Gender
stereotypes refer to common beliefs about a person’s behavior or individual
characteristics based on gender. Gender stereotypes have existed throughout
history, with many cultures, even today, insisting that women are less
significant than men based on longstanding cultural viewpoints are.
There
are causes of gender stereotyping exist
as follows,
Languages themselves in Tanzania. For instance, In
Kiswahili language there is the lexical items that provide evidence of sexism.
McWilliam, 1988, find that in the marriage institutions, example there is words
like Mary “Oa” for men and Married “Olewa” for women which suggest that a man
is active and a woman is passive as far matrimony is concerned.
Socialization.
From the time of birth, most
children are socialized with sex roles. In other words, they are shown by
society what is expected of them as males or females. This is evident in
numerous ways, from the pink and blue clothing distinctions selected for baby
boys and girls, to the sayings that children hear throughout their lives. "Girls
are made of sugar and spice and everything nice." Socialization for boys
and girls demands that boys are aggressive, while girls are more passive in
their behavior. Traditionally, males and females accept these gender stereotypes
as a means of fitting in with the rest of the social order.
Women are generally portrayed as
sexual, weak and nurturing individuals, with men commonly portrayed as being
the domineering gender. The media portrayal of women creates a gender stereotype
that individuals, including women, accept because of the widespread and
consistent influx of media into daily life. For example, on television women
are regularly told that they must conform to a certain image of femininity,
while in the movies women are often portrayed as victims.
Gender stereotyping is connected to
science, or biology, because women’s bodies function differently than those of
men. Some individuals use science as a means of supporting stereotyping because
men are commonly physically stronger than women are and women are capable of
giving birth.
The social belief that women were
required to marry, raise children and maintain a home prevailed. In the 1960s,
during the Civil Rights Movement, women began to demand that their abilities in
the workforce be recognized. Despite the fact over time, women have been the
leaders of companies and nations, many individuals throughout society still
insist that women are not as intelligent as men are, nor are they as effective
in management as men. These beliefs support gender stereotyping of women in
many sectors of the work.
The
following are the effects of Gender stereotype.
It can
leads to the killing of skilled experts. Example women are very much ignored by
most of men in different rank of jobs like engineering, pilots and mechanics,
this situation of generalizing the concept of weakness over women can influence
in discouraging people who have skills over the matters. Women are not given
education because of being generalized as weak people.
It can lead to the impaired performance that is women’s lowered
performance on math and science related tasks). As such, stereotype threat may
be partially responsible for women’s underrepresentation in mathematics and
science related majors. Furthermore, stereotype threat may negatively affect
girls beyond the classroom; its damaging effects have been noted for women in
the employment context, leadership context, and entrepreneurial arenas (Davies
et al., 2002, 2005).
It can lower self-dignity and body satisfaction, as well as career
and self-development (Eisend, 2010). It is possible that media only reinforces
gendered-attitudes regarding male and female behaviors; thus deepening
society’s embedded cultural values and interpretations of gender.
Gender inequality, gender
stereotyping assumes that there is inequality in the talents of both genders.
Because stereotypes are common in U.S. culture, they often affect the types of
jobs men and women can get. For example, many women are hired in the
hospitality industry because women are thought of as nurturing, emotional and
friendly. Men are often considered for jobs that require strength and physical
ability, such as dishwashing and construction, and jobs that require emotional
control and leadership skills, such as upper management position.
How
Television Advertisements perpetuate Gender Stereotype
Linguistic
elements and non linguistic elements are also used to reflect gender
stereotyping. The following are the linguistic elements
Vocabulary
items that can be shown on the reflection of gender stereotyping are nouns,
pronouns adjectives and adverbs. Example nouns and pronouns, these shows that
in observed Television commercials, female characters used 55% of the total
proper nouns. That means female characters used more nouns that refers to
common knowledge of the products. Also shows that both female and male
characters used equal number of demonstrative pronouns but female characters
alone used 83% of the total personal pronouns.
Grammatical
elements can be seen in the concept of nominalizations, sentence types,
grammatical process and participant types. Example in nominalization, this is
the situation whereby verbal process is expressed as a noun or a multiword
compound noun or a nominal clause. Therefore the comment that dropping the in a
clause may imply avoidance of redundancy, but it may also result in obfuscation
of causality and responsibility. It
shows that female characters used more nominalizations than male character did
by 32%. Female characters used more
complex but agent les constructions thus
being portrayed as unable to express causality and responsibility.
Gender
Representation in the Media. It is through these images that certain ideologies
are created. The media propagates and promotes a constructed image of gender
representation. The evident divide of differences between the genders that
allowed for these stereotypes of inequality to emerge has been unable to
prevail commercial television, and continues to struggle to break free. .
Comparative research studies conducted by Ganahl, Prinsen, and Netzley supplies
evidence that “television commercials [continue to] perpetuate traditional
stereotypes of women and men.” In general, 1990s television commercials tend to
portray White men as powerful, white women as sex objects, African American men
as aggressive, and African American women as inconsequential.” (Coltrane, 2000)
On music television, a popular
program choice among young viewers, females are often shown in degrading
positions. Music videos frequently show women as sex objects.
Females are also shown as trying to gain the attention of a male who ignores
them (Sherman & Dominick, 1986). Rap music videos are also popular
with young television viewers. Frequently women are portrayed as objects
of lust (Seidman, 1999; Basow, 1992). Women are four times more likely
than men to be provocatively dressed (Atkin, Moorman, & Lin, 1991); while
men are usually fully clothed (Tavris & Wade, 1984).
Women
are not taken as seriously as men are in political and media stances. Research
shows that, Women are hardly ever shown as being professionally active, and
they are seldom associated with intellectual activity; only 7% of commercials
portray women in a professional manner. Women in all diverse ethnic cultures
are taking appropriate stances to be seen and heard seriously, however media is
more concerned with what a woman wears as oppose to her views on the issues at
hand. Despise the overwhelming presence of women in commercials, they are
generally shown as the caregiver instead of the breadwinner, thus they lose
their individuality.
Men on television are rational,
ambitious, smart, competitive, powerful, stable, violent, and tolerant, while
women are sensitive, romantic, attractive, happy, warm, sociable, peaceful,
fair, submissive, and timid.
Conclusively, Having teachers and administrators that belong to
underrepresented groups will also be an effective means of reducing stereotype
threat. For example, having female math and science teachers will attenuate the
amount of stereotype threat the female students experience in the classroom.
These teachers will not only be role models for the female students, but they
will also convey to the students that there will be no negative stereotypes
targeting their gender in the community.
REFERENCES
Atkin, D. J., Moorman, J., &
Lin, C. A. (1991). Ready for prime time: Network series
devoted
to
working women in the 1980s. Sex Roles, 25, 677-685.
Basow, S. A. (1992). Gender
stereotypes and roles, 3rd ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/
Cole
Publishing
Company
Coltrane Scott and Melinda MESSINEO (2000). “The
Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice: Race and Gender
Imagery in 1990s Television Advertising,”
Sex Roles, Vol. 42, n 5 - 6 (Mar
2000). Online at:<http://www.springerlink.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=088b5a6f1b1543.
Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., Quinn, D. M., &
Gerhardstein, R. (2002).
Consuming images: How
television
commercials that elicit stereotype threat can restrain women academically and professionally. Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1615–1628.
Eisend, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of gender roles in advertising.
Journal
of the Academy of
Marketing Science, 38, 418-440.
Mcwilliam A. (1988). Is
there sexisim in kiswahili? Research report from women research and
documaentation
project(WRDP). Dar es saam
Seidman, S. A. (1999). Revisiting sex role stereotyping in MTV
videos. International Journal of
Instructional
Media, 26, 11-22.
Tavris, C. & Wade, C.
(1984). The longest war: Sex
differences in perspective, 2nd ed. San
Diego:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
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