tokenism

[toh-kuh-niz-uhm]

noun

1. the practice or policy of making no more than a token effort or gesture, as in offering opportunities to minorities equal to those of the majority.

2. any legislation, admissions policy, hiring practice, etc., that demonstrates only minimal compliance with rules, laws, or public pressure.

   Admitting one woman to the men's club was merely tokenism.

tokenism

/ ˈtəʊkəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. the practice of making only a token effort or doing no more than the minimum, esp in order to comply with a law

Other Word Forms

• tokenistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tokenism¹

First recorded in 1960–65; token + -ism

Example Sentences

In the run-up to this year's nominations, after it was confirmed Future Class would not return, alumni accused the scheme of tokenism and not doing enough to help them build contacts.

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But many have criticised the move as tokenism.

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For the Nigerian-born Catholic priest it just smacks of tokenism.

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Dr Yakubu said her appointment was not one of "tokenism" and she was not someone who could be "manipulated".

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Two years ago, Black artists at Long Beach Opera accused the company of racial tokenism and LBO canceled the production, which was to have featured HEX.

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