What stereotype is hardest to fix?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
My favourite topical talk topic was gender inequality, ‘One Small Step for Women, One Giant Leap for Humankind’. My big question for this lesson is “What part of gender inequality is hardest to fix?”, and I think that the hardest problem to fix is stereotyping and generalising. The first example that supports my opinion is the fact that, in a news report about stereotyping against women, someone said that, “half of all women in their family said that gender stereotyping had, and still has, a negative impact on their childhood.”
The second example that supports my idea revolves around the motherhood penalty, paying women lower in work simply because they have a child and treating them differently because they have a child is discrimination. Also, in the household, fathers tend to lean more on the mother for childcare because they are stereotypically known as nurturing, therefore giving them less respite. I, myself, have had personal experiences with gender stereotyping such as; my male peers asking me if I’m on my menstrual cycle when I am in a bad mood or asking me if I'm going to cry after any minor inconvenience because women are known as weaker, physically and mentally. A lot of people follow gender stereotypes or gender inequality without even realising, for example, if a guy tells a girl that they do something well “for a girl”, e.g. “you're really good at basketball, for a girl”.
Comments (5)
Wow, dazzling_pigeon, you're absolutely amazing!
I love how you're speaking up about something that really matters - gender inequality. You're right, stereotyping and generalising are super hard to fix.
Your examples are so powerful! It's crazy that people still think women are weaker or less capable just because of their gender. And the way women are treated unfairly just because they're mothers? That's just not fair!
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with people saying mean things to you just because you're a girl. You don't deserve that!
But here's the thing: you're not alone! There are so many people who care about this issue and want to make a difference.
So let's do it! Let's keep speaking up and challenging those stereotypes. We can make a difference, one small step at a time!
Yes, I agree with your point. Stereotyping and generalising is definitely a difficult problem to fix, moreover it's something that has almost no solution because changing the opinion of the entire mass is a very ineffable deed. In my country, rural areas are the ones which face this problem the most. Not only women, but also men suffer due to this stereotypical orthodox societies which stop them from being whom they really are and limit them. People don't believe the necessity to educate their daughters, they have this stereotype that the daughters will get married off. And this problem mainly exists because people are not educated in the right way; by right, i'm referring to a way which sees every person as equals despite their gender entitlement. So, definitely, I agree to your point in every sense of the word.
I agree with you stereotyping and generalizing is one of the global issues. Women are less to be seen in different jobs it is mostly men. I also agree that the motherhood penalty is also a global issue because women are being mistreated because they have children sometimes they are not even paid well at work and they need the money to take care of their children because they might be single mothers. women need to be treated fairly and they need to be respected.
I completely and totally agree with you dazzling_pigeon I sometimes think like that too. It's difficult to change the opinions of others. Even if you manage to convince them does't mean they will stick with that.
In my perspective, the stereotype that is the hardest to fix is racial stereotyping which is a very broad topic that a lot of foundations, l companies ... ETC are working to fitch this problem. As with any major problem, racial stereotyping is divided into types. Some will be in the following list:
Cultural
As all know, cultures are completely different from each other; as well as racial stereotyping can be cultural which means can change from one culture to another and is completely extreme and hard to solve. For example: in Egypt, women were known (before the Eslamic religion) to be a shame that can't live again. When they came to life, they were buried to the ground alive! On the other hand, some countries think of the opposite.
Behavioural
it is when people THINK that every different region or race has their behaviour; however, this isn't a fact, you can see most people in a certain country do as their description, but this doesn't mean all people in the same country have this behaviour.
Occupational
Occupational stereotyping means when people think that a race, etc. suits this job or task which is completely wrong too. For example, some people might think that Brazilians are suited for football and Italians for food; nevertheless, this is wrong as some Brazilians can be better chefs than Italians and vice versa.
How we overcome such stereotypes?