What does 'structural sexism' mean exactly?

[MMMarmite]

I used this phrase today and then realised I only have a very vague idea of what it means. Google is being unusually unhelpful. Could anyone give a definition? What's the difference between 'structural sexism' and other types of sexism?

It's not a term I use so it may have some specific definition I'm not aware of, but I'd say it means sex inequality as it is enshrined in the very structure of societies, in the economy, in law, in knowledge production, in the culture etc such that it is commonly perceived as 'natural'. The more something is 'structural' the less it's generally perceived as political.

Thanks prolesworth, that's interesting.

In my place of work, there are certain things you need for promotion, which require travel. I can't travel as I am breastfeeding ds, for example, so I can't apply for promotion yet.

Conferences are on weekends, seminars are in the evenings. This means it is hard to do the things where you network, and get your face/name known, ec, if you have small children and no support (like me as Dh works away, or when I was a single parent).

So, the way things are organised means that it is hard for people caring for small children (usually women) to progress in the same way as people without caring responsibilities (usually men). There is probably no reason why those two groups should fall along sex lines, apart from breastfeeding, but they do.

That is how I understand structural sexism anyway. It doesn't need to be like that, but sexism is built into the structures of organisations, and society more generally.

ps in what context did you use the phrase, and how did you understand it?

Yes - what summerflower said. It's something inbuilt within a system which is not necessarily intended to exclude women but which does anyway because whoever thought up the system hasn't thought through what barriers might stop women from attending.

Same with structural racism, structural homophobia etc. It's basically something which aims itself at the "default group", not necessarily intending to exclude the marginalised group but which happens to do so anyway. So for example, the breastfeeding support service in our local area is structurally racist because there are only English-speaking supporters, and a lot of the Asian community near here don't speak English well enough to access that support. It doesn't intend to be racist and indeed the service is open to anybody who wishes to access it, but it necessarily excludes non-English speakers because the only volunteers they have are English speaking ones.

Thanks everyone, that makes sense.

Summerflower - I originally thought it meant something like 'sexism on a big scale' - so even if you're only looking at a small situation you need to take into account the whole large-scale sexism of society.

like institutionalised racism , an accusation leveld at the police after the stephen laurence case, structural sexsim could be termed institutionalised sexism, people being sexist without even realising it,even women agaisnt other women.

ever heard the story about the boy who needs an operation because he and his father had a car accident?
the father dies in the car crash but the surgeon says "i cannot operate on this child because of medical ethics, he is my son"

whats the relationship between the surgeon and the boy?