Examples Of Gender Stereotypes

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2.4 Gender Stereotypes As Eagly (1987) suggests, gender roles are closely linked with gender stereotypes. Stereotypes are "over-generalized beliefs about people based on their membership in one of many social categories" (Anselmi and Law 1998, p. 195). The current gender stereotypes reflect beliefs that appeared during the 19th century, the Victorian era. Before the 19th century, most people lived and worked on farms where men and women worked together. The Industrial Revolution changed the lives of a majority of people in Europe and North America by moving men outside the home to earn money and leaving women at home to manage households and children. This separation was unprecedented in history, forcing men and women to adapt to different…show more content…
For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the out- side world. These two spheres are different, with little overlap, forming opposite ends of one dimension. This conceptualization of opposition forms the basis not only for social views of gender, but also for psychology’s formulation of the measurement of masculinity and femininity. The Cult of True Womanhood arose between 1820 and 1860. “The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” (Welter, 1978, p. 313). The Cult of True Womanhood held that the combination of these characteristics provided the promise of happiness and power to the Victorian woman, and without these a woman’s life could not have real…show more content…
Both genders might be judged by how well they conform to traditional stereotypes. In his theory of masculine gender role strain, Pleck (1976) puts forward that boys and men are pressured to fulfill a standard of masculinity. Boys and men, for example, who do not fulfill the standard often suffer from low self-worth (Pleck; Sonnenstein; and Ku, 1993). Even if men who successfully fulfill the standard of masculinity may suffer from social criticisim, which affects them both psychologically and emotionally when they become an affectionate father and provide direct care for their children (Pleck; Sonnonstein; and Ku

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