BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another. Extreme sexism may foster sexual harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Gender discrimination may encompass sexism, and is discrimination toward people based on their gender identity or their gender or sex differences. Gender discrimination is especially defined in terms of workplace inequality. It may arise from social or cultural customs and norms.

the term “sexism” was most likely coined on November 18, 1965, 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 in part “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.” Also, according to Shapiro, the first time the term “sexism” appeared in print was in Caroline Bird’s speech “On Being Born Female”, which was published on November 15, 1968, in Vital Speeches of the Day. In this speech she said in part: “There is recognition abroad that we are in many ways a sexist country. Sexism is judging people by their sex when sex doesn’t matter. Sexism is intended to rhyme with racism.” Sexism may be defined as an ideology based on the belief that one sex is superior to another. It is discrimination, prejudice, or stereotyping based on gender, and is most often expressed toward women and girls.

Sociology has examined sexism as manifesting at both the individual and the institutional level. According to Richard Schaefer, sexism is perpetuated by all major social institutions. Sociologists describe parallels among other ideological systems of oppression such as racism, which also operates at both the individual and institutional level. Early female sociologists Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ida B. Wells, and Harriet Martineau described systems of gender inequality, but did not use the term sexism, which was coined later. Sociologists who adopted the functionalist paradigm, e.g. Talcott Parsons, understood gender inequality as the natural outcome of a dimorphic model of gender. Psychologists Mary Crawford and Rhoda Unger define sexism as prejudice held by individuals that encompasses “negative attitudes and values about women as a group.” Peter Glick and Susan Fiske coined the term ambivalent sexism to describe how stereotypes about women can be both positive and negative, and that individuals compartmentalize the stereotypes they hold into hostile sexism or benevolent sexism.

Feminist author bell hooks defines sexism as a system of oppression that results in disadvantages for women. Feminist philosopher Marilyn Frye defines sexism as an “attitudinal-conceptual-cognitive-orientational complex” of male supremacy, male chauvinism, and misogyny. Philosopher Kate Manne defines sexism as one branch of a patriarchal order. In her definition, sexism rationalizes and justifies patriarchal norms, in contrast with misogyny, the branch which polices and enforces patriarchal norms. Manne says that sexism often attempts to make patriarchal social arrangements seem natural, good, or inevitable so that there appears to be no reason to resist them.

Habits are the secret sauce to a healthy life – or the recipe for an unhealthy one, depending on what’s in question. Habits are tricky little creatures in that they’re easy to build when they immediately reward us, but feel near impossible to start when the benefits aren’t instantly obvious. 

Nearly everyone has a bad habit that needs breaking. Sometimes these habits are relatively harmless (say, biting your nails) but others, when broken, stand to greatly improve your quality of life.

1.Understand the difference between your good habits and bad habits

In exact definition, a habit is a repetitive action or behavior, a routine. The difference between a good habit and a bad habit is whether or not it enhances or diminishes your life. A good habit promotes a healthy goal that betters your life. A bad habit leads you further and further from your goals and what you want out of life.

To distinguish between a good habit or a bad habit, ask yourself the question, “If I do this every day for the next ten years, what will my life look like?”

2. Anticipate your distractions

Get your notebook, think about a habit you’re trying to form, and write down everything you can think of—screwing around on Twitter, suddenly making a lasagna, brushing the dog—that might block your ability to participate. Please also make a list of the people in your life who may be too partylicious to be around while you give up drinking, too pessimistic to hang out with while you do your part to help end world hunger, too chatty to talk with while you quit gossiping—and make a point to limit your time with them.

3. Choose what you want to change

The first step in building a good, healthy habit is choosing what you want to change. Considering your goals for your physical and mental health or your personal values is a great place to start. What habit, if done every day, will bring you closer to your desired outcomes?

4. Write it down (in all caps)

Write down the habit you’re going to work on in a notebook. Once you focus on and embody it, it’ll become just a part of who you are, and nothing special. And then, because we’re all creatures in a constant state of transformation, you’ll shift your attention to some newer, fresher habit, and you’ll have the confidence, know-how, and tools to make it yours as well.

5. Mark each day that you show up

You know what’s immediately satisfying? Tracking your habits. While you may not see the actual results of the actions you take every day, you will see how many days you’ve stayed on course with the new habit, which is a huge accomplishment in itself. Each time you successfully participate in your habit—walk three miles, say not one snarky thing to your mother—mark that day on a calendar.

6. Reward and celebrate your success as you go

Building a new practice or a new routine takes time and patience, so don’t forget to reward your success! When you remember to practice your habit, congratulate yourself by adding in a little something nice for yourself as a reward.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

The Reserve Bank of India is likely to soon kick off pilot projects to assess the viability of using digital currency to make wholesale and retail payments to help calibrate its strategy for introducing a full-scale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

India is already a leader in digital payments, but cash remains dominant for small-value transactions, he said, stressing that an official digital currency would reduce the cost of currency management while enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.

“Every idea has to wait for its time, perhaps the time for a CBDC is here,” RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said on Thursday. “Like other central banks, we have also been exploring the pros and cons of this since quite some time,” he added. A high-level inter-ministerial committee set up by the Finance Ministry had recommended the introduction of a CBDC with changes in the legal framework including the RBI Act, which currently empowers the RBI to regulate issuance of bank notes.

Transacting with CBDC would be an instantaneous process as the need for inter-bank settlement would disappear as it would be a central bank liability handed over from one person to another, Mr. Sankar pointed out. Moreover, foreign trade transactions could be speeded up between countries adopting a CBDC. “India’s fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio holds out another benefit of CBDC — to the extent large cash usage can be replaced by CBDC, the cost of printing, transporting and storing paper currency can be substantially reduced,” Mr. Sankar said at a discussion hosted by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. CBDC will be India’s sovereign currency in an electronic form.

According to the RBI deputy Governor, since CBDC is a currency that does not pay interest, its impact on bank deposits may “actually” be limited.“Depositors that require CBDCs for transactional purposes are likely to sweep day end balances to interest-earning deposit accounts,” he said.

However, he said that CBDC is not comparable to the private virtual currencies that have mushroomed over the last decade. He said, “Private virtual currencies sit at substantial odds to the historical concept of money. They are not commodities or claims on commodities as they have no intrinsic value; some claims that they are akin to gold clearly seem opportunistic.”

Complements fiat currency?

Sajai Singh, Partner at J Sagar Associates, said, “RBI is moving in the right direction with regard to digital currencies. Any RBI backed digital currency will come with a promise of less volatility and greater security for the bearer of the same. This will be very different from cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are rather popular, but carry innumerable risks. Also, RBI’s support to a digital currency will ensure its financial stability. It will be similar to say a potential digital Euro and digital Yuan.”

FaTE of crypto’s

According to Patel, CBDC’s might have a negligible direct impact on private digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Matic, Doge, etc. These private cryptocurrencies are based on ‘decentralization’. “The sovereign digital currencies are in stark contrast to decentralization, as the central banks govern and control them. However, as and when CBDCs start gaining more adoption, people would get to learn more about private cryptocurrencies as well. It would indirectly act as a catalyst to creating awareness of the practical usage of cryptocurrencies. That is when the crypto markets would start getting increased retail participation as well,” he told FE Online.