The ‘War On Women’ is on its way to becoming the most feared title in the English language.
The title has become synonymous with the campaign to remove the word ‘bitch’ from the dictionary.
And now, for the first time, a survey has found that many women have a different take on what the word means.
According to a survey by the Oxford English Dictionary, many women in the UK believe the word is sexist.
A majority of respondents, 57 per cent, said they did not think that the word refers to a woman.
But when it comes to its use in the workplace, the majority, 59 per cent think it does.
More: How to fight ‘War’ on women This survey shows a different story.
Just 42 per cent of women said they do not think the word applies to a female workplace.
However, women who think the term is sexist do tend to use it to describe female employees who are not equal to their male colleagues.
For example, 54 per cent said they would use the term ‘woman’ if it were referring to someone who is female.
This is in stark contrast to men who think that a female employee is the same as a man.
When it comes the gender wage gap, the women’s response was far less clear.
Only 33 per cent thought it was sexist to say that a woman earns less than a man, compared to 67 per cent who thought it meant that a man earned more.
There was no statistically significant difference between men and women in saying that it meant a man made more than a woman, or that a person of colour made less than someone of white race.
Women’s views on the meaning of ‘bastard’ are even more diverse.
When it came to calling a woman a bastard, 60 per cent saw the word as sexist, compared with only 41 per cent saying they did.
Another major issue is what it means to be a woman in a sexist society.
Men’s use of the word “bastards” to describe women, on the other hand, is far more common than women’s.
Of the 4,000 women who took part in the survey, 62 per cent found the word sexist.
But this is down from a high of 74 per cent in 2013.
That’s a difference of 2.6 per cent.
In 2015, when the term “bitch” was in its last year of usage, only 17 per cent used it in the way they do now.
Yet women continue to be under attack from a sexist culture in Britain.
“We’ve got this idea that women are not good enough and we need to be taught a different set of values,” said Dr Alissa Whelan, professor of sociology at the University of London.
She added that the term has come under heavy attack in recent years and is often used as a weapon to attack women.
Dr Whelian said the word has been misused as a political tool to attack those who disagree with feminism.
So what is ‘basty’?
“The word ‘Bastard’, or the word for a man who has not achieved the same success as a woman who is the wife of a successful businessman, is one of the most popular and most widely used terms in our society.”
It’s a sexist term that refers to people who are less than women.
“In the last few years, that has become so widespread, and people have started using it to defend their beliefs about women, or to attack the woman who disagrees with them.”‘
War’OnWomensWords’ is available on the Oxford Online dictionary’s website.
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