Introduction
Gender stereotypes refer to the various ideas the society has about the traits and capabilities of the men and women and how they need to behave with respect to their gender. On the other hand, this is the overgeneralization of characters, attributes, and differences of a particular group based on their gender. Therefore, if a woman or man acts in a different way from what is expected by the society, then they are seen as violating the norm. For example, confident women are called “whores” or “bitches” while men viewed or act less masculine are known as “sissies.” Genders have always been separate, distinguished and stereotyped by their roles in society, some of which are detrimental to those specific genders. These gender specific roles have led to various conflicts in the modern world such as stereotypes, superiority and the feeling of owning the opposite sex.
Traditionally, a female’s stereotypic role is to get married and produce children. Still, she has to put the needs of her family before hers without any complaints. On the other hand, the role of males according to stereotypes is to be the financial provider of the household. Also, he should be assertive, courageous, independent, authoritative, competitive and always in charge of sex (Cuddy, et.al, 2015) . Such stereotypic behavior is learned from one's family and in some cases the community. Other socializing agents such as teachers, parents, peers, religious leaders and the media are also responsible for stereotyping.
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Stereotypes are very common in races, gender and even with appearance but that doesn’t mean that everyone is alike. The whole issue of discriminating against each other depends on how a person views the issues leading to stereotyping in the first place. This practice can only be associated to close minded individuals who think of themselves as being superior besides trying to see the good in diversity because the world is made of diverse people, cultures among other characteristics. Therefore, one cannot claim that all men are chauvinistic and controlling for example, as this is not right. In fact, some men support their wives in their decisions to get further education, get better jobs among other things.
Similarly, the appearance of an individual does not determine his or her behavior as believed in stereotyping. In the US, research states that the police tend to view the blacks as criminals thereby consider black persons carrying a bag, standing alone or doing other things as generally contemplating a crime. In reality, however, the blacks are very peaceful people whose color leads to ill-treatment. Nevertheless, such act of discrimination has been condemned by not only the black society but also the whites who feel that such practices are unfair and a violation of human rights.
Because of gender roles, some people feel like they are superior to the opposite sex. The notion applies to the case of many versus women .Gender roles have defined the male to be an energetic, hardworking individual whereas they have defined the women as weak, dependent and less intelligent. For this reason, it is understandable when men refuse to be under the leadership of a woman because even if they have the highest credentials needed for a particular purpose, the males still view them as not intelligent enough. For example, most men find it difficult to vote for a female leader for the opinion that she cannot achieve what a man in the same position can do ( Dolan, 2014).
Marriage, one of the most cherished things in life also has problems in regards to gender roles, one of them being the possessive feeling of another human being. For instance, men feel that they have the right to control the women and this can be blamed on the society. Since ancient times, men have been regarded as the heads of the family, and they take this notion of treating their wives like children. For this reason, the men expect the women to follow their commands despite them not being reasonable or fair to the woman.
For those men brought up in male chauvinistic families and communities, it becomes very difficult for them to treat the women with respect and dignity.
That is why we have many cases of domestic violence which mostly involve the men beating their wives and in some cases, killing them (Cuddy, et.al, 2015) . Furthermore, such men do not value their feelings of their wives when it comes to such matters as conjugal rights. In case the woman refuses, then the man either rapes him or tells his family and friends, an act which is not only shameful to the woman but also affects their self-esteem and decreases their commitment to the marriage.
On the same, some husbands believe that the work of the wife is to stay at home to take care of the children as well as manage the household. In the last few decades, women empowerment has increased hence most of them have gone to school ( Dolan, 2014). The problem arises when the men refuse their wives to seek employment on the pretext that it is the work of the man to provide for their family. This has affected many marriages resulting to two aftermaths. The first response to such behaviors from the men is divorce while the second is frustrated housewives. To sum up, gender stereotyping is very dangerous because it is likely to lead to unfair or unequal treatment of individuals who are viewed as defying gender roles.
References
Cuddy, A. J., Wolf, E. B., Glick, P., Crotty, S., Chong, J., & Norton, M. I. (2015). Men as cultural ideals: Cultural values moderate gender stereotype content. Journal of personality and social psychology , 109 (4), 622-635.
Dolan, K. (2014). Gender stereotypes, candidate evaluations, and voting for women candidates: What really matters? Political Research Quarterly , 67 (1), 96-107.
