gender inequality
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This article is written by Prasam Jain, from Symbiosis Law School, Noida. This article deals with Gender role and Stereotypes.

Introduction

Gender Role and Stereotype remind me of a dialogue of Boman Irani in 3 idiots that if the baby would be a boy then he would become an engineer and if it’s a girl, then she would become a doctor. Even before a child is born, people tend to predict who the child would become, solely based on their gender. This paves the way for expectations to arise regarding how the child should act, dress, behave and conduct themselves in a manner specific to their gender.

Gender stereotyping creates unequal and sometimes unspoken rules about how specific people should act in specific situations.

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American journalist Gloria Steinem says, “We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”  An example of this can be that the people who are born as males are expected to be strong, aggressive and masculine; love sports and partake in other “manly” activities and never showcase their true feelings or emotions in front of other people. On the other hand, people who are born as females are expected to be docile and emotional. They should have a “homely” quality, always ready at the beck and call of their fellow so-called “superior” male partners. Males can act most provocatively and certain members of the society would still dismiss it as “Woh toh ladka hai, chalta hai”, but if the same things a girl says and does then she is labeled as indecent and not of marriageable quality.

This type of premature labelling and stereotyping also affects people’s understanding of who is beautiful and who is not. Due to this, people go to great lengths to try to conform to these unrealistic ideals that they see circulating in popular media about what is attractive and what is not. They diet, exercise obsessively and even try to change who they are just because they consider themselves as “not good enough” or “ugly”.

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Gender discrimination, which finds its roots in the toy store itself during a child’s early days, continues to influence him throughout his life, even when choosing subjects at the high school level. For instance, girls are expected to be good at arts and humanities and other so-called “easy” subjects, while boys are pushed towards maths and science. The main problem with this is that when we encounter the same stereotypes, again and again, they begin to feel natural and shape our preferences and career paths greatly. 

Luckily, due to the vast influx of technology and awareness campaigns people, specifically, women, who were earlier subjugated and oppressed, are now more aware of their rights. As times have changed so have people’s expectations regarding traditional gender roles. More and more people are imbibing in themselves, the courage to act in a manner which is true to who they are and that is a good thing but developing countries still have a long way to go in this regard.

When we are talking about traditional gender roles and stereotypes, one question that comes to mind is how exactly where they formed. How did they evolve over the years and what were the reasons for this evolution? Well, during ancient times women were considered to be fragile due to the various physical complications and ailments arising due to medical situations like menstruation, childbirth, miscarriage, etcetera. These, instead of being celebrated as a mark of great strength and endurance, came to be associated with weakness. Hence, being considered as the “weaker sex”, they were expected to stay at home in exclusion whereas men being revered as the “superior sex” were to face the atrocities of the big harsh world. Even Manu Smriti, considered by some as India’s first legal textbook and a sacred text, makes various misogynistic remarks towards women and what their responsibilities should be. For instance, one of the portions of it says- “Women, true to their class character, are capable of leading astray men in this world, not only a fool but even a learned and wise man.” Because such derogatory language is being used in a religious text, many religious people started having the same kind of mentality, thinking that whatever was written in it, was completely and right. And the non-following of which would result in the gods being angry at them and cursing them with misfortune. 

Gender Role and Stereotypes: Loss of Talent and Productivity 

The very first problem that arises due to gender stereotyping is that there is an immense loss of talent and productivity of not just the individual himself who has been stereotyped, but also society in general. Imagine if Picasso was told that instead of being an artist which generally people consider as a feminine occupation, he should probably be a mathematician or a trader, the very definition of state of art as it is today would change. Or if Marie Curie were told that being a woman, she should only be focussing her energies on being a good homemaker and nothing else, radium wouldn’t have been discovered and an immeasurable loss would’ve been suffered by the medical community. Suppressing your “gifts” and talents never really does any good to anyone. Negatively influencing someone to do something which they are, neither fit to do nor interested in doing, is not only legally wrong but also ethically and morally wrong. For the peaceful functioning of society, everyone must encourage each other to realize their maximum potential regardless of their gender, age, and caste instead of pushing each other down. 

Gender Role and Stereotypes: Instigator of Serious Medical Conditions 

The second issue with defining concrete gender roles is that sometimes it acts as a catalyst for the development of various medical conditions like depression and anxiety in a person. Among them, we can consider the report titled: “Gender stereotypes and stereotyping and women’s rights” published by OHCHR commission. It was mentioned that depression and anxiety might even pave the way for suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Being social animals, we always want other people to like us. And if there are parts of our personality or physique which in their opinion are not up to the mark, then we try to alter or change them. But if you think about it, you can’t change the basic structure or the core part of your personality. And the reason for that is that a person’s personality is not influenced by a single incident or event which, upon you altering it, could be changed. It is instead, a culmination of all your experiences and hardships that you face in your life. You grow and change with each passing second, but the core characteristics or what motivates you at a primal level cannot be changed.

So, when you’re unable to change this, it is only natural that you feel “down” or disappointed by yourself. Sometimes you might even think that something is wrong with you because you can’t act in the manner in which you’re expected to. A classic example of this can be the LGBTQ+ community, members of whom not only suffer physically but are scarred emotionally only because society can’t accept what is different from them. All these things are bound to take a toll over the mental well-being of a person, and he might sink into an endless chasm out of which he might never fully come back from. This also affects the economy of a country because a nation is only as powerful and strong as its people. And the irony is that if people are depressed or sick, there would be a loss of manpower, resulting in a society suffering due to their age-old perspectives or rigid opinions. 

Gender Role and Stereotypes: Part and Parcel of Life

The third and the most important issue is that even if people are aware and taking an active initiative in consciously not trying to indulge in gender discrimination or bias, it is still not enough. For way too long we’ve been exposed to the dogmatic, misogynistic and sexist mentality that it been deep-rooted in our subconscious to act in a gender-specific manner. From the article named: Gender role and Expectations written by SA Eisenchlas published by SAGE journals, the preconceived notions about gender roles and stereotypes can easily be understood along with relevant practical surveys. For instance, the author had taken the example of a newborn kid that if it’s a girl we always get her a barbie or a doll or preferably things which are pink in colour. On the other hand, if it’s a boy we always get him monster trucks or toys which signify destruction, thereby signifying the strength which a boy must always possess or dark-coloured things or toys. We do this daily, and without even realizing it, we portray our expectations for the kid who can’t even speak yet to like what we think their gender should ideally like. We grow up believing stereotypes like the fact that women should wear light or bright colours, should not appear to have any blemishes or marks on their skin whereas men should behave oppositely. If a girl is a lousy dresser then she is judged to be unattractive but if a boy does the same, he is labelled to be a “cool” dresser. 

Certain television shows, movies, and advertisements further negatively influence our mentality in this regard. For example, the recent Gillette advertisement illustrated men sexually harassing, catcalling and speaking over a woman in a meeting, all in a bid to promote their toxic masculine tagline which was that “men could be better”. When such stuff is shown again and again, subconsciously it does affect our behaviour which in turn affects our mentality

Conclusion

When someone so much as disagrees with our choices, we tend to become incredibly agitated and in a foul mood. Now imagine having being told that you’re someone else than who you choose to be and should thus, act in a manner following that. Sounds unbelievably impossible and harsh? This hypothesis is, unfortunately, still a reality for most people in our country. Gender fluid people still struggle to be recognized and those whose sex is not their true gender are judged, ridiculed and mocked for their lifestyle and their life choices. We consider ourselves to be “modern” and “accepting” of people who are different from us, but when it comes down to it, we will be the same people who will create a hue and cry if a male baby likes to play with a barbie or when a girl child wants to have short hair and wants to play cricket instead of let’s say badminton or basketball. 

This partial acceptance is no better than full-scale discrimination. In many organizations, women, in this 21st century, still, have trouble reaching the top posts which are expected to be reserved exclusively for males. And males, if so, much as cry, are called names and teased for not being strong enough. This paper has attempted to analyze the history and psychology behind such bias in the minds of people and the issues which arise due to strict gender roles and stereotypes. We have come a long way from not even allowing a woman to step outside the four walls of her home to encouraging her to be independent. At the same time, instead of being the bread-earner we have, to some extent, acknowledged the existence of males staying at home as well. But still, there is a huge amount of work to be done, both as individuals and members of our society. Only then would we able to create a harmonious and safe environment for our future generations.

References 

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