Stereotypes and Gender

Roles
“Global/Cultural Context”

Submitted By- Tanya

Course- B.A.(Hons) Applied Psychology, Sem-4
Enrollment Number- A7406920016
Submitted To- Prof. (Dr) Pragyan Dangwal
 Many of our gender stereotypes are strong because we emphasize
gender so much in culture (Bigler & Liben, 2007)

Gender roles refer to the role or behaviors learned by a person as appropriate to their gender and are
determined by the dominant cultural norms.

Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or three and can label
others’ gender and sort objects into gender categories.

When children do not conform to the appropriate gender role for their culture, they may face negative
sanctions such as being criticized, bullied, marginalized or rejected by their peers.

By the time we are adults, our gender roles are a stable part of our personalities, and we usually hold many
gender stereotypes.
The Multiple Dimensions of Gender Stereotypes: A Current Look
at Men’s and Women’s Characterizations of Others and
Themselves

• Both male and female raters rated men and women equally high on instrumental
competence.

• Gender stereotypes were also evident in self-characterizations, with female raters

rating themselves as less agentic than male raters and male raters rating themselves as
less communal than female raters, although there were exceptions (no differences in
instrumental competence, independence, and sociability self-ratings for men and
women).

• Comparisons of self-ratings and ratings of men and women in general indicated that
women tended to characterize themselves in more stereotypic terms – as less assertive
and less competent in leadership – than they characterized others in their gender
 The first hurdle: Stereotyped expectations

Gender stereotypes cast men as more agentic (e.g., competent, ambitious, assertive, and
competitive) and women as more communal (e.g., supportive, caring, warm, and emotional)
compared to members of the other sex.

These associations represent well-established, cross-culturally consistent gender stereotypes.

Social role theory posits that gender stereotypes stem from men's traditional role as the
primary breadwinner and women's as homemakers (Eagly, 1987; Eagly, Wood, & Diekman,
2000).

Gender stereotypes show considerable inertia—for example, people still view agency as
relatively masculine and more desirable for men than for women, who are still held to
communal ideals.
 Gender-related Development

• Gender stereotypes are the beliefs that people have about the characteristics of males
and females. The content of stereotypes varies over cultures and over time. These
expectations are often related to the roles that the sexes fulfill in the culture.

• Children learn some aspects of stereotypes at a very young age. By the age of 2–3-years,
children show evidence of having some rudimentary knowledge of the activities and
objects associated with each sex.

• During the elementary school years, gender stereotypes broaden to include sports,
school subjects, and personality traits. With age, children become increasingly
knowledgeable about gender stereotypes and yet the rigidity of their stereotypes
declines as they increasingly recognize the cultural relativity of these norms.

• Some evidence suggests that boys hold more rigid gender stereotypes than girls and are
held to more rigid ideals than girls.
In adolescence, flexibility in stereotypes fluctuates in
response to two opposing forces—increasing cognitive
flexibility tends to increase adolescents' flexibility in
applying stereotypes whereas increasing pressure to
conform to stereotypes in preparation for sexual roles
and adult status increases adherence to stereotypes.

Children use gender stereotypes to make inferences

about others at a young age. When making judgments
of other people, children and adults will apply their
gender stereotypic expectations to them.

Even more than adults, children will rely on a

person's sex to make judgments and they are less
likely to consider other relevant information about the
person than adults are.
Culture influences thinking, language and human behaviour. The social environment, in
which individuals are born and live, shapes their attitudinal, emotional and behavioural
reactions and the perceptions about what is happening around.

The same ap plies in the case of assigned/assumed roles in society based on gender.
Cultural dimensions that reflect differences in gender roles, but also elements related to
the ethics of sexual difference were highlighted by many researchers.

The presentation of these issues from the interdisciplinary perspective is the subject of this
article. Briefly, the article refers to: importance of communication in transmission of roles
of those two sexes, cultural dimensions that reflect role differences in various cultures,
discrimination issues and ethics of sexual difference
 How Culture Shapes Gender
Stereotypes
Three studies demonstrate how culture shapes the contents of gender stereotypes, such that
men are perceived as possessing more of whatever traits are culturally valued.
• In Study 1, Americans rated men as less interdependent than women; Koreans, however,
showed the opposite pattern, rating men as more interdependent than women, deviating
from the "universal" gender stereotype of male independence.
• In Study 2, bi-cultural Korean American participants rated men as less interdependent if
they completed a survey in English, but as more interdependent if they completed the
survey in Korean, demonstrating how cultural frames influence the contents of gender
stereotypes.
• In Study 3, American college students rated a male student as higher on whichever trait—
ambitiousness or sociability—they were told was the most important cultural value at
their university, establishing that cultural values causally impact the contents of gender
stereotypes.
 THE STUDY SHOWED THAT:

Men in general are seen as possessing more of whatever characteristic is most culturally
valued. This finding suggests that gender stereotypes are flexible, dynamic, and cross-
culturally varied – deviating from the widely-held belief that they are rigid, static, and
universal The first two studies focused on the well documented cultural values of
independence and interdependence, showing that members of an interdependent culture,
South Korea, perceived men as more interdependent than women, deviating from the
"universal” stereotype of male independence. The third study moved beyond these specific
traits and cultures, however, demonstrating that American participants rated a male
member of their community as possessing more of whatever trait they were told was most
valued in their culture ambitiousness or sociability. Thus, across different cultures and
different traits, men are seen as cultural ideals, possessing whatever traits are chronically or
temporarily valued.
 Limitations to equality: Gender stereotypes and social
change
• The first categories of identity children learn are 'girl' and boy'; by preschool they can
designate a vast number of adjectives, activities, behaviours and objects as male or
female. They castigate each other for transgressions of these norms and build group
identities around them. These assumptions don't govern experience in later life by any
means, but they are always there, influencing perception and communication, always
being reinforced by popular media.

• Given the nature of the problem, an obvious solution is education. There is still plenty
we could do to address gender stereotypes and sexist conventions in the curriculum –
not least, we could address the pitiful state of sex education. But this is also something
of an illusory response.

• Kids exist in a complex matrix of influences; revising the curriculum and addressing
teacher training might help a little, but it's no solution. The global media and the global
market will always get through. Palpable change requires more than a few anomalous