Gender stereotyping up to the present time is still a complication in the society. It is ingrained in our society that even children at such a young age also experience, or get caught up with the harsh reality that they feel self-conscious by their peers. There will always be a point in time where inequality and cruel treatment will constantly mess up with someone’s psychology and confidence, to where they won’t have the determination to become greater. This is harmful in a way that it prevents people from developing their personal abilities for their professional careers and decision making about their lives, mainly influencing towards women.
According to Mölders (2018), women leadership is one of the highly debated topics regarding to the influences and stereotypes towards women leadership. Women are considered to be less “agentic”, or not comparable than men, and it is shown to be persistent over time that the gender stereotype in the society that value only certain characteristics of individuals. For example, “in the agencies of gender stereotyping, they are prejudice towards women in the workplace” (Heilman, 2012). With the work bias of the roles traditionally male, a lot of companies that are more rigorous are un-suitable for women. That is why women stereotyping is showing that there is an increase of gender gap with leadership-type roles. However, women that have the qualifications, or competence, of the job will particularly show the leadership roles that ties along with the confidence and forceful behavior towards men. In support, “women that have the ability of communality will have more of an advantage for leadership than men” (Eagly, 2007). Communality is the feeling of cooperation and thought from a common interest or goal, in which is considered to be the most beneficial trait for leaders.
Even though men might perceive this as unfair, or unjust, they need to be aware and understand the research behind gender stereotyping (Son, Unit 1). In addition, because women have communality, they are more recognized to be more successful and helpful towards different various types of leadership, such as, “transformational and relationship-oriented leadership” (Duehr & Bono, 2006). Transformational leadership are women leaders that give encouragement and motivation to their peers to develop change that will help grow and shape the future. Whereas, relationship-oriented leadership act as mentors when they engage, or have a scheduled time to give feedback and decisions with care towards future employees. These types of leadership, however, both have the advantages and will positively grant women with the commendable leadership role within the agencies and have support for quotas for women.
In continuation, (Jerald, 2017) talks about how not only does gender stereotyping is a threat towards women, but also the effects of black women’s well-being. This subject, in particular, can bring such a harsh perspective from the community, and to think that research is finding stereotypes through racism is very troublesome (Son, Unit 1). Jerald states, “Racial discrimination, the belief that one has experienced differential, unfair treatment based on one’s racial group membership negatively influences mental health, physical health, and substance use” (Jerald, 1). This gives the black women an enormous amount of distress that links to the causes of anxiety and misery, lack of self-care, and higher percentage of drug and alcohol dependence.
As a target group, it is as expected very stressful, that of which can trigger the responses of negative output and most likely have less energy to commit to self-care and healthier thoughts. However, black women do not have to attribute to the damaging stereotypes. People should be more aware of the emphasis, or value, of the harsh health consequences towards not only the black women population, but also other labeled stereotypical groups as well (Son, Unit 1). The society should suggest the need to consider and participate in the role of racial and gender oppression, alongside of health care services (Son, Unit 1). In addition, health-care providers should be more attentive of how racial discrimination may expose the negative effects of black women’s mental and physical health.
On the other hand, (Deshayes, 2019)’s studies have shown that women in the sports field are also affected with the stereotypes within their performances. Even though this topic might be poorly understood, this particular subject deserves attention while “fatigue is one of the most important limiting factors of sports performances” (Enoka, Burnett, Graves, Kornatz, & Laidlaw, 1999). Some previous negative effects on the women’s performances were from various tasks that often showed women staged with pressure, for example, basketball shooting, tennis serving, or testing of maximal strength.
Researches had found a decrease in women’s performance when there was a negative stereotype against them. In the means of this, the research was then investigated with a secondary research that was found from other researches to see whether the hypothesis of the research showed any positive changes. With an increase performance was found, it was noticed that women that were acted upon negative stereotype, or whenever they were feeling under pressure. It is still “one-sided” that people will still believe that the sport society is mainly male dominated. Although there was an increase of performances after the negative stereotype was convinced, this does not mean that people should have to threaten the women athletes to increase their performances. Women athletes should be allowed to play the sport comfortably and passionately while men should be supporting and accepting the culture of sport. Male athletes should also appreciate that women have similar commitment that they have towards any type of sport, instead of being self-possessed and demanding that men are more powerful.
(Atkinson, Layton, Windett, 2019) brings up another important subject matter that talks about the political side of the Congress compared to most common jobs in relevance to women stereotyping. Not only do women try to compete certain jobs with men, but women who run for Congress are also facing challenges, or challengers that are more qualified, regarding to their gender with the campaign trail. Many people will have a bias that women are most likely given the disadvantage in the polls against men candidates, especially whenever protection, economy, crime, and etc. are mainly focused in the political field (Son, Unit 1). Even back in the day, women faced sexism so visibly from many voters alongside with their colleagues. For example, in 1975, “roughly half of the Americans believed men were better suited for politics than were women” (Roper N.D.), and there were hardly any seats provided for women in the Congress. However, despite with all the challenges that the women would go through, it was proven that women tend to be more successful than man with an active role in what they do.
They are active in a way that they are more open, have a widespread of new ideas, and include not only the political issues today, but also community issues such as both gender issues. Female candidates can also get an advantage with the polls when there are running topics that are regarding to issues like health care, sexual harassment, poverty, and etc. Men, on the other hand, will most likely face challenges a lot less with the time they have had with their political experience with their jobs. But evidence is revealed that female Congressional candidates are more informed and has more political experience than men. This overcomes the pressure, or disadvantage, towards the women stereotyping and the Congress. Bold women that are willing to take any kind of risk should be put into the Congress more because they are the ones who wants change, change where sexism and gender stereotyping no longer exists.
In progressiveness, (Duehr & Bono, 2006) claims that as the number of women in the work management roles increase, and organizations have a greater significance in diversity, it shows as expected that women can fulfill the leadership. Even though there are elevated percentages now, women are still dealing with the slow progress on getting into certain businesses, or future careers. For example, “thirty years have passed since issues of gender inequality in management and leadership reached the public eye, and in that time, women have become more common in the boardroom” (Kanter, 1997). There will always be a change in gender balance in management, hiring practices, and etc. With gender stereotyping, women are viewed as more passionate and kind while men are more assertive and dominant. In the work management, however, a lot of the concern is the common use of out-of-date adjectives and characterization to describe both genders. With further research, there is a possibility that women stereotyping is developing. Male managers, in particular, view women now as more leader-like compared to how women were treated very strictly back then. However, they’re also viewing both genders similarly with characteristics in the working field. This shows the improvements of stereotypes that people perceive of women’s behavior and role. Women shouldn’t feel like they are not capable of getting a job that is professional and hard work. Women should get the opportunity and show compassion in what they want to show because there is no difference in level of “how qualified you are’ within businesses.
There are many causes that pertains to the constant judging and the belief of how women should live up to a certain standard and expect to “only” be a housewife. prevents people from developing their personal abilities for their professional careers and decision making about their lives, mainly influencing towards women.
