Dr. Konrad Szocik, assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences, published a text titled “Proxy failure in social policies as one of the main causes of persistent sexism and racism” in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
The text shows the importance of adopting an appropriate criterion and verification tool for social policies. With regard to the text in question, these are policies aimed at combating sexism and racism. Their criterion is usually the number of women and non-white representatives in the power structures. As Szocik shows, increasing the number of representatives of these marginalized groups in power structures does not change the global situation of these groups as such. With regard to women, the problem is sexism rooted in the individual, causing women to be viewed through the lens of their reproductive biology, a service role to men, often playing a secondary role. Despite the increased representation of women in power structures, women are still at risk of harassment, which has perhaps increased in online culture. The solution to the problem is therefore not in the number of representatives in power structures. The analogy is with racism, which still persists at all levels. The problem is the ideology of white supremacy and white privilege, the global effect of which is the racialized nature of violence, poverty or bearing the consequences of climate change. Szocik’s article concludes that representation of women, non-whites and all others traditionally marginalized in power structures should be increased for a variety of reasons, but it should also be kept in mind that these policies reduce neither sexism nor racism.
The journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, published by Cambridge University Press, has an Impact Factor of 29.3 (for 2022). In the Web of Science database, the journal ranks high in the following disciplines: BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES – 1/52, NEUROSCIENCES – 3/272, PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL – 1/14.
