Introduction
Human beings were born with billions and billions if inherent ideas. The uniqueness that we all posses are one shining example that we are all different and we all serve different roles. The word stereotype simply means to label a person. This is occasioned at times by real traits, and behaviours (Craig et al 110). This comes about when an individual, a group or a tribe continuously and repeatedly exhibits a trait to which others think or label as queer. The other side of the divide will naturally come from a different ethnic, cultural, social or economic back ground. The deepest rooted and the oldest form of stereotype is gender. This form is deeply rooted and entrenched in human behaviour since time immemorial. Men and women tend to look down upon other on many issues. This stereotype comes in two major divisions. According to Craig et al (112), there is the personality and the roles stereotype with the former being a psychological part while the latter taking the roles and activities. It is a common stereotype to hear men label women as poor drivers, while women will say that men are terrible in household chores. Such utterances are in no way meant to demean the other divide but it largely tends to portray the macho side of the one stereotyping. The aftermath of stereotyping; there emerged a division of labour, men assigned themselves duties and roles that they felt could perform better while assigning those they felt that were of lower status to women. One thing that must be noted is that those duties that they considered of lower cadre were not, men were only boosting their egos. In a family setup if a woman’s role is to clean, cook, bake and feed the children she should be said to be playing a lesser role than the man just because he pays house rent and other bills (Craig et al 112).
Forms of Stereotypes
World wide, Stereotypes comes on two forms the positive and negative. In many stereotypes, the subject is always viewed negatively, while the ones issuing the stereotype feel superior on that particular field. As the world evolved this phenomenon led to gender imbalance, in many parts of the world women were looked down upon. In almost all sectors of the economy there were fewer chances for women as compared to those of men. If there were chances to be availed for women this were the lowly and the most demeaning whose working conditions were very hostile. This created a big imbalance in the social political economic map pitting women a distant second compared to their male counterparts. Stereotyping is not only confined to the poor and developing nations, during the 2008 United States General elections, there was a great debate raging all over the world on whether Americans were ready for a female president. This stereotype greatly affected the candidature of Hillary Clinton and she lost the race for the Democrat’s presidential ticket nomination. In the yester years, it was a common practice to deny girls formal education. This made them rate very poorly compared to their male counterparts. The stereotypes had it that education was for the boys and girls had other things to do. Still due to stereotyping girls were considered only good in the kitchen and family matters. In many African communities girls were married at a very tender age as early as nine years. Still in this African communities like the pokots and the marakwets of Kenya, young girls still undergo the de-humanising female genital mutilation (Burgess and Borgida 690). The male stereotype argues that for a girl to become mature she has to undergo the cut, they also argue that this helps to stem the woman’s sexual desires. In their argument a woman should only have sex when the husband wants; she is not supposed to have any sexual desires, in case she exhibited some urges she was branded as a prostitute (Eagly et al 87). This can be termed as one stereotype that proponents even want to defy nature. It is common knowledge that sexual desires either in men or women are beyond human stereotyping but rather a very natural and intricate occurrence.
Theories of Stereotypes
There are several approaches that have been taken trying to explain why human beings will label other humans. Burgess and Borgida (672) argue that the origin of stereotypes have a heavy correlation negative culture education system and religion. In an attempt to justify some of the existing inequalities and at times injustices, these three institutions come up with stereotypes to justify their short comings. The manner in which this is preached and embraced, it gets deeply entangled in the in the minds of the recipients such that they not only follow and practice it faithfully, but they also preach and spread it far and wide. The negative aspects of these three major pillars of our society can be termed as the self denials in social beings. This is the refusal to acknowledge that either the stereotyped gender can be equal or even better at times. The parameters that are used to coin stereotypes are based on some very feeble arguments. Some of them are founded on baseless myths which cannot hold. There is one stereotype that bars women against slaughtering any animal, it is said if any woman attempts the dead animal will be so infuriated that the woman will be gored by bone from the dead animal and die.
Eagly et al (156) argue that the first and most important interface is what in naturally expected of men and women. Traditionally there was a very clear division of labour. Men always got the tasks that would depict them as great think tanks and innovators which lead to great success stories. During feasts only men were allowed to slaughter animals and there were parts that were women only. Again it is only men who were allowed to go hunting or fishing. This assigned them a very crucial role of providing food to the family. On the other hand women were put on tasks that were more of mandatory service to the community, the cooked cleaned toiled in farms and did almost all job that lead to daily sustainability. Despite the fact that this jobs were very crucial for the community they were not highly regarded and men looked down on them and branded them the woman job. Due to this career choice has been one sector that has been greatly affected by stereotyping, men and women are expected to choose careers that are commensurate with their gender (Burgess and Borgida 676).
Within the stereotypes there exists some subtypes a further division in human labelling humans. Burgess and Borgida (688) further shows that these subtypes will tend to categorize people on more informed lines. Women such as professionals, the sexy looking, and house makers amongst others will be categorised differently. Men also have the similar fate, entrepreneurs, sportsmen politicians and educationists will also be categorised differently. How ever this dose not provide the best categorised since it is common for both men and women to fall in the same category. There can be a male or female sports personality, at a first glance the stereotype will zero in on the gender stereotype but on the subtype they are at par. There can be no concrete argument on to whether the male athlete can be termed as better or superior than the female counterpart (Spencer et al 54). The sub types tend to water down the stereotyping. An example of family contexts the two parents from opposite genders are equally important and at no one point in time an argument can be floated that either is more superior to the other. One twist that is very important is that globally, both genders have different priorities while women will tend to lean to issues relating to community understanding and caring, men attribute things like power and self achievement as the most important.
Conclusion
Gender stereotyping has had a host of analysts trying to get a deeper insight of this habit. There has been an argument that this is a static occurrence that never changes and will never go away. Spencer et al (50) for example, says that masculinity compared to femininity is what results to gender stereotype. Each gender embarked on assigning in itself the roles it felt elevated it to the highest egoistic standing. Stereotyping comes in all sectors of life and it plays a major role in Politics, economics and social life. It influences major decision making and hence chats the course of the world affairs.
There are two words that will for ever go hand in hand, “division of labour” and “stereotyping”. Since time immemorial human beings tend to identify themselves with some class, they associate themselves with peers whom they feel that they share and have a lot in common. In these self made cocoons, they assign themselves roles and duties and status; at the end they will have finally filled all the slots on the social ladder. Stereotyping has had a very big impact on human expectations, women are expected to take up feminine role and perform well in them and on the other hand men are expected to go for masculine roles and excel in them. Despite the fact that the world is said to be getting more civilised, there seems to be unofficial barrier on career expectations. Women who take up careers which are traditionally said to belong to men, are perceived as likely to struggle and toil more as compared with if it was a man holding that similar position. They are expected to face more hurdles and challenges as compared to men. On the other hand men are expected to take up the biggest and the most challenging careers, they are expected to perform well to prove that they are truly macho. In the event of a man taking up a lesser job which is considered feminine, he is looked down upon and is seen as a wimp, he is considered as a weakling who is afraid of facing masculine tasks.
In a general over view, the ego is in human nature and it is the one that dictates what perception we take of others. We stereotype to satisfy our unfounded desires to see ourselves as the best in our settings and also those who are from our divide. Pundits have argued that there should be a clear role between stereotypes and gender roles. Burgess and Borgida (680) argue that men and women can be assigned similar role with similar opportunities but still we go back and stereotype them as male or female.
Works Cited
Burgess Diana & Borgida Eugene., Who women are who women should be: Descriptive gender and stereotypes sex and discrimination. Psychology public policy and law Vol 5 p 665-692. Columbia University, 1999.
Craig McGarty, Yzerbyt Vincent & Spears Russel., Stereotypes as Explanations, The formation of meaningful beliefs about social groups, Cambridge University Press New York 2002.
Eagly Alice et al, Explaining sex differences in social behaviours, Meta analytic perspective personality and social psychology bulleting. Texas Vol 17 No 3 Purdue University, 1991.
Spencer Janet Taylor et al, Instrumental and Expansive Traits, stereotypes and sexist attitudes. Psychology of women Quarterly, Vol 24, p 44-62. Nature publishing group Imperial College London, 2000.