Home/Stereotypes
Home/Stereotypes

Stereotypes

Read the introduction and then look at the list. Which of the stereotypes do you believe are really true today?

Female Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes begin the second a baby’s gender is known. As soon as we find out it’s a girl, we immediately begin decorating a pink nursery filled with soft décor and flowers. We assume that our daughter will be very girly and fill her wardrobe with frilly dresses and her toy box with tea sets and dolls. What this is essentially doing, even though many parents don’t realise it, is setting our child up to be the perfect lady, and teaching her how to be the stereotypical woman. We are teaching her that girls are supposed to wear dresses, serve food, and take care of babies; the biggest and most common stereotype put on women.

Have you ever watched a little girl playing house? Even as young as five or six, she is well aware that she is supposed to stay home with the baby while the husband goes to work, and she has dinner ready when he gets home. Here is another stereotype; women stay at home while men go to work.

Some other stereotypes include:

  • Women are supposed to have clean jobs such as secretaries, teachers, and librarians.
  • Women are nurses, not doctors.
  • Women are not as strong as men.
  • Women are supposed to make less money than men.
  • The best women are stay at home mums.
  • Women don’t need to go to university.
  • Women are quieter than men and not meant to speak out.
  • Women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told.
  • Women are supposed to cook and do housework.
  • Women are responsible for raising children.
  • Women do not have technical skills and are not good at hands on jobs such as car repairs.
  • Women are meant to be the damsel in distress, never the heroine.
  • Women are supposed to look pretty and be looked at.
  • Women love to sing and dance.
  • Women do not play video games.
  • Women are flirts.
  • Women are never in charge.

Male Gender Stereotypes