ABSTRACT
Sexism manifests itself in academia through the underrepresentation of females in STEM disciplines, overrepresentation of women in contingent faculty, and pay inequities. Conventional wisdom, especially in the often progressive world of higher education, holds that "sexism is bad." This chapter presents examples of sexism in the academy within our proposed taxonomy. It considers the importance of gender asymmetries. Surviving sexism in academia requires appreciating the wide variety of ways that sexism can be "bad." Sexism can take the form of acts, attitudes, and institutional structures. Benevolent sexism highlights the fact behavior can be sexist without seeing women in a negative light. The chapter discusses some ways in which "sexism is bad" in academia. The academy has procedures in place to deal with blatant cases of sexism. Men who violently assault women on campus, for example, would likely face legal action and termination of employment.
