Sexism and gender based violence (GBV) are present in almost every aspect of young people’s lives today — from the movies we watch, the inadequate and often religiously influenced sex education, to the normalisation of sexist attitudes and harassment — be it in the workplace, schools, in clubs, on the streets or in our homes.
Many young people are increasingly being politicised over issues of oppression and instinctively understand the complex and reinforcing ways it is experienced by different people: for example, working class women who are also Black and/or gay and/or trans.
This sharpened consciousness includes a refusal to accept any form of violence, discrimination, or forced conformity — whether that be to specific dress codes, behaviours, limitations on sexuality, and/or gender expression. This radicalisation is happening amongst young people in the context of increased political polarisation globally. Alongside the climate, issues of sexism, from harassment to femicide, have been key motivators to the struggle of young people in recent years.
Harassment in School and Work
The global figures on the rates of GBV experienced by students alone are damning of how deep rooted this issue really is. A national survey found that annually, 1 in 3 Australian students experience sexual assault on campus (2022), and a survey done in the UK found that over half of all UK students in 2019 experienced sexual harassment (with female students being the most likely to experience such behaviour, and male students the most likely to perpetrate it).
The same trend is evident within the workplace. The reality of poor financial support for working-class students means many are forced to take on part time work alongside their studies, often on very precarious and exploitative terms. This creates a power dynamic, as many feel trapped or unable to challenge sexist or LGBTQ+ phobic behaviour within the workplace for fear of any repercussion, including losing their job. One national study of high school students in the U.S. found 2 in 3 girls and 1 in 3 boys reported being sexually harassed at work (2019). The majority did not report the incident for fear of being fired or not believed.
Economic Crisis Accentuates Oppression
Young people are also disproportionately impacted by the economic crisis. A report by think tank Demos found that young people in the UK and Ireland are spending more than twice as much, on average, as older people (51+) on essentials like rent or mortgage and bills (2021).
This fits with the overall global trend, and also coincides with a horrifying increase in GBV reported to be experienced by young people, as economic crises have devastating consequences in terms of exacerbating GBV generally. The United Nations reported in a survey on GBV that 15 million adolescent girls worldwide, aged 15–19 years, experienced rape or sexual assault in 2021 alone, whilst the WHO found that 1 in 4 young women (aged 15–24 years) who have been in a relationship will have already experienced violence by an intimate partner by the time they reach their mid-twenties.
Rejection of Gender Norms
Young people specifically are affected by GBV and sexism in a multitude of ways. Sexist attitudes are taught and reinforced to us from an incredibly early age. We have seen recently with the events in Iran how sexist dress codes are used as a way to police women’s bodies in the most extreme cases, with women being arrested and beaten daily for how they are dressed. This is a very clear example of how deep-seated sexism is clearly interlinked with state violence, which in turn breeds GBV and femicide.
But sexist dress codes in schools are another way in which young people are conditioned into a certain way of thinking. Dress codes, it is claimed, exist to ensure male students (and even teachers!) aren’t distracted by female students’ bodies! This not only exposes how women’s bodies are sexualized and objectified from the get-go, but also normalises dangerous sexist attitudes surrounding gender binary norms — such as ‘boys will be boys’ and slut shaming, which in turn breeds victim blaming. It has been inspiring to see school students in Ireland, Britain, the US and Australia walk out and organize in protest against their schools sexist, racist or transphobic dress codes.
Social Media Shamelessly Profits from Sexism
Younger generations are now also having to navigate a world where social media massively influences young people’s lived experiences, the way we think, and how we interact with one another. Suppressed internal research carried out by Facebook in 2019 found that their algorithms were harmful for a large proportion of users, but particularly young girls.
One leaked slide stated, ‘teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,’ because the different aspects of social media platforms exacerbate one another to create a perfect storm. This includes the pressure to share only the best moments, to look a certain way, the constant bombardment of unrealistic beauty standards and ads, which unsurprisingly have contributed to depression, low self-esteem and even eating disorders among young people globally.
Capitalism at the Root
The ever-increasing examples of violence, aggression, and sexist oppression — felt especially by young working-class women and LGBTQ people — is proof that this system cannot provide a safe and secure life for the majority. Part of the very reason violence against women and gender non-conforming people is so prevalent in our society is because sexism is a key pillar to the capitalist system and is necessary for the maintenance of the status quo.
Rigid gender roles emerged alongside the nuclear family as class society developed, an integral part of consolidating a system of inequality and control. The unpaid domestic and care work done predominantly by women is vital for the reproduction of a working class required to generate profits for the capitalists. Gender roles that define women as naturally caring serve as ideological justification for free domestic labour as well paying low wages for the female dominated healthcare, education and social sectors.
Like other forms of oppression, capitalism uses sexism as a tool to divide working class people and undermine the basis for united class struggle. Nowhere is this clearer than the emergence of a virulently misogynistic far-right across the world, that go all out to whip up sexist ideas that normalise violence and abuse — all while launching attacks on the rights and gains of women and LGBTQ+ people.
Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran in Revolt
If the present period shows us anything it is that young people are being pushed to move into struggle and will fight back rather than accept further abuse and exploitation. The whole world continues to look to Iran and the ongoing revolt sparked there after 22-year-old Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini was brutally murdered by the ‘morality police.’ Her murder resonated with so many in Iran, but it is young women (with the average age of the arrested protesters being 15) who are leading the revolt — chanting ‘woman, life, freedom.’ The regime is purposely targeting young girls by going into schools and using brutal tactics of repression such as rape and murder, in an attempt to break the backbone of the movement.
ROSA and the ISA have called international solidarity protests with Iran in over 30 different countries, and pointed to the fact that already the events in Iran have had a global impact, with young women rising up in Afghanistan against the repressive Taliban regime, and over 20 student solidarity walk outs happening across North America and Europe.
Socialist Feminism to Unite the Exploited and Oppressed
The significance of international developments was also demonstrated by the global solidarity protests with the U.S. after the overturning of Roe-v Wade this year. The last decade has heralded a new period of feminist struggles, beginning with the Slutwalks of 2011 in Canada, #MeToo, to the ‘Ni Una Menos’ movements in Latin America — these are all examples which have put the idea that ‘the whole system is guilty’ at the forefront, but also young women and LGBTQ+ people.
Rosa and ISA support and are part of these movements, helping them to build wherever we can. But we need to go further. Socialist feminism offers a vision of the transformed society we need, and helps us to build the type of movement that’s necessary to achieve this: an active, international movement that unites working-class people of all genders in solidarity and struggle against oppression and exploitation and for an end to this rotten capitalist system.
