Gender stereotypes

 

                            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.

Gender stereotyping is wrongful when it results in a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Gender stereotypes have descriptive components, or beliefs about how males and females typically act, as well as prescriptive components, or beliefs about how males and females should act. For example, women are supposed to be nurturing and avoid dominance, and men are supposed to be agentic and avoid weakness.

Where do gender stereotypes come from?

Gender stereotypes are complex and originate from local culture and traditions. Children learn what constitutes female and male behaviour from their family and friends, the media and institutions including schools and religious bodies. Gender stereotypes can have an adverse effect on all genders, as young people find themselves regularly exposed to messages about how boys and girls should look, behave and play. These socially accepted and often unconscious ideas start to form in infancy.

What are the negative impacts of gender stereotypes?

Gender stereotypes shape self-perception, attitudes to relationships and influence participation in the world of work. In a school environment, they can affect a young person’s classroom experience, academic performance, subject choice and well-being. The assumptions we make about boys and girls may be conscious or unconscious and can result in students being treated differently or offered different opportunities based on their gender

Gender stereotypes are a daily action and are very normalized

Every day in our lives, we go through situations where we saw or we are victims of a misogynist comment or action because of our gender, because of being women. To understand better the issue we are going to see some daily examples:

• If we are in a gym class at school, in which we have to play football, and a boy has to choose between another boy or a girl to be part of their team, the kid will choose the boy without even thinking ( he probably isn’t doing it with any bad intentions), but the problem is that this action is normalized, the boy reacts like that and choose the boy because he had heard or seen someone doing the same, so he thinks that the boy will play better than the girl, but she could also be a good player.
• If we are in a dinner with friends and family, once the meal is over, automatically and without even thinking in most of the cases the men will stay in the table talking, and without asking the women will start to pick up the dishes and wash them.  I try to understand why this happens but sincerely I don’t find any answer, because I don’t find any sense in the idea that a women have to wash the dishes and a man no, if actually the man can without problem take care of that too, because there’s nothing that privates them of doing that.

Gender stereotypes attached to Indian society

India, the country where we worship Goddess Durga and Kali for the protection from evils, the same country with an average of 2,39,000 excess female dies each year under the age of five owing to neglect due to gender discrimination. Ironic! Girls in India are considered to be an economic burden in India. Despite the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act,1994, India is the country with the highest female Foeticides in the world, all thanks to the concepts of “Dowry”.

Girls are made to learn that “her husband’s house” is the place where she belongs. Whereas boys are told that they need to feed their ageing parents, they need to build a house and earn money so that a “beautiful” woman can marry him. The gender socialization in India is a thing that one can not ignore. In family gathering, the females ought to serve food to men, while males ought to have “talks” about the economy and the important household decisions of the household.

When a child sees his father beating his mother, they set an example for their child, that men are mean to dominate, while females are bound to surrender.

When a child notices these types of family behaviours, he or she inculcates the behaviour and continues the family hereditary in the same way. He or she treats the other gender in the same way their family members were treated. Hence, in order to improve the child in this regard, the discriminatory roles should be interchanged. 

Manier times, especially if you are driving in India, you must have heard “Gaadi ladki chala rhi hogi!”. The stereotype associated with women as a poor driver was broken by a report by Delhi traffic police authority, claiming that women drivers cause less than 2% of fatal road mishaps in accidents. Only 12 fatal accidents in Delhi were caused by women drivers against 724 by men.

However, as the generations are getting more educated, the perception is changing. The girls engaged in the service sector are quite prominent. But, we cannot say the same for the business sector. The male is becoming accommodating to women employees and women family members. The women are moving forward to raise their voice and break the age-old shackles of myths. The family decisions are now based on the opinion of both the genders. Also, with the amendment of 2005 in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956  giving equal rights to daughters to inherit her father’s property, the women are given equal status to men, hence empowering them. Although this amendment attracted a lot of criticism, still this was a way forward to gender equality in Indian society.

MADE BY:- AKANSHA CHAUHAN

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