Gender Stereotyping

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Recommended: Socialization and its impact

Stereotypical behavior is not a new trend, but rather an ongoing lifestyle for today’s society. Gender stereotyping, a sub-category of stereotypes, opens many revelations, developments, and behaviors. While there are psychologists that differ in opinion, education and employment seems to be the primary sources where it is believed that most people both obtains and acts out their stereotypical behavior (Sax & Harper 671).

The origins of gender differences are particularly hard to trace, but arguments that the differences are a result of socialization is widely studied in psychology. One set of psychologists believe that children get most of their “stereotypical ways” from the behavior they imitate from visual references, such as a same sex parent (Sax & Harper 671). Parents, especially when the child is in the years before school, play a heavy role in how the child acts at the time. However, other psychologists would differ and say that the children’s peers are the primary source of the gender socialization, and that the parent plays little, and sometimes even, no role (671). Once that child has reached an age where they attend school daily, they usually see the teacher or peers more often than they do their own parents. That gives the parents less control over their child, and more control to the hands of others, such as the child’s teachers.

Education itself is one of the single most important factors when it comes to stereotyping, especially with gender. It is said that women usually lean towards social sciences, health services, and education, while men on the other hand are more likely to fall to engineering and business (Sax & Harper 672). The interesting concept is that “woman usually earn equal to higher grades than men...

... middle of paper ...

...rawn into the ways of the average human behavior. Every human is their own character. Whether or not they are looked upon that way is not truly up to them, but rather to the perceiver.

Works Cited

Athey, Timothy R., and Jacob E. Hautaluoma. "Effects Of Applicant Overeducation, Job Status,

And Job Gender Stereotype On Employment Decisions." Journal Of Social Psychology

134.4 (1994): 439-452. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

Sax, Linda, and Casandra Harper. "Origins Of The Gender Gap: Pre-College And College

Influences On Differences Between Men And Women." Research In Higher Education

48.6 (2007): 669-694. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.

WILLIAMS, JULIET A. "Learning Differences: Sex-Role Stereotyping In Single-Sex Public

Education." Harvard Journal Of Law & Gender 33.2 (2010): 555-579. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.

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