Meaning of tokenism in English

tokenism

disapproving

/ˈtəʊ.kən.ɪ.zəm/ us

/ˈtoʊ.kən.ɪ.zəm/

something that a person or organization does that seems to support or help a group of people who are treated unfairly in society, such as giving a member of that group an important or public position, but which is not meant to make changes that would help that group of people in a lasting way:

She avoided accusations of tokenism by appointing several women to prominent positions in the party.

The use of gay supporting characters in Hollywood films has been criticised as mere tokenism.

The government talks tough about improving the diet of schoolchildren, but the measures taken smack of tokenism.

Related words

token adjective

tokenistic disapproving

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Community groups feel that the consultation smacks of tokenism and lip service, and say that they have contributed ideas only to have decisions made that ignore them.
There’s a lot of tokenism involved that only serves to make the people implementing the policies feel better about themselves.
These sorts of social engagement don’t need to be a form of feel-good tokenism whereby the privileged make a few charitable gestures before moving on with their lives.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Unfairness and favouring someone unfairly

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Affected & insincere

(Definition of tokenism from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

tokenism | Business English

tokenism

noun [ U ]

disapproving

/ˈtəʊkənɪzəm/ us

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the fact of doing something only to show that you are following rules or doing what is expected or seen to be fair, and not because you really believe it is the right thing to do:

We were accused of tokenism when we appointed the first woman to our management board.

Of course we should revise our recruitment policies, but we should guard against tokenism.

(Definition of tokenism from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of tokenism

tokenism

If one ignores the problems of patronisation, selection and tokenism, their case for the co-operative involvement of subjects in research into them is strong.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The ills of cursoriness and tokenism are difficult to avoid in a couple of pages.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To respond to unmet needs, the official strategy is to settle for tokenism.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This has produced tokenism and a refusal to engage with the structures that might shape an enlightened understanding of race.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Similarly, the considerable variety of songs included would be problematic, and lead to accusations of tokenism, if followed in other places.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She is the only woman minister, so is it tokenism?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Another example of tokenism related to some agencies accepting engagement with a small proportion of a community as achieving the community involvement aim.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Cook (2002: 516) describes consultation as:'a crucial, yet deeply problematic issue' dogged with criticisms of tokenism and unrepresentativeness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What has to be avoided is merely funding political correctness and tokenism.

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