally, the participant was thanked for her participation and we explained the real objectives of the study as well as the complicity of the other participant.<\/p>\n

Reactions to the three sexist remarks were categorized from the videos as a confrontation reaction, defined as a verbal expression of dissatisfaction or disagreement with the sexist remark, or as a non-confrontation reaction.\u00a0In addition, FaceReader software analyzed facial expression to measure the intensity of emotions such as fear or anger over time.<\/p>\n

Feeling angry<\/strong><\/h4>\n

How did our participants react?\u00a0The majority of participants did not oppose sexist comments.\u00a0But behind this apparent indifference hid a wide variety of possible reactions that were not always easily classifiable between opposition and non-opposition.<\/p>\n

Indeed, among the reactions that we considered as reactions of opposition, many were indirect and only a minority directly denounced the sexist nature of the subject.<\/p>\n

In addition, among the participants who did not verbally oppose sexist comments, a majority of them showed signs of disagreement, hesitation or embarrassment.\u00a0For example, the participant nodded or said, with a convinced air: “yes, it can be interesting”.<\/p>\n

This interpretation is in agreement with several observations: first of all, all the participants detected the sexist nature of the remarks in the same way, whatever the expression of their face.\u00a0Then they reported the same subjective feeling of anger.\u00a0Finally, they attached just as much importance to their image: whether or not they opposed sexism, the participants wanted just as much to show a positive image of themselves, not to be perceived as complainers and not enter into conflict with their interlocutor.<\/p>\n

However, there are several differences between the two groups of participants.\u00a0First, the women who opposed sexist comments expressed slightly more anger on their faces.\u00a0Then, they gave more importance to the benefits linked to the confrontation, that is to say the will to get a message across, to make it clear that the subject is sexist, to help improve the condition of women, to mark disagree and put an end to the offensive behavior.<\/p>\n