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 INFLUENCE OF GENDER
STEREOTYPING-CULTURAL

By:
Aswathy J.P.
Department of physical science
 INTRODUCTION

What is stereotype?
A generalized view or preconception about
attributes or characteristics that are to be possessed
by the members of a particular social group or the
roles that are ought to be performed by the members
of the social group.
 Gender stereotype

 A gender stereotype is a generalized view or

preconception about the attributes or characteristics that
are ought to be performed by the men and women.
 Gender stereotypes can be both positive or negative.
 For example:”women are nurturing” or “women or weak”.
 Varies on four dimensions:- social roles, capacities,
physcial characteristics and occupations.
 Gender Stereotyping

Gender Stereotyping is the practice of ascribing to

an individual women or men specific attributes,
characteristics or roles by reason only of his or her
membership in the social group of women or men.
Fig:- Gender stereotyping of men and
women in society.
 Why and when this stereotype become
harmful?
 A stereotype is harmful when it limits women’s or men’s
capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their
professional careers and make choices about their lives and life
plans.
 It becomes wrongful when it violates the human rights or
freedom of an individual.
 For ex: In most of the families women are considered as
subordinate to men, here the term stereotype becomes harmful.
Relationship between “Gender” and
“Culture”
Gender
 Gender is the social
construction of sex.
 Gender is determined by
biological codes.
 Gender is characterized in
terms of male and female.
Culture
 Culture attributes certain
characteristics to each sex.
 Culture is a product of
interaction among people.
 Culture is characterized
by masculine and
feminine.
Influence of gender stereotyping - Culture

How gender stereotypes  Traditionally women remained at home

and took all the household and domestic
affect family life?
work including nurturing of the infants.
 Men worked outside the home to earn
the livelihood.
 This affects the family interaction and
mental satisfaction of the couple.
 Producing Emotional Strain
Men and women nowadays experience lot of psychological or
emotional strain. In case of men,
 They are pressured to fulfill the standard.Even after
successfully fulfilling the standards of masculinity, they
suffer emotionally by accepting parenting roles.
 Similarly,women are expected to have a baby soon after
their marriage;if not, they are teased by their in-laws which
affects them emotionally.
 Affecting the performance of men and
women
Research studies reveal thatreotype-threat”negatively affect
performance by increasing anxiety.
 For example: women were found to perform significantly
worse as compared to men in a maths test,when the
participants were led to believe that the test would
probably produce gender differences.
 In contrast,men and women performed equally well when
the participants were led to believe that the test doesn’t
produce gender differences.
These findings suggest that negative stereotypes negatively
affect the performance of an individual.
 Perceptions and expectations of Adults

In research,adults tend to rate infants physcial features and their

personality traits in a gender-stereotyped fashion.
 Parents want their preschool children to play with
‘gender appropriate’ toys and with respect to child
rearing values.
 Control of emotions is very important in case of sons
and love, affection, gentle behaviour and closely
supervised activities are important for daughters.
 Environmental influences
Environmental forces provide powerful support for Gender role
adoption. In addition children’s social context such as home,school
and community offer many opportunities to promote gender
stereotyping.
Changes in environment provides new social roles and
responsibilities.
 For example: In kerala in most of the families,
husbands work in foreign countries.As a result of this as
well the spread of education among the females,women
take up the responsibility of managing small scale
industries and prove to be good entrepreneurs.
 Media Exposure
 Media plays a large role in influencing the younger
generation.
 When exposed to multiple gender messages, children are
more likely to endorse the stereotype. Such stereotypes
can negatively impact and restrict opportunities,careers
and self development.
 Media reinforces gender-attitudes thus deepening society’s
cultural values and interpretations of gender.
CONCLUSION:-

In conclusion, most intervention efforts aimed at reducing

children’s gender stereotyping and prejudice produce
weak-to-modest effects, and some produce no effects at all.
Considering the general ineffectiveness of intervention
strategies, it may be said that “an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure”.
Indeed attention should be provided to reduce and improve
the effectiveness of gender stereotyping on the cultural
basis.