Sugar and Spice

Gender Stereotypes

Simply put, gender stereotypes are generalizations about the roles of each gender. Gender roles are generally neither positive nor negative; they are simply inaccurate generalizations of the male and female attributes. Since each person has individual desires, thoughts, and feelings, regardless of their gender, these stereotypes are incredibly simplistic and do not at all describe the attributes of every person of each gender.

Female Gender Stereotypes

Have you ever watched a little girl playing house? Even as young as five or six, she is well aware that she is supposed to stay home with the baby while the husband goes to work, and she has dinner ready when he gets home. Here is another stereotype; women stay at home while men go to work. While there are a million gender stereotypes about females, these are definitely the biggest, and the most debated by feminists of today. Some other stereotypes include:

• Women are supposed to have "clean jobs" such as secretaries, teachers, and librarians

• Women are nurses, not doctors

• Women are not as strong as men

• Women are supposed to make less money than men

• The best women are stay at home moms

• Women don’t need to go to college

• Women don’t play sports

• Women are not politicians

• Women are quieter than men and not meant to speak out

• Women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told

• Women are supposed to cook and do housework

• Women are responsible for raising children

• Women do not have technical skills and are not good at "hands on" projects such as car repairs

• Women are meant to be the damsel in distress; never the hero

• Women are supposed to look pretty and be looked at

• Women love to sing and dance

• Women do not play video games

• Women are flirts

• Women are never in charge

Male Gender Stereotypes

From the beginning boys are taught to be tough, to be protective, and to defend themselves. Boys are taught that daddy’s go to work and mommy’s stay at home; from their point of view, boys have fun and girls do all the work.

Are you surprised to hear that most parents admit that they do not teach their sons how to do chores such as washing dishes or folding laundry? Instead, they teach them to take out the trash and mow the lawn; from the get-go boys are made to think that certain household chores are "women’s work." This is a major stereotype, but the majority of American households today would prove this to be true. Men are supposed to do the dirty jobs and anything that requires muscle, they are also supposed to go to work and provide for the family. Little boys see this and the stereotype continues.

Other gender stereotypes that inaccurately try to describe all men are:

• All men enjoy working on cars

• Men are not nurses, they are doctors

• Men do "dirty jobs" such as construction and mechanics; they are not secretaries, teachers, or cosmetologists

• Men do not do housework and they are not responsible for taking care of children

• Men play video games

• Men play sports

• Men enjoy outdoor activities such as camping, fishing, and hiking

• Men are in charge; they are always at the top

• As husbands, men tell their wives what to do

• Men are lazy and/or messy

• Men are good at math

• It is always men who work in science, engineering, and other technical fields

• Men do not cook, sew, or do crafts

Some Characteristics of Male and Female Speech

Robin Lakoff, in 1975, published an influential account of women's language. This was the book Language and Woman's Place. In a related article, Woman's language, she published a set of basic assumptions about what marks out the language of women. Among these are claims that women:

• Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”,and so on.

• Use (super)polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't mind”.

• Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?”

• Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very, quite.

• Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on

• Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation.

• Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.

• Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports.

• Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty. For example, “What school do you attend? Eton College?”

• Use “wh-” imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”)

• Speak less frequently

• Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I Think that...”)

• Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)

• Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we turn up the heat?”)

• Avoid coarse language or expletives

• Use indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn't it cold in here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)

• Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (for instance, “I am so glad you came!”)

• Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don't understand the punch line of jokes.

 feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and the social equality of the sexes. The feminist movement, also know as the Women's Liberation Movement has been an on going battle for the last 100 years. The history of women has been one of submission. Marriages were once arranged and women were expected to be obedient to their husbands. Women didn’t typically work outside of the home and were expected to raise children. Mary Wollstonecraft was the first feminist when she published A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 in which she advocated for the "social and moral equality of sexes". (Wikipedia). In 1848, the seventy year fight for the women’s right to vote began. The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. This fight for equality was later termed the “first-wave of feminism”. The “second-wave” began in the early 1960’s and ran through the late 1980’s. In this wave, women strived to reach a further sense of equality with men and to allow women to have a greater control over their body and the protection from physical abuse.

During World War II, over six million women took an active part in the work force. They filled positions in factories or working on farms. Over three million women worked for the Red Cross and over 200,000 women served in the military. At the end of the war, women were laid off from the positions they had during the war. Women again were thrown into the life of being a housewife. In 1949, French author and philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir wrote her book, The Second Sex, which first depicts women as just another body, not an equal to men. She explained that there was a hierarchy and that through sterotyping, women were on a lower level. It also stated that women's had a sense of "mystery" around them and were depicted as "other". She also went on to state that this was true in other areas, such as race, class, and religion, but was prevelant in the way men sterotyped women. It would be years later before her work would become an inspiration for the women’s liberation movement. By the late 1950’s women were becoming disgruntled with their place in society and the inability to obtain employment and achieve equality.

The 1960’s was a year of change. People became more vocal and strived for equality among all people. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive for women. They were available to women the following year. This became the first step in the liberation movement. This now allowed women to take a stand on their reproductive rights.

In 1961, President Kennedy established the Commission on the Status of Women to examine issues related to women and to make proposals on such topics as employment, Social Security, education and tax laws. At this time, there was a growing interest in women’s rights. Courts were also being faced with cases that dealt with the reproductive rights of women. The commission did find that discriminatory actions were being taken against women.

In 1963, the Federal Government amended the Equal Rights Act. This was to ensure that sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same work establishment was prohibited. The following year, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was to protect women from being discriminated against in the work environment. In 1965, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioners (EEOC) was appointed to enforce the Civil Rights Act.

This; however, was not the case. Women were not being treated fairly in the workplace and the EEOC was unable to enforce the Civil Rights Act. So, in June 1966, while attending the Third National Conference on the Commission on the Status of Women in Washington, D.C., Betty Friedan and twenty-eight women founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). The purpose of the organization was “to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in true equal partnership with men”.

As the year’s progressed, NOW’s membership grew. By the time the organization was incorporated in 1967, the membership numbers were at 1037. As membership grew, so did the demonstrations, rallies, petitions and such that were designed to facilitate the spread of information on the purpose of the group. They boycotted the 1968 Miss America Beauty Contest in Atlantic City to let it be known that women’s worth wasn’t about their appearance. NOW was readily involved in multiple law suits against companies that violated a woman’s right for equal opportunity employment.

As a result of this hard work and dedication, they were a strong voice in having the Equal Rights Amendment revisited. It was no longer about the right to vote, but it became the battle to be recognized as a citizen and a person. By 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment had been approved by both houses of Congress and was sent to be ratified by the states. This was a big step towards women’s liberation. The National Organization for Women continued its work for women’s rights. Task forces were created in support of the right to an abortion and protection for victims of rape. New legislation, as a result of court cases supported by NOW, was presented to protect the victim in a physical assault case. One such case was that of Joanne Little, in 1975. Ms. Little was in prison on a felony breaking and entering and larceny. While in prison, she was sexual assaulted by another prisoner and, in self-defense, killed her attacker. She was acquitted of this charge which set a precedent for victims of sexual assault.

By the end of 1979, the National Organization for Women’s membership numbers was 100,000 members strong. In 2008, NOW has 500,000 members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The organization is still fighting for the rights of women and ensuring that the organization stays true to the ideals of its founding members.