Female Gender Stereotypes

Since we talked about male gender stereotypes in my previous blog post, it's only right  to be talking about what women gender stereotypes are as well. Just like men, women have to face this ugly truth, the only difference is that male gender stereotypes are more hidden and less apparent than women gender stereotypes are. 

So, let's take a look at some typical women gender stereotypes:

(Brewer, 2014)

• Women are supposed to have "clean jobs" such as secretaries, teachers, and librarians
• Women are nurses, not doctors
• Women are not as strong as men
• Women are supposed to make less money than men
• The best women are stay at home moms
• Women don’t need to go to college
• Women don’t play sports
• Women are not politicians
• Women are quieter than men and not meant to speak out
• Women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told
• Women are supposed to cook and do housework
• Women are responsible for raising children
• Women do not have technical skills and are not good at "hands on" projects such as car repairs

 Something interesting I found in an article online talks about the scarcity of women in the upper levels of organization due to women gender stereotypes demeaning them and their work ethics. 

"It is proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. The processes giving rise to these outcomes are explored, and the procedures that are likely to encourage them are identified. Because of gender bias and the way in which it influences evaluations in work settings, it is argued that being competent does not ensure that a woman will advance to the same organizational level as an equivalently performing man." (Heilman, 2001)

You can read the rest of the article for more insight on what goes on in the business world and how it can effect you with the link below: 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0022-4537.00234/abstract

Sources:

• Brewer, Holly. (2014). Health Guidance: List of gender stereotypes. Retrieved from: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15910/1/List-of-Gender-Stereotypes.html
• Heilman, M. E. (2001), Description and Prescription: How Gender Stereotypes Prevent Women's Ascent Up the Organizational Ladder. Journal of Social Issues, 57: 657–674. doi: 10.1111/0022-4537.00234