Sexism at IIM Bangalore

Abstract

Educational institutes have been recognized as breeding grounds for sexism in all its forms starting from casual banter to deep structural biases and abuse. Everyday prejudice, sexual stereotyping and interpersonal discrimination triggered by gender roles are extremely commonplace and usually met with a silent acceptance legitimizing such behavior as ‘normal’. While this deep-rooted behavior and attitude needs change, it cannot be ignored that not every such instance is a product of consciousness, but some are driven by mere social conditioning and lack of awareness of what is unacceptable versus not from a gendered perspective. This stresses the need to raise awareness about the ways one might be unknowingly perpetrating the issue, the possible physical and psychological implications of such behavior and the means to call out and challenge sexism. Also, for many, an educational institute makes up for their first few set of interactions outside family making it a foundation for their belief systems and ideologies for life ahead. Hence, challenging such behavior early on is only expected to have positive spillovers for the society at large.