men are the default, men are the default, women are the exception. women are the exception. By Amber Greefhorst By Amber Greefhorst I sometimes find myself wondering whether I am also the victim of this age-old sexist system. Women have grown up accepting the gender gaps to the point that I fail to even notice the inequality. In this article, I explore the different places where sexism impacts my life, sometimes without me being aware of it. And how the increase of female and female-presenting people represented, is a big step towards the well-needed change. introduction introduction For centuries there has been an ongoing battle against sexism and misogyny. Although women finally got the right to vote across several countries in the world during the 1900s, there are still a huge amount of changes to be made. A system that dates back to the tale of the first humans to roam this earth; Adam and Eve. the rotting roots of sexism the rotting roots of sexism According to the myth, Adam was made in God's flawless image to reign over and name all of God's creations. In contrast, Eve was made as an afterthought from Adam's rib to relieve Adam's loneliness and longing for a partner. The creation of Adam and Eve in the Bible establishes a distinct position for men and women; men were made as images of God himself to rule the realm, while women were produced from a worthless rib of a man to offer companionship to men. This story establishes gender roles dating back to the beginning of time. Women are defined by their relationship with men; referred to as mothers, daughters, sisters and wives instead of individual human beings. This allows men to view women as mere sub-type of men. Eve was made to be the representation of women. This story blames Eve for all things bad, this establishes a power dynamic that heavily shifts the power to be solely in the hands of men. This story has been told to millions of people, in churches, schools and by parents. It is Eve who falls into temptation and eats the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Her actions cause Adam and Eve to be banished from the Garden of Eden and Eve is told by god “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain, you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” the rotting roots of sexism the rotting roots of sexism Caroline Criado Perez, the author of the book Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, says that the world’s default is men and women are merely the exceptions. Women are seen as scaled-down men, a lesser form. Aristotle put it as mutilated males. The system that runs on the perception of ‘Male, Unless Otherwise’, erases or leaves out women and non-binary people of important data. Medicine is based on medical procedures for the anatomy of a white man, and with that more than half of the earth’s population is left out. In med school, most procedures are taught keeping the white male in mind. This leads to a lot of misdiagnosing in women and people of colour. Symptoms might show differently in a black woman than it does in a white man, however, this is often left out while teaching future doctors. Men are the default option and we grow up to accept that. male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. Besides obvious underrepresentation and inequality such as in politics and in medicine, let me name a few that you probably didn’t realize existed: Cars are designed to be safe for men. While testing the safety of cars, the testing dummies used are most likely to be male test dummies. When there are female testing dummies, there are just sized down male dummies, not taking into account other bodily differences between the sexes. To add onto that: female testing dummies are only tested in the passager seat. Women are 47% more likely to get into an accident and 17% more likely to die in an accident. Simply because car safety is based on the default male body. Leaving out millions of other people that drive cars that are unsafe for their anatomy. Did you know that there are no seatbelts designed for pregnant women? male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. It's a common occurrence that the line for the female bathrooms runs around the corner while the bathroom line for men is small to inexistent. This is despite that there are the same amount of toilets. That is equal, right? No, it is not. While designing bathrooms, even female bathrooms, the needs of female toilet users are rarely taken into account. Women on average take 2.3 times longer to go to the bathroom. This is because of several factors; menstruation, helping their child in the bathroom, pregnancy or urinary tract infections (which are 8 times more common in women than men.) That doesn’t include the higher statistics of female disabled people or the female elderly. All these factors cause women to take longer in bathrooms, yet they do not have enough bathrooms to keep up with a large number of toilet users. An equal number of bathrooms for men and women is unequal. Equality is not reached by equal numbers, but by taking into account the different experiences of people while making decisions regarding equality. Women need more bathrooms. male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. Women are never interviewed as experts but only to be given their opinion. They are not respected enough to be considered experts therefore it is only viewed as opinions instead of facts. Women are usually referred to as mothers in media even if that is irrelevant to the story. Voice recognition services are 70% more likely to recognize male voices. The first Siri that was launched was able to provide information on purchasing viagra and prostitutes but was unable to provide information on getting an abortion. Phones are designed for the male hand, which causes them to get bigger and bigger with every new design. The regulations around temperatures in offices, stores and other workplaces originate from a calculation made in the 60s that is based on the metabolic resting rate of a 40-year-old man weighing 70 kilos. Which causes the current temperature in workplaces to be five degrees too cold for the bodily functions of women. These Women only being 40-year-old women weighing ~70 kilos. With that not including people of different ages and weights. And while the unrepresented population battles to be heard, recognized and included. Men are praised for doing the bare minimum. Having one woman in an office of fifty men or a father ‘babysitting’ his own child. It has come to a point that guys are praised for NOT assaulting women. That is not supposed to be exceptional, that should be the norm. That is the bare minimum and men do not deserve to be praised for that. Men are not ‘helping’ their partner with household tasks, they are doing their part of the tasks as they should be doing. If you are praising your husband for cleaning up his dishes or doing his laundry, you are not his wife, you are his mother. You are mothering your husband and you are praising him for it. male, unless otherwise. male, unless otherwise. the man the man by Taylor Swift by Taylor Swift Taylor Swift's hit song ‘The Man’ which came out in 2019, named a series of female struggles in the business world. They'd say I hustled, Put in the work. They wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve. What I was wearing, If I was rude. Could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves? I'm so sick of running as fast as I can, Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man. a man is a boss, a woman is a bitch. a man is a boss, a woman is a bitch. Ambitious, hard-working, hustling women are questioned whether they really deserve their success. Women wearing dresses and skirts are objectified and seen as mere decorations in the office. Women wearing suits are ‘trying too hard’, unattractive and unqualified to represent the company. Men are praised for being assertive, aggressive and ambitious. When a man yells he is authoritative, when a woman yells she is a bitch. Women are told to ‘act male’ to be able to reach the success of their male competitors. However, when women display behaviour that is classified as ‘male behaviour’, they are only ridiculed. A woman can’t be successful if she is not the perfect poster child of what a working woman should look like. And all opinions are different about that, so can a woman ever be truly successful without being ridiculed or dismissed? Whatever a woman does, or who she is, she will always have to work harder than her male competitors to get to the same place. To bridge this gender gap, women need to be in the room. Women need to be present in important places and involved in decision-making. When women are in the room now, they are talked over, not taken seriously, and not called upon or harassed. Rarely is a woman viewed with the same respect as a man. Women are put in conference rooms and political debates, for the idea of including women without actually including women. what can we do? what can we do? When you think about the white male default, you should think about who else you are leaving out besides women. Think about people of colour, disabled people, immigrants, the elderly and the younger generation. You can’t make decisions about equality without having equal representation. So that is where we have to start.