What are gender roles?
Gender roles in society mean how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.
Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very different from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time.
How do gender stereotypes affect people?
A stereotype is a widely accepted judgment or bias about a person or group — even though it’s overly simplified and not always accurate. Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a person’s gender. This is called sexism.
There are four basic kinds of gender stereotypes:
- Personality traits — For example, women are often expected to be accommodating and emotional, while men are usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive.
- Domestic behaviors — For example, some people expect that women will take care of the children, cook, and clean the home, while men take care of finances, work on the car, and do the home repairs.
- Occupations — Some people are quick to assume that teachers and nurses are women, and that pilots, doctors, and engineers are men.
- Physical appearance — For example, women are expected to be thin and graceful, while men are expected to be tall and muscular. Men and women are also expected to dress and groom in ways that are stereotypical to their gender (men wearing pants and short hairstyles, women wearing dresses and make-up.
Extreme gender stereotypes are harmful because they don’t allow people to fully express themselves and their emotions.
Not having stringent role-based divisions will help maintain a smoother life because responsibilities could be divided neutrally without worrying about roles.
