workingclasshistory:

On this day, 18 November 1965, the term “sexism” was probably coined by Pauline M. Leet during a “Student-Faculty Forum” at Franklin and Marshall College. Specifically, the word sexism appears in Leet’s forum contribution “Women and the Undergraduate”, and she defines it by comparing it to racism, stating: “When you argue … that since fewer women write good poetry this justifies their total exclusion, you are taking a position analogous to that of the racist—I might call you in this case a “sexist” … Both the racist and the sexist are acting as if all that has happened had never happened, and both of them are making decisions and coming to conclusions about someone’s value by referring to factors which are in both cases irrelevant.“
Pictured: women in India demonstrate against sexual violence https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1267576233427524/?type=3