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63% IITians ignore casual sexism: Study

The survey was conducted by Insight, an in-house publication by the students to delve deeper into the issue of casual sexism in the institute with a sample size of 730 students on the campus.

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As many as 63% students who are aware about the issue of Casual Sexism at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay(IIT-B), chose to ignore it and trivialised it as a non issue, a recent survey has revealed.

The survey was conducted by Insight, an in-house publication by the students to delve deeper into the issue of casual sexism in the institute with a sample size of 730 students on the campus. As per the findings, 57% students acknowledged the use of sexist language as a major instance of casual sexism on campus. Some of the words with sexist undertones that students are found using on the campus included 'hariyali' (refering to abundance of females), 'Bandi quota' (quota meant for female students) etc.

The study was conducted in the backdrop of a post by Maitreyee Shukla, a first year MPhil student which raised the issue of casual sexism in the institute and triggered a conversation on the issue a few days ago.

A total of 56% students acknowledged the presence of sexual objectification in the institute with women and people from the queer community being targeted. While acknowledging the assertion of traditional gender roles, several women from the institute shared their experiences, For instance, a girl who made it through a course in design was asked if she would be taking up 'fashion design' assuming that there wont be any other role for her in the male dominated area of design.

As students were given a situation wherein a male and a female student with the same caliber apply for placements, 13.03 students (on a scale of 12-15 with 15 being least gender neutral) thought that the girl would get the job because of her gender. "For an institute that has merely 10% female students, sexism is a norm rather than being an exception"remarked a female PhD scholar at the institute.

31% of the total respondents said that they have seen or experienced homophobia on campus while 29% students said that they have witnessed expressions of abnormality for LGBTQ students.

  • Sexual objectification: 55.8%
  • Second Class citizenship: 28.3%
  • Assumption of inferiority: 41.5%
  • Use of Sexist language: 57.3%
  • Assumption of gender roles: 49.4%
  • Homophobia: 31%

Technically, a gender divide

  • A hearty 57% of the surveyed students acknowledged the use of sexist language as a major instance of sexism
  • A total of 56% students acknowledged the presence of sexual objectification on campus
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