It might be fair to say that dictionaries generally operate in a kind of stealth mode—we probably don’t think about them too often, they’re seldom added to anyone’s wish list, and if there’s a big one in your house, it’s likely used more often as a booster seat for toddlers at the dinner table than …
Continue reading In a word: Debbie Cameron on the role (and the power) of dictionaries
The wage gap isn’t the only way that women and people of color face discrimination in the workplace. Research demonstrates that the punishments they receive for infractions are more severe than the consequences for similar misdeeds committed by white men. Michele Gelfand, professor of cultural psychology, and Virginia Choi, doctoral student in social psychology, outline …
Continue reading “Tighter worlds”: Gelfand and Choi on disparate gender treatment in the workplace
Dear Sir. Or Madam. Or, y’know, whatever. Does it matter? For many people, it matters a lot. Ellen Barry, a London-based correspondent for the New York Times, filed this March 2019 report detailing a British newspaper’s controversy around the proper form of addressing letters to the editor. Lest you think that only the Brits would …
Continue reading Dear Sir or Madam: Ellen Barry on gender-specific forms of address
Siri. Alexa. It’s no coincidence that their voices carry easily identifiable traits of a young woman who is business-like yet eager to please. In this February 2019 essay from the NBC News blog Think, cultural historian Lynn Stuart Parramore argues that, as more and more companies introduce “she-bots” of their own, “Big Tech is wiring …
Continue reading To serve and satisfy: Lynn Stuart Parramore on sexist design of digital assistants
Men’s major league sports coaches are proven leaders, role models, iconic authority figures, sometimes even larger than life. And, up to now in the US, they’ve always been men, but that may be about to change. San Antonio Spurs (NBA) player Pau Gasol talks about that possibility in this May 2018 essay in the Players’ …
Continue reading Coach wears high heels: Pau Gasol on gender and the NBA
Every day, it seems, there is a new revelation of sexual misconduct by a public figure, and every day we’re less shocked, more sickened. What can we do? How can we move forward? These are not easy questions, but they need to be addressed. Author Kate Harding proposes some concrete steps in this November 2017 …
Continue reading Changing the culture: Kate Harding on accountability for sexual misconduct
Something must be wrong with my TV. The video of my football game is perfectly clear, but the announcer’s voice is too high-pitched. Oh. Wait. The announcer is a. . . . WOMAN?! Avid football fan and fantasy writer Claire Wallace responds to the historic milestone with shock and delight in this September 2017 Huffington …
Continue reading First and goal: Claire Wallace on a woman’s place in football broadcasting
If you follow professional tennis closely, you may get an impression that the men on the circuit are covered very differently from the women. It’s more than just an impression, though; there is empirical evidence to show just how large the disparity is. Harvard University economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan wrote this examination of the topic …
Continue reading Give us a twirl: Sendhil Mullainathan on sexism in sports journalism
It’s a time-honored strategy, and unfortunately, it works very well. Newsworthy women, from Hillary Clinton to Lady Gaga to Kellyanne Conway and beyond, are often publicly skewered not for their statements and ideas, but for their clothes, their hairstyles, and their bodies. Writer and law student Meredith Simons explores the harmful effects of such public …
Continue reading Ugly talk: Meredith Simons on sexist comments in the news
You’ve probably had the experience. There is something you care about so deeply that you can’t imagine how its importance wouldn’t be obvious to everyone else. And yet, when you talk about it, you see the ‘so what?’ cloud forming on the faces of your conversation partners. Sociology graduate student Chelsea Johnson had this experience …
Continue reading It’s natural: Chelsea Johnson on natural hair and the art of persuasion
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