Based upon the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, according to which language influences thought, we may affirm how social stereotypes remain bound by stereotyped usages of language. Hence, speaking is never neutral as it is underpinned by a way of thinking, of communicating, of being. The sexist usage of language encapsulates a function of emphasis at the semantic level and an obscuring function in morphological terms. We thus question what sexism in language means in order to inquire as to how the ways we make use of language may influence our ways of thinking and, consequently, our ways of acting.

The aim of the study was to examine how the manipulation of information about hypothetical presidential candidates infl uenced youth’ attitudes towards them. The experiment was conducted on 929 subjects (454 women and 475 men), who were either pupils in their fi nal year of secondary school or university students, aged 18–25. The amount of information about politicians was manipulated (politicians’ gender, political affi liation, moral and competence traits (positive or negative), political programme characteristics). The results showed that (1) the own-group favoritism effect was observed only among female participants, (2) female presidential candidate was evaluated better than male presidential candidate in conditions of positive information, yet, when negative information about candidates was provided, female presidential candidate was evaluated worse than male presidential candidate.

The problem of gender imbalance in Polish science is a clear and widely documented fact confirmed by numerous scientific studies. The gender imbalance affects both women and men depending on scientific disciplines and the level of scientific careers. The sources of this situation, leading to morally unacceptable exclusion of certain demographic groups and the underutilisation of society's full intellectual potential, are both 1) cultural and social aspects and the associated prejudice and discrimination, and 2) institutional aspects, including, inter alia, low and unequal salaries and the widespread use of anachronistic models of assessing scientific excellence that exclude non-traditional career paths and ways of conducting scientific research. In order to broaden the public dialogue on the gender imbalance in science in Poland, on 10.02.2023, the Polish Young Academy of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), together with the National Science Centre, the Office of Science Promotion of the PolSCA PAS in Brussels and the Research Centre for Women's Participation in Public Space of the UAM in partnership with the L'Oreal Foundation, organised a conference entitled “Research excellence has no gender”. The event, attended by representatives and authorities of many organisations of the scientific community in Poland, inaugurated a long-term programme under the name “Research excellence has no gender”. The event aimed to draw attention to the existing disparities in science and the need to develop and introduce changes to reduce these disparities.