GENDER STEREOTYPES

What is Gender Stereotypes?

Gender stereotyping refers to the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men.

Definition of Gender and Stereotypes

Gender

attitudes, feelings,  and behaviors that a given culture associates with a persons biological sex

Stereotypes: 

Belief about social group in terms of the traits or characteristics that they are believed to share, stereotypes are cognitive frame work that influences the processing of social information. 

Let’s talk about Gender Stereotypes.

Do gender stereotypes go too far? Does our gender identity dictate our roles, behavior and persona as we grow up? Is something generic expected out of us as children depending on whether we’re a boy or a girl?

Is it pink or blue? Barbie dolls or video games? Tennis or soccer?

The overall concept of gender as a whole is a construct but I am not going to delve deep into its binary and non-binary segments today. Even more so than gender, it is what we call masculine and feminine that root from these social and cultural constructs. What I mean by construct is that they can change overtime, they’re very varied, they are artificial and more importantly, they are human made and human bred. What we understand as masculine and feminine is not universal for all times or places and that’s where our matter of concern lies, that we’ve gone off base with the way that we talk about gender stereotypes starting from assigning a particular gender to planets, per se men are from Mars or women are from Venus or further letting them define how a man and a woman should behave, act or do? As men or women, is there a distinct boundary that one must stay enclosed inside in order to conform to the expected norms of gender roles? Why are our actions dictated by the expectations of external stimuluses other than our own?

From casual humor reeking of sexism such as “women cannot drive and men cannot wear make-up” to the way we talk, sit, stand, walk, dress, laugh, dance, EVERYTHING, I repeat EVERYTHING is aligned to a gender role.

It is not gender or it’s patterns that is the problem, it is the generalization of it. It is the compulsion that all men need to be a certain way and all women need to be a certain different way. Not only does this generalization deem problematic to the LGBTQ society but cisgenders as well. To be honest, it is masculinity and femininity themselves that defines each other no matter their individual expectations. Let not our subconscious mindsets turn someone’s harmless hobby or interest into a living nightmare.

It’s high time we let go of the shackles of taboos and stigmas and broaden our perspectives for a better tomorrow. Let us learn to unlearn.

EXAMPLES OF GENDER STEREOTYPES.

• Girls – Activities: drawing, dolls, singing, reading Colors: pink, purple, Professions: teacher, nurse, mother/home-maker
• Boys – Activities: trucks, Legos, math Colors: blue, green Professions: doctor, principal, firefighter
• Children - toys, playing, asking questions, recess, art class, friends

What is the role of family in gender stereotyping?

Parents' Role in Inculcation of Gender Stereotyping. Research studies show that parental behavior toward their children, either overt or covert, is the primary influence on gender role stereotyping development in early life. When parents consistently buy female-stereotyped toys such as dolls and tea sets for their daughters, or male-stereotyped toys such as trains and dinosaurs for their sons, they implicitly link their children's sex to gender roles. These roles are encouraged as the children play with the toys in different ways.

Gender Stereotypes in education?

Stereotype is fixed image or idea emotionally colored by prejudice or bias i.e., by steadfast evaluation. Educational stereotypes are behavioral, cognitive and affective criterions to which a teacher orient himself in his professional educational activities.

In educational terms, gender stereotypes are converted into pre-judgments and expectations about children and teenagers, according to dominant conceptions of men and women, which prevail over their own individuality and their human potentials: gender stereotypes lead us to avoid, restrict or make difficult.

CONCLUSION:

On the end of this chain reaction is gender inequality, because indirectly and directly gender inequality is a result of gender norms and stereotypes. For example, the reason for the wage gap, glass ceiling, and lack of women in political positions is a result of centuries and centuries of build up expectations and assumptions about men and women. The illustration above, similar to a previous cartoon, depicts a second assumption society makes; this cartoon gives the reader a reason to assume laziness and incompetence are correlated with females while hardworking is related with male. Just like the stereotypes mentioned previously, there is a great amount of them that circulate in societies, and will continue to until society itself ends them. To finally reach society’s goal of complete gender equity, we must end gender classification and categorization. We, as a society, must learn and educate the importance of characteristics and behaviors simply being human, not man-like and not female-like. Only when gender stereotypes and gender norms are put to rest can a society reach complete gender equality.

                                          ~WRITTEN BY,
                                                                                                    YASWANTH

                                                                    THANK YOU