Gender stereotypes are everywhere, we use them all the time without being aware of it. For instance, when someone think that women are less than men authoritarian, it’s a gender stereotype. Or if someone think that men are less good at cooking that men, it’s also a gender stereotype.
Before giving a definition of gender stereotypes, we will explain the difference between “sex” and “gender”. According to some authors, “sex” represents the biological distinction between men and women and according to WHO, “gender” refers to the characteristics of women and men that are socially determined, as opposed to sex that refers more to the characteristics that differentiate humans biologically. Now that we have explain the difference between “sex” and “gender”, we going to explain the concept of gender stereotype. Gender stereotypes are shared beliefs about the personal attributes of a human group, usually personality traits, but often also behaviors that are associated with a gender.
To explain the influences of gender stereotypes in our society, we will list some main stereotypes. There are two main gender stereotypes, masculine and feminine. For the masculine stereotype’s, we can identify characteristics like self-confidence, being confident, courageous, analytical, strong, competent, responsible, and ambitious. That was for the positive stereotype’s, negatives are aggression, impatience, selfishness, and authority. For the feminine stereotype’s, we can identify characteristics like patience, sweetness, being loving, affectionate, intuitive, imaginative, and sentimental. And for the negative stereotype we have inconstant, vulnerable, docile, submissive, and emotional. This list stereotype’s show that masculine stereotypes are more link with characteristics useful for the workplace contrary as feminine stereotypes who are useful for the kid education.
In the workplace, these two categories are link with an interpersonal judgment model “warmth and competence”. This model explains that there are two sides, dimensions in judgment that are whether the person is competent in his field and whether he is friendly, warm, or cold, hostile. This model is an example of the influences of gender stereotypes in our society.
Another example is the presence of gender stereotypes in field of sport. Some sports are categorized as masculine sport, feminine sport, or neutral sport. For masculine sports we can quote baseball, gymnastics, or dance for the feminine and tennis or swimming are neutral sports. In general, so-called male sports have characteristics that include physical contact, face-to-face opposition, strength, or aggression. While so-called feminine sports are associated with attributes that are expressive, grace or aesthetics.
However, we know that stereotypes do not always reflect reality: this is the case of the stereotype that describes women as less able to drive than men, while statistics show that women have fewer road accidents than men. A study shows, if a woman is faced with the threat of stereotype, she inhibits her performance in driving compared to women who don’t face with the threat of stereotype.
To conclude, gender stereotype exists, have effects with a lot of aspect of our life but they don’t reflect the reality all the time. If they are negative, we can avoid them.
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