Stereotypes of Women

Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes (stereotypes of women and of men) are shared hypersimplified images or representations of reality that influence collective thinking by filling with specific contents the convictions and ideas of a determinate social group regarding men and women and the relationships between them. Among these, we find “Men are better at repairing/maintaining things in the home; women are better at housework”; “Little boys are stronger and livelier than little girls”; “Boys do not cry.”

Men and women are also perceived as complementary; that is, biologically destined to an eternal relation of attraction (“What is a woman without a man?; And a man without a woman?”; “Women and men reciprocally complete each other”; “Men are naturally attracted by women; women are naturally attracted by men”). Furthermore, bodily features are synonymous with differences in skills and aptitudes. Hence the idea of the “naturalness” of a system of gender relations marked by an unequal distribution of material and symbolic resources. And so we have women who are “good at” caring work, and “rational,” “dynamic,” and “stronger” men who successfully devote themselves to economic activities and supporting their families.

The social construction of fatherhood and motherhood is also outlined, sustained, and strengthened by many commonplaces: “Children must stay with their mother”; “Women are made to be wives and mothers”; “Women are fulfilled when they become mothers, men in supporting their family”; “Fathers are not very suited to caring activities.”

It can be easily understood that these stereotypes have driven female and male apart and often set them against each other. This rigid conception of the man-woman relation has also created an often very burdensome constraint-for both sexes. A key example is that the rejection of femininity continues to constitute one of the main organizers of hegemonic masculinity. Whatever race, social class, age, ethnic group, or sexual orientation one belongs to, being a man means above all “not being a woman.” Antifemininity (together with the principle of the “natural” subordination of female to male) is at the heart of the contemporary and historical idea of masculinity, so much so that virility is described more in negative terms (what a man is not) than in positive ones (what he is). We also mention a continuing ambivalence toward women in positions of power and authority: women have been limited by gender-coded lines drawn between their roles in the public and private sphere, in the home and the polis.

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