Sexism isn’t always loud or overt. It isn’t always a man harassing a woman on the street or a boss denying a female employee equal pay. Less noticeably, sexism takes form in actions small enough to ignore.
It takes form in women in the workplace who are called “sweetie.” It takes form in “girl” being an insult if you run like one or throw like one. It takes form in the countless everyday comments, assumptions and behaviors that collectively reinforce ideas that lessen the capability and achievements of women.
What makes this subtle type of sexism particularly difficult is how easy these microaggressions are to dismiss. When women point out the sexism underwritten in their daily lives, they’re often written off as dramatic and overreacting. Shifting the focus from the behavior itself and burdening women to tolerate it. We at The Tower recognize that sexism being less straightforward doesn’t make it less damaging. As these subtle biases and comments are tolerated, they become normalized in our society and have long-term effects on the women and girls in it.
A girl who is repeatedly told “boys are better at math” may start doubting her own abilities, while a young woman who hears her career ideas dismissed may hesitate to assert herself in those professional spaces. The once thoughtless comments left by a teacher or classmate manifest themselves into lost confidence, ambition and ultimately female representation in many STEM fields. Research shows that confidence gaps between boys and girls in subjects like math and science begin to form at a young age, leaving a lasting impact. According to the National Science Foundation, in 2023, women made up nearly half of the overall U.S. workforce but only about 28 percent of workers in science and engineering fields.
However, even as our society progresses and women take up more spaces in the careers they were once a rarity in, they aren’t always welcomed. The Women in the Workplace report found that 78 percent of women report experiencing microaggressions at work, including comments that question their competence or authority. It also found that women are more than twice as likely as men to be interrupted during discussions and about 1.5 times as likely to have their work credited to someone else.
The damage in this normalized type of sexism also lies in compliance. Beyond being the one to make a comment, being the one to sit and laugh at one isn’t much different, as demonstrated by the recent controversy surrounding the USA Men’s Hockey Team. Following their Olympic gold medal win, President Donald Trump invited the team to the White House and added that he would “have to” invite the gold-medal-winning women’s team as well. To this, many in the room laughed. Many people write this off as a joke. Yet, it is still one joke among countless others in a society where many of the things women do are turned into one. Jokes like it may seem harmless, to make or to laugh at, but we at The Tower recognize how they reinforce the idea that women’s interests and achievements are inherently less serious or valuable than men’s.
In many ways, addressing the normalized sexism in our society is as simple as awareness. Listening when someone points out a harmful comment, reflecting on the way we speak, considering the jokes that we laugh at. Uprooting the sexism embedded so deeply in our culture isn’t simple or entirely realistic, but we at The Tower believe that it can start when the quiet parts of it that often go unnoticed are acknowledged and corrected.
