English

Verb

play the gender card

1. (idiomatic, often pejorative) To assert that sexism is involved in a situation, especially in order to exploit sexist or antisexist attitudes.
   • 2008 January 8, Steinem, Gloria, “Women Are Never Front-Runners”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:

     What worries me is that she is accused of “playing the gender card” when citing the old boys’ club, while he is seen as unifying by citing civil rights confrontations.

   • 2010, Fedorchek, Robert, The Translators: A Novel, Bloomington: iUniverse, ISBN 9781450249430, page 463:

     […] the CAS was going to lose two of its best teachers; tolerate a mediocre one who had skillfully played the gender card by hiding behind her pregnancy; and retain an ineffective one.

   • 2013 June 19, “Did someone play their gender card at you? Poor baby.”, in We, the Intelligentsia, …, retrieved 2014-04-07:

     How can you tell the difference between someone playing the gender card and someone actually calling out misogyny when you so obviously have no expertise on the matter?

Coordinate terms

• play the race card