Sexism- the most feared and discussed word in society, but where does it come from and what actually is sexism? Sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination that is based on sex and it is mostly directed towards women. Sexism can take on various forms and might not even be realized as such. Education and business are the most common places for sexism. In education women were disadvantaged from higher education and if they were admitted to study in university, they were encouraged to study less intellectual subjects, like language. Even today are girls treated differently in the classroom than boys. Boys still receive more attention and praise from their teachers.  It is also still common that women get paid less money at work than men, who do the same work, and there are still fields of work where it is favored not to have women work there, like in the military. Even though women are accepted into the U.S. army, they are not allowed to take part in active ground combat.
Take soccer as another example. It is the most successful sport in Europe and clearly dominated by men, even though the women’s team is far more successful than the men’s team.  Last year the international championship in soccer took place in Germany, but none of the media reported as much about it as when they do about the men’s championship. And no one is joyful or proud if the German team becomes the champion. It is the contrary they even make fun of them.
Sport in general is a man’s world. They are mostly the ones who watch it and they highly identify with their idols. They are happy with them, they suffer with them and are truly desperate if any of their idols loose. Now suddenly there are women who threaten this domain of masculinity. Women seem to be more successful in sports, even though they should be inferior to men when it comes to strength and stamina.
Even though there are clearly a lot of successful women’s sport teams, men just do not want to acknowledge these teams. They declare women’s sport as no sport at all. It’s an extreme form of sexism that no one wants to talk about. In business people demand to have a women’s quota and are highly alarmed when sexism in business becomes public, but there is not a single person who feels as highly offended by sexism in sports as they do in business or other related areas. But why is that the case? And why is there such strong sexism in sports against women?