In 2012 Bates started a simple website, linked here Everyday Sexism, where people could share their experiences of everyday sexism. Very quickly, responses poured in and this book is the culmination of three years of responses, 100, 000 entries. 100, 000 instances of sexism. There is also a Twitter account @EverydaySexism.
Each chapter begins with a few statistics relevant to the topic at hand and then proceeds to the testimonies and entries from the website. The chapters cover:
- Silenced Women: The Invisible Problem
- Women in Politics
- Girls
- Young Women Learning
- Women in Public Spaces
- Women in the Media
- Women in the Workplace
- Motherhood
- Double Discrimination
- What about the Men?
- Women Under Threat
- People Standing Up
This is not an easy book to read. The eye-opening, heart-breaking, appalling experiences are only tempered by feelings of comfort knowing that someone (many people in fact) are there to listen, relief in knowing that you are not alone, and a sense of hope and optimism that things will improve.
I thought this quote summed up the goal of the project nicely: "Tackling sexism is no more about suggesting that all men are sexist than fighting homophobia means accusing every straight person of it. Nor is it about suggesting that all women are victims. Rather it is about giving a voice to victims who have never been heard before because their oppression has become so normalized as to be accepted" (Bates 334).
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