Stereotyping Genders

Introduction

The characteristics people associate with men and women are both descriptive and prescriptive. That is, gender stereotypic beliefs describe who women and men are, but they also tell who they should be. These stereotypes are part of a broader gender belief system that influences perceptions of the sexes. This belief system, conveyed in large part through societal expectations, also includes attitudes toward appropriate roles for the sexes, perceptions of those who violate the modal pattern, and gender-associated perceptions of the self.

These multidimensional components have common roots, but are not synonymous. Indeed, research shows elements of this system may be only loosely related. This writing focuses on gender stereotypes, which Kay Deaux and Marianne LaFrance argue are the most fundamental aspect of the gender belief system. This paper specifically focuses on stereotypical perceptions. This paper discusses why we stereotype genders and what are the consequences.

Discussion

Certainly by adulthood, societal expectations about how the sexes do and should behave are well learned. Of course, not everyone overtly endorses these beliefs, but most can readily identify them. Evidence also suggests that, at least at first glance, people automatically rely on gender stereotypes when perceiving others. Mahzarin Banaji and her colleagues have examined the effects of this implicit information processing. When research participants are primed for the stereotypically male quality of aggression, they subsequently rate male targets as more aggressive than female targets, compared to those primed by neutral traits. (Beall 45-50)

Similarly, those primed by the stereotypically female quality of dependency later rate women targets as more dependent than male targets, compared with those primed by neutral traits. People can also make judgments about gender faster when unconsciously primed with gender-related words. Decisions about the gender of pronouns and names, for example, are made more quickly when the network of associations ...