GENDER

STEREOTYPING AND ITS

AFFECT ON CHILDREN
AND SOCIETY
CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS,
GENDER STEREOTYPING- A
SOCIAL PHENOMENON
• A gender stereotype is a generalized view or preconception about attributes or
characteristics, or the roles that are or ought to be possessed by, or performed
by, women and men.
• It basically refers to the standards set by the society on a person based on the
gender assigned to them at birth.
• Applying the stereotypes attached to a gender is referred to as gender
stereotyping.
• According to social role theory, gender stereotypes derive from the discrepant
distribution of men and women into social roles both in the home and at work.
• Gender stereotypes are highly prevalent to an extent where the society deems it
to be acceptable. Those who do not conform to the same are often frowned
upon by the society.
• According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), a gender stereotype "is a generalized view or preconception
about attributes, or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by
women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and
women". 
• A gender stereotype is therefore harmful when it limits the capacity of women
and men to develop their personal attributes or professional skills and to take
decisions about their lives and plans.
• 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.
Breaking the
shackles of the
gender binary
The existence of gender
stereotypes strictly imposed
is blatantly obvious through
its various manifestations.
Whether overtly hostile (such
as “women are irrational”) or
seemingly benign (“women
are nurturing”), harmful
stereotypes perpetuate
inequalities.
THE GENERATIONAL CURSE
• There has long been a gendered division of labor, and it has existed both in
primitive societies and in more socioeconomically complex societies . 
• In the domestic sphere women have performed the majority of routine
domestic work and played the major caretaker role. In the workplace, women
have tended to be employed in people-oriented, service occupations rather than
things-oriented, competitive occupations, which have traditionally been
occupied by men.
• This contrasting distribution of men and women into social roles, and the
inferences it prompts about what women and men are like, give rise to gender
stereotypical conceptions.
ERADICATING GENDER
STEREOTYPES
• Given that gender stereotypes have existed and thrived since time immemorial,
it has made it difficult to eradicate the same.
• The imposition of gender stereotypes have been normalized to an extent where
defying it in the slightest is considered abnormal.
• For the fuller utilization of one’s potential, it is highly required to eradicate
stereotypes that cast a doubt or create a false impression about their skill set
based on a feature assigned at birth.
• The likeliness of complete eradication of gender stereotypes remains rather low
despite the attempts and relative success of movements challenging the same.
• It is required that we unlearn the toxic conditioning shoved down our throats to
create an accepting society.
• Though it may help make predictions about a person’s behavioral traits, it
creates a huge burden on the lives of men and women who are forced to a
wage a war against these overgeneralized preconceptions.
• The gender assigned to a person at birth does not necessarily define their tastes
and preferences.
• The stereotypes assigned to the gender binary are known for being absurdly
rigid. Bashing a cisgender male for liking the color pink or ostracizing a
cisgender female for showing keen interest in sports is outright ridiculous.
• It should also be noted that gender stereotypes reinforce the idea of a gender
binary and dismisses the existence of a gender spectrum, thus casting a shadow
of doubt on the very lives of non-binary members of society.
THE GENDER TYPECAST
• Men are characterized as more agentic than women, taking charge and being in
control, and women are characterized as more communal than men, being
attuned to others and building relationships.
• A gender stereotype is harmful when it limits women’s and men’s capacity to
develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and/or make
choices about their lives. 
• Further, gender stereotypes compounded and intersecting with other
stereotypes have a disproportionate negative impact on certain groups of
women, such as women from minority or indigenous groups, women with
disabilities, women from lower caste groups or with lower economic status,
migrant women, etc.
THE
GENDERED
EXPECTATION
Expecting all women to have
the innate ability to be
chaste, nurturing and coy
while men act as aggressive
go-getters is highly illogical
and a severe case of
overgeneralization to a
comical extent.
THE ROLE OF GENDER
STEREOTYPES
• Stereotypes can serve an adaptive function allowing people to categorize and
simplify what they observe and to make predictions about others However,
stereotypes also can induce faulty assessments of people- assessments based on
generalization from beliefs about a group that do not correspond to a person’s
unique qualities.
• These faulty assessments can negatively or positively affect expectations about
performance, and bias consequent decisions that impact opportunities and work
outcomes for both men and women.
• Stereotypes about gender are especially influential because gender is an aspect
of a person that is readily noticed and remembered. In other words, gender is a
commonly occurring cue for stereotypic thinking.
• Today, gender stereotype serves as the root problem to a plethora of concerns-
charging women with high prices for feminine products, popularly known as
pink tax, is an effective way to reduce their financial autonomy.
• Due to these flawed gender stereotypes, women are expected to behave
submissively to men, even when severely ill-treated.
• This explains the prevalence of dowry deaths and marital rape in India, for
woman are reduced to sex objects with no voice.
• Though gender stereotypes may be used in popular culture for comical relief,
this is no laughing matter.
• Findings often demonstrate that male and female raters are equally likely to
characterize women and men in stereotypic terms. This suggests that
stereotypes outweigh the effects of evaluators’ gender identities and, because
men and women live in the same world, they see the world similarly.
• However, the steady shift of women’s societal roles and its different
implications for men and women may affect the degree to which men and
women adhere to traditional gender stereotypes.
• On the face of it, one would expect women to hold traditional gender
stereotypes less than men. The increase of women in the workforce generally,
and particularly in domains typically reserved for men, is likely to be very
salient to women. Such changes have distinct implications for them –
implications that can impact their expectations, aspirations, and actual
experiences.
• As a result, women may be more attentive than men to shifts in workplace and
domestic roles, and more accepting of these roles as the new status quo. They
consequently may be more amenable to incorporating updated gender roles
into their understanding of the world, diminishing stereotypic beliefs.
• Unlike women, who may be likely to embrace recent societal changes, men
may be prone to reject or dismiss them. The same societal changes that present
new opportunities for women can present threats to men, who may see
themselves as losing their rightful place in the social order. Thus, men may be
less willing to accept modern-day changes in social roles or to see these
changes as definitive. There may be little impetus for them to relinquish
stereotypic beliefs and much impetus for them to retain these beliefs. If this is
the case, then men would be expected to adhere more vigorously to traditional
gender stereotypes than women.
CHILDREN AND STEREOTYPES
• Childrenlearn some aspects of stereotypes at a very young age. By the
age of 2.5- 3 years, children show evidence of having some rudimentary
knowledge of the activities and objects associated with each sex. 
• Children's
gender stereotypes of activities and occupations develop
quickly during the preschool years, reaching a very high level by
kindergarten. During the elementary school years, gender stereotypes
broaden to include sports, school subjects, and personality traits.
• Withage, 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.
• Someevidence 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.
• For our society to truly evolve, it is required that we as a whole unlearn our
toxic conditioning and pave path for a future where gender stereotypes do not
exist.
THE BURDEN OF GENDERED
EXPECTATIONS
• Expecting a child to perform gender roles and imposing the same upon them
can have a detrimental impact on their growth.
• The expectations of parents and peers can turn out to be a burden for children
and impact their mental health.
• The society we live in often looks down upon men expressing their emotions,
leading to men being taught to repress their pain at a young age. Such
expectations are not observed towards a woman, for they are casted as
whimsical beings and their expression of emotions does not cause any surprise.
This stereotype is just as deeply disturbing.
Children as
victims of gender
stereotyping
A male child born into a
patriarchal society is
expected to exhibit
hypermasculine
characteristics. Failure to
meet said expectations leads
to ridicule and name-calling,
often emasculating in nature.
GENDER STEREOTYPES AND
WOMEN
• Gender stereotypes affect girls around the world regardless of their country's
level of development and are encouraged by society at large, from parents to
teachers. This is one of the main conclusions of the WHO/John Hopkins
University Global Early Adolescent Study. Although some may consider this
trivial, it has very detrimental consequences for girls from a very early
age reducing their aspirations and limiting their career options.
• According to the article entitled 'Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability
emerge early and influence children's interests' published in the journal
Science in 2017, girls begin to feel less intelligent than boys from the age of
six. 
• It is often assumed that women have greater autonomy today with the third
wave of feminism and greater representation in all spheres of life.
• This is far from reality for woman are treated unfairly in various parts of the
country solely due to their gender identity.
• Despite their increased numbers in the labor force, women still are
concentrated in occupations that are perceived to require communal, but not
agentic attributes. For example, the three most common occupations for women
in the U.S. involve care for others (elementary and middle school teacher,
registered nurse, and secretary and administrative assistant; U.S. Department of
Labor, 2015), while men more than women tend to work in occupations
requiring agentic attributes (e.g., senior management positions, construction, or
engineering; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016b).
• "Neither boys nor girls are born sexist, there is something that we as a society
do to them to make them reach that point," says Miriam Gonzalez, founder of
Inspiring Girls in Spain.
• The subject, therefore, has an enormous socio-cultural background; one which,
for example, associates certain activities, clothing and hobbies with men and
others with women. UNESCO warns that women are under-represented
in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics): only 29% of researchers worldwide are women.
CURRENT TRENDS
• Sociological research shows that women are underrepresented in occupations
that are highly competitive, inflexible, and require high levels of physical skill,
while they are overrepresented in occupations that place emphasis on social
contributions and require interpersonal skills. Moreover, though men’s home
and family responsibilities have increased, women continue to perform a
disproportionate amount of domestic work, have greater childcare
responsibilities, and continue to be expected to do so.
• Thus, there is reason both to expect traditional gender stereotypes to dominate
current conceptions of women and men, and to expect them to not. 
THE WAR WAGED AGAINST
GENDER STEREOTYPES
• The seed of stereotypes is sown in education, and education is where the
solution lies. Therefore, as UNESCO states in its Global Education Monitoring
Report, the support of governments is crucial. For example, curricula,
textbooks and teacher training programmes should be periodically reviewed to
ensure that gender stereotypes are not perpetuated and apprenticeship
programmes, tutorials, networks or scholarships should be considered to
promote and encourage the incorporation of women into STEM fields.
• Within schools, the role of teachers becomes essential when it comes to
providing quality, gender-neutral education that promotes students' welfare and
respect for professional standards.
• Lina Gálvez, director of the Master's Degree in Gender and Equality at Pablo de
Olavide University in Seville and research expert in gender equality, gives some
advice for teachers on how to act against inequality inside and outside the
classroom:
1. Be aware of sexism. Question certain stereotypes that we take as normal but
which in reality are social constructions.
2. Deal with the issue of equality without complexes. Ignore third-party criticism
or pressure in addressing equality issues.
3. Join forces for equal education. The more people involved in this type of
education, the more effective it will be.
4. Think laterally. Reinforce children in their preferences regardless of whether or
not they correspond to what the stereotype makes us expect.
Gender
Gatekeeping is
real.
Educating children regarding
gender equality and
eradicating toxic gender
norms and stereotypes is the
need of the hour. Having
role models who encourage
children to cultivate hobbies
without taking their gender
into account can help create
a safe environment.
CONCLUSION
• Gender stereotyping is widely prevalent despite the rampant modernization.
• To truly attain our potential, it is highly necessary that we eradicate gender
stereotypes.
• This requires unlearning our toxic conditioning as well as teaching the younger
children to not fall victims to baseless stereotypes.
• Educate yourselves and your peers to make our society an evolved, accepting
safe space for us all, irrespective of our gender identity and pave path for
establishment of an egalitarian society.