What is misogyny?
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
By Krystal Jagoo
Misogyny is often conflated with sexism, or the hatred of and discrimination against women. It is a term often used to describe extreme acts of violence against women.
Words often evolve as culture shifts, though. That was the case in 2012 with Julia Gillard’s speech in Parliament while serving as the Prime Minister of Australia, when she called out the Leader of the Opposition’s behaviour as misogynistic.
Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary even expanded its definition of misogyny to refer to an entrenched prejudice against women following this event.
A 2015 study analysed 216 articles that were published in the Australian print media in the week following Gillard’s speech to explore how this accusation of misogyny was dismissed, minimized, and undermined, and found that ‘these predominant constructions not only serve to maintain and justify gender inequalities, but also function to reproduce and perpetuate them.’
As this incident and the subsequent research demonstr...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
