Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe Essay

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda® Made by Human No AI

Gender stereotyping has adverse effects on teenage girls in the Western Europe. Despite the current level of civilization in many European states, the society still upholds the ancient stereotyped beliefs. The society maintains that boys and girls have unequal capacities in a majority of the fields.

Moreover, many people do not discuss gender equality in the Western Europe. They claim that both genders are equal. However, this is not reflected in the way they treat boys and girls. A research carried out in a number of schools found that teachers dedicate more time to boys than girls. The prevalent gender attitude in the Western Europe has made it hard for teenage girls to exploit their talents. This paper will discuss some of the effects of gender attitude on teenage girls in the Western Europe.

Despite the fact that girls’ education experience differs based on geographical location, socioeconomic status, disability, and ethnicity, gender stereotyping has significant influence on girls’ education. The manner in which teachers and students construe gender in the learning environment has effects on girls’ learning abilities.

Even though schools are discouraged from practicing gender stereotyping, the vice is still prevalent in many schools in the Western Europe. One of the major problems is that gender stereotyping is normally restrained, and often uncontested or unnoticed.

Hence, schools propagate gender stereotyping without the knowledge of the teachers or students. For instance, teachers refrain from asking girls hard questions since they believe that only boys can handle such questions. Consequently, it demotivates the girls leading to their poor performance.

A research in many of the schools in the Western Europe discovered that teachers relate with girls and boys differently. The study found that teachers allocate more time to boys than girls. Besides, boys have the courage to initiate discussions with teachers. In the Western Europe, the society treats girls as mediocre.

The same culture is propagated in schools, which makes the teenage girls lack the courage to relate with their teachers. This contributes to their poor performance in schools, as they are afraid of making clarifications in areas that they do not understand. Besides, teachers praise boys whenever they perform well in class. Failure to praise girls affects their morale leading to poor performance in classes.

Given the prevalent gender attitude in schools, many of the teenage girls suffer from low self-esteem. Even if a girl is brilliant in class, she ends up avoiding subjects that are associated to boys. In the Western Europe, majority of the teenage girls do not learn physics. Many girls regard physics as “boyish” when asked why they avoid taking it.

Besides, some girls still hold to the traditional beliefs, which maintained that boys’ brain has a high number of white cells that make them good at mathematics and sciences. Teachers do not acknowledge that they influence the decisions that teenage girls make when selecting their subjects. Instead, they regard it as an attribute of girls to avoid science subjects. Ironically, no teacher makes the initiative help the girls change the negative attitude towards science subjects.

In Western Europe, different genders are associated with various types of actions. For instance, girls are considered as nurturing, caring, quiet, considerate, and helpful. Moreover, girls are said to put the welfare of others before their own. These perceptions lead to teenage girls fearing to succeed.

Many of the teenage girls are afraid of performing well in class since it might depict them as unfeminine. To look attractive to boys, girls ought to perform moderately. In the Western Europe, boys do not relate with girls that perform well in class. Hence, teenage girls end up sacrificing their learning for the sake of looking attractive to boys.

The prevalent gender attitude in the region discourages teenage girls from making autonomous decisions. Moreover, many girls refrain from participating in matters affecting the public. They fear being criticised for taking sides in matters affecting the society. For this reason, teenage girls yield to all instructions issued by either boys or their seniors without questioning.

Gender stereotype has led to parents taking their teenage girls to all-girls schools in the Western Europe. Presently, majority of the teenage girls do not interact with boys at school. Taking teenage girls to single-sex schools encourages them to study the subjects they consider as “masculine”.

Gender attitude leads to girls developing a perception that they are different from boys in terms of academic ability. Hence, girls shy away from studying the subjects that the society associates to boys. Numerous studies have shown that girls studying in single-sex schools have a higher propensity of taking subjects that are associated to boys relative to girls in mixed schools.

In single-sex schools, girls do not experience gender pressure. Therefore, they make decisions based on their interests. For instance, girls who wish to secure better paying jobs in future, select science subjects without considering that the subjects are associated to boys. Today, gender stereotype remains as one of the hurdles that prevent teenage girls from exploiting their talents freely.

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2019, April 17). Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effects-of-prevalent-gender-attitude-on-teenage-girls-in-western-europe/

Work Cited

"Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe." IvyPanda, 17 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/effects-of-prevalent-gender-attitude-on-teenage-girls-in-western-europe/.

References

IvyPanda. (2019) 'Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe'. 17 April.

References

IvyPanda. 2019. "Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effects-of-prevalent-gender-attitude-on-teenage-girls-in-western-europe/.

1. IvyPanda. "Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effects-of-prevalent-gender-attitude-on-teenage-girls-in-western-europe/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Effects of Prevalent Gender Attitude on Teenage Girls in Western Europe." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effects-of-prevalent-gender-attitude-on-teenage-girls-in-western-europe/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
No AI was involved: only quilified experts contributed.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment
Privacy Settings

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

  • Basic site functions
  • Ensuring secure, safe transactions
  • Secure account login
  • Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
  • Remembering privacy and security settings
  • Analyzing site traffic and usage
  • Personalized search, content, and recommendations
  • Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Required Cookies & Technologies
Always active

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Site Customization

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

  • Remembering general and regional preferences
  • Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy.

Personalized Advertising

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

1 / 1