Sexism is a misleading word, since it has little to do with “sex”: Sexism is when somebody is devalued simply because of their gender. People western European culture traditionally categorize into two genders: Men and women. The word “sexism” comes from the word “sex”, used to describe “gender”. Specifically, it means that some men in our society discriminate women (and girls), just because they are women. The word is derived from “racism”, which means prejudice or hate towards other people, because they have a different background or skin color.
People who have a sexist attitude think that men should have power over women. They want women (or girls) to be subordinate to men (or boys), because they believe females are worth less.
Sexism also assigns women (and men) fixed roles that are “typically female” and “typically male”. It ignores how diverse and different people really are. Nowadays, it is also considered sexism to expect or demand other people to embody such stereotypical gender roles.