Genderism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A belief that gender is rigid, usually a belief that it is binary, comprising male and female, and that the aspects of a person's gender are inherently linked to their sex at birth. uncountable, usually
"Genderism is the ideology that there are, and should be, only two genders and that all or most aspects of one's gender are inevitably tied to the gender assigned at birth. Genderism reinforces negative attitudes toward gender nonconformity,[…]"
- 2 Belief that one gender is superior; discrimination on the basis of gender. (Compare sexism.) countable, uncountable
"He [Keat] points out that attacks on sexism in philosophy are often tacitly genderist, for example in denying the claim that men are more rational than women, one is likely to be accepting the claim that rationality (which is commonly regarded as the male alternative) is superior to its alternative. […] An attack on genderism in philosophy would of course involve a much more radical re-assessment of the history of […]"
- 3 Opposition to traditional gender roles; belief that gender exists separate from sex; "gender ideology"; a variously-defined catch-all for things like transgender rights and feminism to which antigenderism is opposed. countable, derogatory, uncountable
"[pages 108-109:] Virtually all networks and platforms mobilizing against more pluralistic and non-heteronormative (and less biologistic), sexual education at schools systematically equal gender with "genderism", that is with "gender ideology". [page 183:] [...] in Poland examples of women made famous by their opposition to "genderism" include [...]"
- 4 A gendered or gender-stereotyped behaviour, activity or statement. countable
"Cross-cultural studies of sex-differences, sex roles, and genderisms have long been recognized as a method of identifying women in traditional roles."
Example
More examples"Genderism is the ideology that there are, and should be, only two genders and that all or most aspects of one's gender are inevitably tied to the gender assigned at birth. Genderism reinforces negative attitudes toward gender nonconformity,[…]"
Etymology
From gender + -ism.
More for "genderism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.