There is a traditional concept of how men and women are expected to carry themselves about in society. These ideas or rules are clearly defined and they govern the way things are conducted in the social set up. it is more like a code that tells us what is expected of us and what ought not to be done. Gender roles refer to how we are expected to act, dress, speak, groom, and carry ourselves about based on our assigned sex. For instance, it is expected of girls to dress in a typical feminine manner and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men on the other hand are expected to be strong, bold, and aggressive. This gender role might be defined differently depending on the ethnicity or culture of a given society. The gender expectations vary from group to group. In some cases, these expectations can shift in the same society over time. For instance, a society that might consider cooking a woman’s job might with time start embracing men taking up the chore.
Gender roles are typically associated with gender stereotyping that affects people. Gender stereotyping can lead to unfair and unequal treatment due to someone’s gender (Biernat & Sesko, 2018) . It is an issue that has always raised concerns because it is evident in many societies. Even in modern times, some societies still don't acknowledge the fact that women can lead countries and states like men. They associate women with weakness and lack of strength and leadership skills. As such, they rarely vote for female candidates who vie for powerful political positions. This is a clear illustration of gender stereotyping. Evidently, it hinders diversity and inclusivity and curtails the overall progress of the society economically, socially, and politically.
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Descriptions or Definitions of Key Words and Terms
A stereotype is a judgment or bias that is popular among people even though it’s not always accurate. Gender stereotyping entails judging someone as capable of doing a particular thing or acting in a certain way based on their gender. This is a form of bias that leads to unfair treatment of people in relation to their gender. It is more like sexism. Sexism refers to discrimination or prejudice about someone's gender or sex (Biernat & Sesko, 2018) . It is considered to affect women more, though it can be used when referring to both genders. It is usually associated with a popular belief that one sex is generally superior to the other.
Hyperfemininity refers to a form of exaggerated stereotyping behavior that is believed to be feminine. It entails exaggerating feminine qualities like, sexually inexperienced, nurturing, being passive, and naïve. Hypermasculinity refers to exaggerated stereotype behavior believed to be masculine. People who exude this type of stereotyping believe they are meant to dominate over the feminine gender by being very aggressive, physically imposing, insensitive, and demanding.
Issues Faced
In some societies, there is a prevalence of sexism and gender stereotyping against women. Women and girls are often on the wrong end of patriarchy and male domination. Individual and collective practices work to oppress the female gender due to their sex. There are sexist concepts that define traditional gender roles for males and females. They view women as the weaker sex and less capable than men. Women are mostly associated with the domestic realm of nurturance and emotions (Ter Bogt et al., 2010) . This means that they are not deemed good leaders be it in politics, business or academics. As such most males tend to write off women and girls immediately due to the stereotyping that exists. They believe males are most suited naturally to carry out certain roles which is often not the case. This means reduced opportunities for women due to this belief.
An extreme case of this sexist ideology is misogyny. Societies that practice misogyny meet out brutal treatment to women. This may take different forms like rape, domestic violence, and treating women like property that can be owned and disposed of at any time. They are mostly mistreated because the popular belief in such societies is that women are second class citizens. They are even mistreated at an institutional level. For instance, a victim of rape might be told by the caught that her provocative dressing is what compelled the crime.
Men, on the other hand, experience gender-role stress that is mostly linked with body image attitude in males. Those men who have a traditional approach concerning men's roles set out to achieve some mesomorphic ideal that would enable them to meet the gender-role expectation of control and power. Those who fail in their attempt to achieve this are stressed and feel dissatisfied.
Human Sexuality Theory
The feminist theory. This particular theory examines the inequalities that exist in gender-related issues. It makes use of the conflict approach to address the maintenance of gender roles and inequalities. Radical feminism particularly focuses on the role of the family in fostering male dominance.
Patriarchal societies tend to dwell on men's contributions and deem them more valuable as compared to women's contributions. This means that women's opinions and ideologies are mostly silenced or marginalized and at times also considered invalid. The dominant gender ideology assumes that the physiological differences that exist between the two genders are related to their differences in behavior and character. Feminists set out to determine how this distinction tends to organize our institutions and lead to inequality between the genders.
According to this theory, women and girls need to be treated in a similar way to their male counterparts. Their opinions and contributions need to be valued irrespective of the significant physiological differences from the males. Feminist theory advocates for equal treatment for men and women.
One Study Selected from the Articles Provided
The study is titled ‘How Public Displays of Heterosexual Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes, Gender Differences, and Gender Inequality’. It was written by Elizabeth M. Morgan and Laurel R. Davis-Delano and published online on 2 nd April 2016. The study sets out to establish heterosexual markings that are related to gender stereotypes, gender differences, and gender inequality (Morgan & Davis-Delano, 2016) .
Heterosexuality is usually associate with dominant gender expectations. It is crucial in defining how people perceive masculinity and femininity. People who don't conform to dominant gender expectations are normally considered non-heterosexual. According to research, the fear of facing homophobic reactions usually compels people to conform to these dominant gender expectations. Men also face more pressure to conform to masculine expectations than women.
The study specifically focuses on gender-related aspects of heterosexual marking. It clearly shows the conceptual and theoretical aspects that define the relationship between gender and heterosexuality. The research used a feminist symbolic interactionist theoretical approach (Morgan & Davis-Delano, 2016) . It made use of an inductive approach by utilizing focus groups. These groups that are composed of heterosexual participants were necessary for establishing collective aspects in line with heterosexual marking. They also included sexual minorities in their study since they might have a greater awareness of some aspects of heterosexual marking.
The results of the study showed how different focus groups behave to establish their heterosexuality. It established the criteria people use to judge others as heterosexual and the overall reasons for marking (Morgan & Davis-Delano, 2016) . It establishes that most participants acknowledge the strong association between heterosexuality and gender conformity. It also establishes the gender differences in heterosexual marking as observed by the participants. Moreover, it shows how participants described heterosexual marking and how it reflects and reinforces gender inequality.
Conclusion
Gender roles and gender stereotyping are areas of concern in this modern age that people are tirelessly setting out to pursue new heights in all aspects of life. Gender roles need to be flexible and not rigid, this way all forms of bias and prejudice are eliminated. Each and everyone’s opinion needs to be respected and considered valuable. All this is aimed at fostering a society that promotes equity and inclusivity. A society where no gender is purportedly superior to the other. Future research needs to focus on the emerging stereotyping of males. There are growing cases of male stereotyping and there is a need to establish its impact on the overall progression of sex in society.
References
Biernat, M., & Sesko, A. K. (2018). Gender stereotypes and stereotyping. Oxford Scholarship Online . https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190658540.003.0008
Morgan, E. M., & Davis-Delano, L. R. (2016). How public displays of heterosexual identity reflect and reinforce gender stereotypes, gender differences, and gender inequality. Sex Roles , 75 (5-6), 257-271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0613-2
Ter Bogt, T. F., Engels, R. C., Bogers, S., & Kloosterman, M. (2010). "Shake it, baby, shake it": Media preferences, sexual attitudes and gender stereotypes among adolescents. Sex Roles , 63 (11-12), 844-859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9815-1
