double standard

[ duhb-uhl stan-derd ]

noun

1. any code or set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another, especially an unwritten code of sexual behavior permitting men more freedom than women. Compare single standard ( def 1 ).
2. Economics. bimetallism.

double standard

noun

1. a set of principles that allows greater freedom to one person or group than to another

Word History and Origins

Origin of double standard¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Idioms and Phrases

A set of principles establishing different provisions for one group than another; also, specifically, allowing men more sexual freedom than women. For example, She complained that her father had a double standard—her brothers were allowed to date, but she was not, even though she was older . [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

We should undo that double standard by offering similar protections to every young Black man who is arrested in this country.

From The Daily Beast

This double standard also seems to be rather flagrantly gender-based—grossly unfair to men and paternalistic toward women.

From The Daily Beast

As long as that double-standard persists, no algorithm can fix its injustice.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, this double standard is hardly only a problem for Jezebel.

From The Daily Beast

The double standard of sexualization is hypocritical at best and ineffectively vindictive at worse.

From The Daily Beast

But any such double standard, in which the two measures are absolutely incommensurable, leads straight to chaos.

From Project Gutenberg

Brussels just now is humorously a victim of the double standard—not moral, but financial.

From Project Gutenberg

The double standard furnishes many of these humorous interludes.

From Project Gutenberg

America is unique in the fact that although we have colonial possessions, we do not have a double standard of morality.

From Project Gutenberg

In a word, there is the double standard of morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman.

From Project Gutenberg