Gender Stereotype Critical Analysis
Stereotyping was an act of generalizing a group by observation of some group members, but later it becomes a popular belief and assumption to certain groups. Although sometimes these assumption made by stereotyping can be correct but most of the time it affects our judgment by oversimplifying our further observation on the others. People sometimes rationalize their stereotyping by ignoring evidence that contradicts the stereotype, thus created unconscious stereotype. Unconscious stereotype can lead to discrimination, under performance, and false understanding to certain groups.
One of the unconscious stereotypes we hardly notice in our everyday life is the gender stereotype. Ever since we were kids, boys are socialized to be tough, aggressive, loud, and athletic; girls are socialized to be sensitive, passive, quiet, and nonathletic. “Parents encourage their sons and daughters to participate in sex-typed activities, including doll playing and engaging in housekeeping for girls and playing with trucks and engaging in sports activities for boy. ” said by Susan D. Witt in “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles”. And because of this, boys tend to stand out more than girls, and girls did not usually speak out in public. Although it was only an issue of being passive or aggressive, but it had lead most male to stereotype female as less intelligent because of how most female did not speak out their opinions; so did I. And because of this stereotype, most men believe that women are not competent to work in a position higher than men and women are expected by men to be housewife.
According to Chang Tianle, “If a successful woman does not assume traditional duties at home, she will probably be accused of being selfish and concentrating too much on her career and neglecting her family. ” Women would get blamed if not doing most of the housework at home even though they are making the major earning for the family. As a male myself, I have thought that female were less intelligent and athletic than male. The main reason is because of the way media have portrayed female. In movies and TV shows, female were hardly the main haracters. In news, the important figures such as politicians were usually male. Even in a family, male usually seems to be the one that was supporting it. Later, there had been some false scientific belief that supports gender bias.
According to Caryl Rivers and Rosalid C. Barnett in “The Difference Myth”, “Victorian-era scientists generally accepted as fact that larger brains of men made them intellectually superior; women’s smaller brains made them closer to children than to mature adults. But this had proven to be wrong; the brain size has now proven to be proportional to the body size and does not determine intelligence. But most false beliefs are still widespread and had lead to so many people believing that female were inferior to male, and I was just like most average male, believed that female were less intelligent, athletic, and not as worthy as male in the society. This unconscious bias created a world with most men having a higher status than women. According to J. D. Nordell in “Position of Power”, “women need to be 2. 5 more productive than men to be judged equally competent. It created an unequal work environment for women and took away their opportunities. Although now I try not to stereotype female as less intelligent, sometimes my judgments are still unconsciously affected by this idea of stereotype. In my biology lab, there is a girl in my group. At the first day of the lab, she was very talkative but slow on her work, so I unconsciously assumed that she might need my help in the following labs. But later I observed that she was actually doing better than me on lecture and had answered most questions that I did not know.
It turned out that she does not need help at all. So I conclude that the reason why she was slow in lab was because she was being too talkative and was not focusing in the lab, and because of this, I had unconsciously labeling her with the stereotype of being less intelligent. The idea of stereotype affected my judgment while I was not aware of it. “Even though formal barriers to women’s workplace advancement have been dismantled, unconscious bias continues to interfere. ”Said by J. D. Nordell in “Position of Power”.
I agree with his statement because of a lot of phenomenon of unconscious gender bias still exist in our everyday life just like the experience I had in biology lab. People are too used to linking people to certain groups but not fully observing them, thus stereotyping occurred. As of now, I try not to let the thought of stereotype affect my judgment. But I believe that in some scale, stereotype has become a habit for me and also for most people. Although I try not to stereotype others, it still unconsciously affects my daily judgment.
Being the same to aversive racism, unconscious stereotype is also hard to be eliminated. The reason of it is that people are not aware of it and they think that they are making rational judgment. And the self-fulfilling prophecies then lead the stereotyped to act in a way to confirm the stereotype. “If others perceive you as talented, you become more talented. If you are perceive as less able, your ability shrinks. ” Said by J. D. Nordell. This unconscious bias then becomes a cycle. We perceive most women as passive, thus leading more of them not to speak up.
Gender stereotype had made a great impact on people’s expectation on different gender. When we speak of stereotyping, we usually think of racism, but forgetting how it affects gender. And because of this, gender stereotype become so subtle. We usually do not realize it when we are stereotyping other gender. And sometimes the self-fulfilling prophecy can support our stereotyping. Stereotype then becomes a habit. Stereotyping not only affects the victim, it also affects the stereotyper. When we get used to stereotyping others, we eventually weaken our observation and reasoning skills.
