Page 209 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Detrimental Impact of Gender Microaggressions 183

3. Societal/cultural intervention—If we are all products of our cultural
conditioning, then drastic societal change is required to overcome sexism—
the individual and institutional expressions of the superiority of men over
women. Our male-centered culture communicates these beliefs, attitudes,
and behaviors through education, the mass media, institutions, and signifi -
cant others.
• Social policy and legislation must be passed to rectify discriminatory
practices and to foster and promote equal access and opportunity for
women. As indicated in this chapter, one of the most disappointing out-
comes of the Equal Rights Amendment was its failure to pass. All legal
avenues must be utilized to strengthen or develop rules and regulations
that open the gateway for women.
• In many respects, we are the products of a flawed culture and our focus

has been primarily directed at remediation. All the suggestions given
under individual, institutional, and societal changes imply an attempt to
rectify a biased system. But were that our only goal, our work would be
never-ending. Prevention offers the best solution to the problem. None
of us were born into this world desiring to be “sexist.” We took on preju-
dices and biases through a process of cultural conditioning. The question
becomes one of how we create a culture that already values the con-
tributions of all genders and which imbues within everyone bias-free
worldviews. Education becomes one of the key channels to promote
this social justice outlet. It is here in the pre-K–12 system of education
that we can reach everyone. If our education was truly multicultural,
we would go a long way in developing healthy children whose outlooks
would be of positive gender roles and relationships. How we do that is
a major challenge.
In closing, little doubt exists that sexism continues to harm girls and
women in our society. The question is not whether these gender microag-
gressions are exaggerations or not, but “How can we as a society allow
such injustices to continue against women, who are our mothers, wives,
partners, lovers, daughters, and sisters?”

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