Abstract: English proverbs are the essence of the English language, which can reflect some social and cultural phenomena. The present thesis studies the phenomena of sexism of English society by examining English proverbs. After analyzing English proverbs, the author probes into the phenomena of sexism in these proverbs from two aspects—negligence and belittlement of women, which can be further divided into  nine points, such as social status, wisdom, character, and so forth. Afterwards, the present thesis also investigates the causes of sexism from three different aspects: cultural, historical and social factors, revealing the sex bias against women in order to help English learners improve awareness of distinguishing sexism and better understand cultural connotations of English proverbs. The author reaches the conclusions that there are many expressions about sexism existing in the English proverbs, clarifying the phenomena of sexism being ubiquitous and with the progress of social civilization, people gradually start to avoid using derogatory English proverbs and positively create proverbs with respects and compliments to women.

Key words: English proverbs; sexism; causes

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction.1

2. Literature Review2

3. Sexism in English Proverbs.3

  3.1 Negligence of Women

  3.2 Belittlement of Women

4. Causes of Sexism in English Proverbs 11

  4.1 Cultural Factors

  4.2 Historical Elements

  4.3 Social Causes

5. Conclusion ..13

Bibliography14

Acknowledgements.15