Social Categories of Gender Roles Essay Example

young boys and girls. It is a generalised view about attributes or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by, or performed by people of both genders. Gender role stereotyping occurs whenever someone is expected to show a certain type of behaviour or to perform certain actions or tasks solely based upon their gender. Stereotypes can be both positive and negative, but it rarely presents precise information about an individual. Harmful stereotypes can be both negative (e.g, women are too sensitive) or seemingly harmless (e.g., women are more empathic). Gender stereotypes intermingled with other stereotypes often result in disproportionate negative impacts. For example, women from minority or indigenous groups, women with disabilities or women with lower economic status. According to Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations, wrongful gender stereotyping is a frequent cause of discrimination against women and is a contributing factor in violations of a vast array of rights, such as the the right to health, education, adequate standard of living, freedom of expression, movement and representation and freedom from gender-based violence. These violations of rights is rooted from a misogynistic way of thinking, where ‘Misogyny refers specifically to a hatred of women. The word is formed from the Greek roots misein (“to hate”) and gynē (“woman”). Each of these roots can be found in other English words, both common and obscure. Gynē helped to form gynecologist and androgynous, and misein can be found in such words as misoneism (“a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change”) and misandry (“a hatred of men”)’, (Merriam-Webster, 2019). This term is often confused with the term ‘sexism’ and although similar, they don’t

bring the exact same meaning. Sexism includes actions based on a belief that particular jobs and activities are suitable only for women and others are suitable only for men (Cambridge University Press 2019). Sexism is gender neutral as it discriminates both sexes, while misogyny only affects women. Sexism can limit the development of natural talents of both genders, and the abilities of boys and girls as well as men and women’ and affects their educational journey, professional experience and life opportunities in general. It is a common confusion among the masses whether to conform or to deny against these existing gender stereotypes in the society. When women conform to the stereotypes, for example by showing emotional sensitivity, concern or by being empathetic or ‘motherly’, they are likely perceived as less competent; whereas if they defy the norms, they are considered to ‘behave like a man’ or are labeled as exuding dominance. When shown ambition and rationality, they are penalised by a backlash effect. On the other hand, when men behave counterstereotypically, it is common for them to be discriminated using gay slurs, where an assumption of sexuality occurs, which is another form of sexual assault. To gradually reduce and overcome this phenomenon of stereotyping and the negative implications that come with it, raising awareness in the society is highly important. People of both genders are advised to learn and gain knowledge of their rights as people and how everyone deserves to be treated rightfully without any discrimination of gender or whatsoever. If discrimination does happen, whether to men or to women, it is important to speak up and keep a firm ground as accepting discriminatory

comments or actions will only lead to further increase in the discriminatory act.

Culture is a notoriously difficult term to define. Apte (1994; 2001), writing in the ten –volume Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistic, summarized the problem as follows: ‘Despite a century of efforts to define culture adequately, there was in the early 1990s no agreement among anthropologists regarding its nature.’ Gender is a social construct, this is why it is seen from the cultural perspective. When talking about ‘culture’ it is directly related to a person’s attitudes, mentalities, perception and behaviour. Obviously there are multiple levels of culture, and each of it has influence to some extent. Generally, culture that comes from a nation is considered to have the highest influence, but there are still other cultural dominants with origin in ethnicity, religion, social class, age, gender, education and more. Now the question is how a specific gender looked in a culture. First of all it’s about the dressing code for males and females in a culture. If it was in a national culture it varies totally; western culture (U.S.A. , Britain, European countries, etc. and more), both males and females are free to wear whatever they feel comfortable with. Whereas for the Asian culture (Malaysia, Indonesia and some other Asian countries) there are rules for them to follow in dressing, females should not be wearing ‘overly body-exposing’ clothes and same goes to males. Bikini culture is strictly forbidden in some of the Asian countries. At the same time, there are Muslim countries which are stricter towards this kind of issues. In Muslim countries such as Arabic countries, women are prohibited to wear skin-revealing clothes,

and most of the women wear ‘hijab’ (shawl), cloaks and they’re also needed to be cover with a cloth, only eyes are visible. The shawl wearing culture is usual in all countries for the Muslim women. Next is about the boundaries in communication between men and women. Based on ethnicity and religion the communication boundaries between male and females are different. In some religions such as Hinduism and Islam, it is strictly forbidden for males and females to have a close relationship between each other expect for close family members and, husband and wife. This culture is different for some other ethnics and religion such as the western peoples. They are free to go out and ‘hang out’ with anyone without a care about their gender. Males and females even can stay in a same house before marriage and can have children. Other than that, when talking about communication boundaries almost in all ethnicities and religions females are thought to talk in a soft tone and should have shyness while talking, which is seen as the attitude of a women. While for the males they were taught to talk in a loud voice and be bold and brave to throw out their words, which seen as the manly characteristic on a male. Another element of gender in culture perspective is the chores of males and females in a family. In a family it has been a traditional or culture for the man to work at out while the woman work at home. The chores of male and female have been distinguished in such a way since so long. Although nowadays there are a few changes

such as women go out for work but still the main house chores are given to women. Females are taught since childhood to be a good house wife who can take care of their family members while the males are raised with the thought of him being a family leader and need to work to give money for his family. This culture have been reversed in the new era, but only in few people’s home it happens.

There is a widespread perception among the public about how the gender is being treated differently in the society. Is it full equality between men and women? The relationship between the gender and family violence is a controversial topic. Family violence is when someone use abusive behaviour to control and or harm a member of their family, or someone with whom they have an intimate relationship (Canada.ca, 2017). There are many forms of family violence including physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse. In general, both men and women would experience violence differently. Diemer (2015) mentioned that around 95% of victims of all types of violence in whether women or men would experience violence from a male perpetrator. According to a report by the United States Department of Justice, a survey of 16,000 Americans showed 22.1 percent of women and 7.4 percent of men reported being physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, or date in their lifetime (Lumen, n. d.). Men are more likely to perpetrate violence if they have low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers or harmful use of alcohol. Nevertheless, women are subjected to

family violence significantly more often than men, for instance, forced marriage. It is a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married against their will which is very common in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, South Asia also has the highest rates of child marriages in the world. It is a traditional practice due to the perspective of some communities that girls will become women once they start to menstruate. They believe that marriage to an older man offers young girls protection. Apart from the aspects of family, there is also different gender treatment that exists in workplace. According to Study Moose (2016), a women’s value is largely dictated by the society, culture and history. Pranapda Phornprapha (2019), founder of Dragonfly360 claimed that 'Patriarchal values and social norms keep gender inequalities alive. For centuries, women in Asia have been viewed as the weaker, more vulnerable gender. They have been rendered inferior, not necessarily with their consent, but with considerable help from patriarchal social constructs.” Women and men are evaluated differently due to the male domination population in workplace especially in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. Some employers of the organization may have a subconscious that men can do better than women for some particular jobs. For instances, manager, chief executive officer (CEO), financial analyst, administrator, professional specialist and others. Most of the people have the misconception that women are less suitable to handle a higher position level as they do not have more or enough experiences than men. This is the reason to explain why women end up carrying nearly all of the caregiving responsibilities. On

the other hand, men and women can be treated differently in communication as they have different styles of communicating with other people. According to Study Moose (2016), communication is known as to be a two-way process involving individuals trying to seek mutual understanding. Therefore, it can be denied that Internet has become a forum for the expression of many different types of sexuality. Cyberbullying and cyber harassment affect more women than men and can involve threats of violence, rape, and other attacks on women (Sheridan & Grant, 2007). The posting of messages, the uploading of images or videos are mainly for the purpose of annoying, provoking or inciting violence against women and girls. Besides that, cyberbullying does not only happens among the cis-male and cis-female. It is also happens to the transgender or bisexual individuals. As claimed by Ryle (2012), transsexuals, or those individuals who wish to actually live as a different gender or sex, are also being depicted in the media with increasing frequency in ways that also portray the full humanity of these individuals. According to The New York Times, Channing Smith, a 16-year-old boys died by suicide after being outed online as bisexual. In this regard, it can be said that cyberbullying can occur when someone uses digital technology to harass, threaten or humiliate someone else without having to reveal their true identity which can leads to suicide indirectly.

Reference

1. Annie Akkam (2018). What Is Misogyny: Definition And Signs Of Misogynistic Behavior. Retried from https://women-s.net/what-is-misogyny-definition/
2. Canada.ca. (2017). About Family Violence. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/fv-vf/about-apropos.html
3. Diemer, K. (2015). ABS Personal Safety Survey: Additional analysis on relationship and sex of perpetrator. Documents and working papers, Research
   

on violence against women and children, University of Melbourne. Retrieved from https://violenceagainstwomenandchildren.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/abs-personal-safety-survey-victim-perpetrator-sex-and-relationship6.pdf