Sexism still has a bright future ahead of it.
According to the annual report of the High Council for Equality, published this Monday, it “continues”, and even worsens, particularly among young men.
A few days before the first National Day Against Sexism, Thursday, announced last year by President Emmanuel Macron, the independent body responsible for advising the government is calling for stereotypes to be regulated on the web.
According to a survey carried out in November 2023 for the HCE among a representative sample of 3,500 people aged 15 and over, nine out of ten women say they have personally experienced a sexist situation.
70% of women believe they have not received the same treatment as their brothers in family life and 38% have experienced unequal treatment at school.
Sexism “starts at home, continues at school and explodes online,” commented the president of the HCE, Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, to AFP.
The High Council for Equality between Women and Men publishes its 6th annual report on the state of #sexism in France.
It is urgent to tackle the 3 roots of sexism: family, school and digital.
➡️Read the report: https://t.co/e8JQyGElf2
Figures from the barometer… pic.twitter.com/tKI0Ohralg
— High Council for Equality (@HCEFh) January 22, 2024
Young people are sometimes more sexist than their elders.
Thus 28% of men aged 25-34 think that “men are better suited to be bosses”, much more than men in other age groups (9% of 50-64 year olds).
59% of 25-34 year olds think that it is “no longer possible to seduce a girl without being seen as sexist” and 52% that we “harsh on men”.
Stereotypes from childhood
“The more commitment to women is expressed in public debate, the more resistance is organized.
Masculinist reflexes and macho behaviors are taking root in particular among young adult men, while the assignment of women to the domestic sphere is regaining ground,” deplores the HCE.
Also read “Backlash” and “masculinist raids”… Feminism the target of serious attacks on social networks
The HCE is concerned about the #TradWife (traditional woman) and #StayAtHomeGirlfriend (stay-at-home girlfriend) trends on TikTok where videos show the daily life, in impeccable interiors, of young women without work and without children, devoted to their boyfriend.
For the HCE, stereotypes persist because the “virus of sexism” is “inoculated from a very young age in the three most powerful incubators in society: family, school and digital technology”.
For example, only 3% of the men surveyed received dolls in their childhood and 4% of women received toy cars.
“The school reproduces these patterns, with direct consequences on orientation: 74% of women have never considered a scientific or technical career,” says Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette.
“Regulating digital space”
“Pornographic videos broadcast misogynistic content of rare violence that two thirds of men aged 25-34 say they imitate in their sexual relationships,” she continues.
According to the HCE, sexual violence remains at an “alarming” level: 37% of women surveyed say they have experienced at least one “situation of non-consent” (and even half of 25-34 year olds).
“This makes the fight against sexism even more necessary and urgent.
We cannot fight against violence without attacking the roots of evil, otherwise it is the barrel of the Danaïdes,” affirms Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette.
The HCE recommends “regulating the digital space”.
It recommends forcing platforms by law to self-assess, under the aegis of Arcom, the degree of stereotypes and sexism in their most viewed content, following the model of television channels.
A proposal that the French bosses of Meta and Google had accepted in principle.
The HCE also recommends encouraging judges and citizens to take ownership of the offense of sexism, which exists in the texts, but which it recommends simplifying.
Several events will be organized on Thursday by feminists on the occasion of the first national sexism day: a “Sexisme TV show”, a parody of the television channel of the Ensemble contre le sexisme collective in particular, or a spot from the HCE to “make sexism a ancient history ".