GENDER STEREOTYPE

 “Moving beyond recognition that gender stereotyping is an obstacle to women’s rights to meaningful progress in implementing human rights obligations to address harmful stereotypes and wrongful stereotyping will require all of us – treaty bodies, special procedures, States Parties, civil society, academics and many others – to give this issue the serious attention it deserves.”

What is a stereotype?

A gender stereotype is a generalised view or preconception about attributes, or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and women. Gender stereotypes can be both positive and negative for example, “women are nurturing” or “women are weak”.

Gender stereotyping is the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men.A gender stereotype is, at its core, a belief and that belief may cause its holder to make assumptions about members of the subject group, women and/or men. In contrast, gender stereotyping is the practice of applying that stereotypical belief to a person. 

When are gender stereotypes and gender stereotyping human rights concerns? 

The international human rights law framework is concerned with stereotypes and stereotyping that affect recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms, rather than all stereotypes and all forms of stereotyping. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has explained that States Parties are required to modify or transform “harmful gender stereotypes” and “eliminate wrongful gender stereotyping”. 

A stereotype is harmful when it limits women’s or men’s capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives and life plans. Both hostile/negative or seemingly benign stereotypes can be harmful. It is for example based on the stereotype that women are more nurturing that child rearing responsibilities often fall exclusively on them.

Gender stereotyping is wrongful when it results in a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. An example of this is the failure to criminalize marital rape based on the stereotype of women as the sexual property of men. Another example is the failure of the justice system to hold perpetrator of sexual violence accountable based on stereotypical views about women’s appropriate sexual behaviour.

Social perception of males and females who violate gender role stereotypes

There are numerous perceptions as regards the question of gender role violation. However according to my perception and  studies after looking into it, the notable social perceptions revolve around social status, sexual orientation and the dissimilarity of value. The perceptions exhibited are most of the time firmly in the grip of culture and are subsequently fuelled and driven by the traditions of the people in the society. The issue of culture and tradition set aside, expectations also play a significant role. There is a general expectation from both genders on the manner in which the other gender should behave. One thing cut across the divide and this is the fact that women anchor the expectation that men should display masculinity. The same is anticipated by men who are of the view that women should be feminine. Any sort of trait that does not meet the above expectations, it is considered a violation of gender role stereotype, which is accompanied by negative perceptions.

For a long time, gender has maintained a significant influence in the manner in which people conduct themselves in the society. The issue of status as regards the males and the females is what dictates the way in which males and females are regarded in the event that they violate the prescribed code of conduct that is attributed to their respective genders. According to Feinman, in relation to the social status model, he writes that the men have a status that is superior to that of women. Going by the model on social status, then men will more often than not face an unfavorable evaluation, should they violate the prescribed code of conduct for their gender this is because, the violation means that they lose class when they deviate from a status of a higher nature to a status that is low. For women whenever they deviate from perceived traits are assumed to be transforming from a lower status to a higher status. Hence the social perception with regard to the violation of gender role stereotypes is positive to a large extent. This is no doubt something that is rife in the society, as a matter of common societal law, to whom much is given a lot, is expected. For instance woman who dresses and behaves like a man will most likely go unnoticed or may even command respect from people around. This however is not the case in men. A man who dresses and behaves like a woman will most likely be despised. To a large extent this is all attributed to the distinction of the social status between the men and women. According to Feinman the male role is more valuable than that of the female. He further writes that it is acceptable for women to adopt the roles of men rather than men take up the roles of women.

Violation of the gender role stereotype has consequences for both the males and the females. However there is no denying the fact that, the reception received by the males as regards their transgressions is more hostile compared to the women. If anything the women may in some instances be perceived in a positive way. The issue of desire is the other frontier for the perceptions of gender stereotypes. According to Sadalla, Kenrick, and Vershure (1987), men who show traits of not being dominant are deemed to be undesirable. This perception is however not just directly related only to the dominance aspects, but to all traits in general. There is the general perception that, men who exhibit traits that are a deviation from the known male traits are not desirable especially from the womens point of view.

The gender stereotypes and overall stereotyping continues to not only shape but also influence the behavior of all people regardless of the environmental setup. As illustrated above, the burden to conform to societal norms associated with gender is more often than not rested on men to shoulder it. This is not to say that women do shoulder any negative perceptions, the women too have their fair share of tribulations that arise from the gender role stereotype. Even so, regardless of the environmental set up, the perception is that the men will always get a hostile reception when they violate the gender role stereotypes compared to women.