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The House on Mango Street shows a year in the life of Esperanza, the main character, and how she grows as a person. One of the genres Sandra Cisneros, the author, writes in is called Bildungsroman. Throughout this story, the reader can experience how gender and being a woman can determine how they interact with certain people and how it affects their relationships. The themes presented in the novel are women and femininity, family, and friends.
Get original essayWomen were often portrayed in a certain way throughout the course of this novel. Her mother is a stereotypical image of what women were like; during this time women were nurturing, feminine, and domesticated. According to the vignette Hairs, “But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring”. Esperanza’s neighbor is shown as the caretaker of the children while also being beautiful, which was a common role of women. Found in the vignette Louie, His Cousin, & His Other Cousin, “Louie’s girl cousin is older than us. She lives with Louie’s family her own family is in Puerto Rico. . .. She can’t come out – gotta babysit with Louie’s sisters”. Esperanza notices how important beauty is in her society and the power it holds however, she compares her intelligence instead. She knows that beauty doesn’t mean independence and therefore looks for other ways to gain power. Beauty, she believes, can help women escape from their current positions and offer more options. Found in the vignette Sire, “And then his girlfriend came. Lois I heard him call her. She is tiny and pretty and smells like baby’s skin. I. . . I saw her barefoot baby toenails all painted pale pale pink, like little pink seashells, and she smells pink like babies do”.
Throughout The House on Mango Street, women often shared certain similar characteristics. After moving to her new home, the main character makes new friends. Esperanza feels like she is being restricted from having real friendships because of her responsibilities (her sister). The balloon symbolizes her ability to float away; the anchor keeps her weighted on the ground unable to reach new heights. Found in the vignette Boys & Girls, “Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor”. She makes some real connections and makes real friends in her new neighborhood. Esperanza finally doesn’t look or feel isolated. According to Our Good Day, “Down, down Mango Street we go. Rachel, Lucy, me. Our new bicycle. Laughing the crooked ride back”. Her new location allows her to form connections to new people. Esperanza may not look like some of her family members however, they share specific traits. Although Esperanza and her great-grandmother never met, they have another attribute in common besides their name, their wild personality. Found in My Name, “My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn’t marry”. After looking at two siblings who are physically similar, Esperanza compares herself to Nenny. She finds similarities that aren’t physical but are deeper and are more personality oriented. Cited in Laughter, “Nenny and I don’t look like sisters … not right away. Not the way you can tell with Rachel and Lucy who have the same fat popsicle lips like everybody else in their family. But me and Nenny, we are more alike than you would know. Our laughter for example”. Even though her friends don’t understand her point of view on a house, her sister does. This quote shows how despite not being close, Nenny understands Esperanza better than her friends do. Sourced from Laughter, “Look at that house, I said, it looks like Mexico. Rachel and Lucy look at me like I’m crazy, but before they can let out a laugh, Nenny says: Yes, that’s Mexico all right. That’s exactly what I was thinking exactly”.
Certain traits are shared in the Cordero family. The main character matures throughout the plot of the story. Bildungsroman is a genre that the author specializes in using in her writing. Gender plays an impactful role in The House on Mango Street. Each gender has a specific role in her community. The prominent themes are women and femininity, family, and friends.
There are countless differences between boys and girls. The moment a woman finds out she is pregnant, she begins to imagine what her baby would look like. Pink or blue, dolls or trucks, dresses or overalls. While the journey starts off the same in the very beginning, the numerous differences help define the type of influence we will receive, so the main point for the “Gender roles” essay is to reveal the topic with objective arguments and personal experience.
Get original essayGender roles shape parental influence the child will receive, the type of values and beliefs the child will be taught and the behaviors that will be expected of the child, as well. These gender role differences are established at a very young age, and are continued throughout the child’s life. Culture leaves a heavy imprint on a child’s rearing and places a large influence on how boys are raised, as opposed to girls. The defining characteristics of how a boy is to carry himself are prevalent and concise according to society and the influences that that child has while growing up. The same can be said about girls, but lately, the stereotypical behaviors and attitudes expected for each gender are pushing new boundaries as each gender has added new responsibilities to their expectations.
A gender role is a set of cultural guidelines in place to determine how a person should behave, particularly around other people. Not all cultures hold the same values, beliefs or rules for each gender, and the differences are established as soon as a baby is born. In the first days of a baby’s life, they are adorned with tiny clothes that help accentuate the baby’s gender. A pink dress with flowers and a hair bow will inform onlookers that the baby is a girl, likewise, a blue onesie decorated with trucks will tell people that the baby is a boy. We instantly try to fit the baby into a mold of that specific gender, starting with the choice of clothing. Even before the baby is born, we decorate the room with blue walls, or pink bed linen as if to make a statement that all boys love blue, or all girls love pink. Such is not the case, though. I grew up in a culture that believed girls did all the chores inside the house, and the boys took care of all the rigorous outdoor duties. The minute I was old enough to wash the dishes was the second I was taught how. I assisted my mother with cleaning the inside of the house, and cooking, while my father and brother mowed the lawn outside and cleaned the gutters. There was such a vast difference, it nearly seemed unfair. This was the gender role I grew up in, and this is the template I use when raising my children, I’ve just made a few changes over the years.
Gender stereotypes are the beliefs or images about males and females that may or may not be true. Men are stereotyped as independent, active and rational individuals, and women are stereotyped as emotional, passive and sensitive individuals. I’ve been in a situation where I have stereotyped a child, and thankfully, I was spot on with my assumption, but this does not always happen. My family was invited to my friend’s daughter’s birthdays party, and knowing little about the child’s interests, I picked up a gift that I thought she would like. Needless to say, I opted for a “safe” gift for a 3-year-old girl, and decided on a baby doll with a push stroller. Had the child been a boy, I would have chosen a gift that I know a young boy would enjoy playing with. Stereotyping is not always so innocent, however. Although it happens all the time, it seems as though our society has become conditioned to placing everyone in a category. This turns into an issue when the mold that you are stereotyped into has expectations that you must uphold. Academic performance, job choice and extracurricular activities are defined by stereotypes. The toys we are expected to play with, the clothes we are expected to wear, and the job we are expected to keep are all held under the stereotype’s authority. At a very young age, children learn what their preferences are by watching what their mothers or fathers do and how they behave. This illustrates what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t, hence the development of gender identity.
A child gradually begins to identify with one group and develops a gender identity, or a sense of one’s self as a male or a female. Eventually, the child will show preference over dancing and singing or exercising and sports. Sometimes, girls are athletically inclined and artistically challenged, other times, boys are artistically inclined and athletically challenged. This wouldn’t mean that they do not identify as their biological gender, they may enjoy doing different things. Toddlers seek their parent’s approval before they interact with a new toy, or a new environment. A theory known as the gender-schema theory asserts that children learn about male and female roles from the culture in which they live. According to the theory, children adjust their behavior to align with the gender norms of their culture from the earlies stages of development. What we call mimicry is what this theory reminds me of, but I relate to this theory so deeply. I vividly remember looking at my mother for her facial “It’s okay” look. I also remember watching her, her mannerisms, and how she composed herself. I would compare them to those of my grandmother and my aunts, and I would realize the slight differences. I absorbed as much as I could from those around me and developed my own gender role and identity.
The culture I grew up in helped define the guidelines of what was expected of me. When I was a baby, I wore bracelets and had my ears pierced. My mother dressed me in the most ridiculous dresses and outfits, hand made by my grandmother. My gender role was already being influenced, even before I was aware. My mother hardly ever let me sleep over a friend’s house, but my brother would stay weekends at his friend’s house. As I grew older, I understand my mother’s perspective, and being a mother to a little girl, I can relate to the fear. The difference in treatment between my brother and myself was massive. However, these small cultural qualities play a significant role when establishing a gender role, and gender identity. In essence, our cultures determine what behavior is acceptable or not through years of values, beliefs and customs that get passed down from older generations.
Gender among other aspects of social life are identified differently between societies. Each society has a different view on gender identity and gender roles. Different societies have different views on the right and wrongs in their daily lives. These differences are more distinct when the society/cultures are more different from each other. Different in terms of religion, beliefs, culture, values and etc. In this paper, we use North America and the Middle East to understand these differences.
Get original essayGender identity is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female (both or neither). This concept is intimately related to the concept of gender role, which is defined as the outward manifestation of personality that reflect the gender identity. Gender identity, in nearly all instances, is self-identified, as a result of a combination of inherent and extrinsic or environmental factors. Gender roles, on the other hand, is manifested within society by observable factors such as behaviour and appearance. For example, if a person considers himself a male and is most comfortable referring to his personal gender in masculine terms, then his gender identity is male. However, his gender role is male only if he demonstrates typically male characteristics in behaviour, dress, and/or mannerism. Gender role in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are usually expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurture. Men are generally expected to be strong, passive and bold. Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very different from group to group. For example, the North American culture has very different views on gender roles compared to the Middle East. Similarly, gender role expectations can also change in the same society over time. For example, pink used to be considered a masculine color in the US while blue was considered feminine. Therefore, gender identity and roles vary from different parts of the world and the biggest determinant of this is religion. Religion sets the base for any culture which then adopts the cultural norms according to the religion.
Gender roles around the world have changed throughout the course of history. Gender roles in North American households evolved from a traditional single-income family where the husband is responsible for the family income while the wife worked at home and took care of the kids to a dual-income family where both spouses work to generate income. While many people claim that this was a sexist structure, others believe it to simply be a division of labor or a social system in which a particular segment of the population performs one type of labour and another segment performs another type. Similar to before the mid 19th Century North America, the Middle East still has societal norms regarding gender identity and gender roles. Most families rely on a single-income, usually from the husband, while women are expected to look after the kids and take care of the house. But as of recently, there has been a change in this ideology, mainly in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Women are given more freedom compared to before to be equal to men and work in their professional fields rather than at home. Saudi Arabia recently gave women in the kingdom the right to drive which is a huge stepping stone for the women in the area. Ban on women driving was an internationally recognized symbol of unequal status. Along with the ability to drive has come new rights and freedom like the ability to join the military, work in intelligence services and attend sporting events and concerts. Senior clerics are also pushing to make the requirement to wear Abaya (Religious garment) non-compulsory. Across the middle east, countries have been upgrading women’s rights since the early 2000s. Practices like “Gender Quota”, meaning, parties are required to nominate a minimum percentage of women as candidates for office are being used to increase women’s representation in politics allowing them to have a stronger voice in society and politics.
Religion is a very important part of any culture. It is the building block of a society and the societal norms that people follow. Religion and the religious practices and beliefs in North America and the Middle East are very different from each other. While both religions may have given preference to a more patriarchal society (Christanity: Man is created in God’s image), the main determinant of society and societal norms is how the people perceive the message of their religion. For example, in the 18th century, women in North America were believed to be properties of their husbands. Anything they earned belonged to their husbands and women were expected to be submissive to their husbands as they were seen as a source of sin (Eve). While in Islam, women are expected to cover themselves in front of men out of their family which imposed dfficulties when it came to working through which cultural norms forbad women to work outside of the house as it was a male dominated society. The main reason why the ideology of equal rights of women came about in the middle east so much later than in North America is because the population in the middle east are more traditional and religious than the North American population. People in the middle east are traditionally have been more strict in practicing the Islamic religion. Even though, Islam itself does not deny women from working, but as a restriction of not being able to interact with men outside of the family, it was easier for women to stay at home which later led to become a part of the culture which became hard wired into the people that women are not allowed to work outside. This shows that even though religion is a building block for culture, culture still has more impact compared to religion when it comes to societal norms. Whereas the population of North America is not that religious when it comes to religious traditions and practices or ideologies which allowed the cultural change of allowing women into the workforce before the middle east. For example, a survey done in 2009 by Gallup, Inc. stated that there’s a huge difference between the percentage of population in North America and the Middle East that believes that religion is an important part of their daily life. The data supports that for countries that are more religious, acquiring equal rights for women in that country has been more difficult because of the culture a strong religious society creates where there is little to no room for flexibility in the religious/cultural norms.
Similarly, people in the Middle East face the same problem when it comes to gender identity and sexual preferences. The Quran narrates the story of the people of Lut (Prophet of the Islamic religion) who were destroyed by the wrath of God because they engaged in lustful carnal acts between men. Since the muslim believe that the Quran is the word of God, most mostly due to their inflexibility with religious ideologies and also due to the fact that there is no central governing authority for the Islamic religion, the people percieve the Quran however they best understand it. It has only been recently that Muftis, a Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give ruling on religious matters, have started looking into to study it deeper and try to understand if the text is really against the LGBTQ community. A growing number of Islamic scholars, mainly in the West, have started re-examining Islamic teachings on same-sex relationships and whether a blanket condemnation of LGBTQ people is a misinterpretation. There are also growing opportunities for alternative and meaningful worship and community. Many Islamic cultures have started to accept Transgender men and women. In fact, the idea of a man or woman identifying as a member of the opposite gender is more likely to be accepted than that of a man or woman expressing sexual desire for someone of their own gender. But nonetheless, the difference in acceptance of gender identity and assigning gender role is heavily dependent on religion but more so dependent on the culture. Culture heavily influences cultural norms and beliefs even when some of it might contradict with religion.
While there are a lot of differences between how the two cultures, North America and the Middle East, approach the notion of gender identity and gender roles. While they do have a lot of differences, there are some similarities between them too.
First of all, both cultures/societies are making a transition from a patriarchal society into an egalitarian society. Even though North America is far ahead of the middle east in terms of gender roles/women’s equality but it is still not to the point it should be yet. For example, a study in 2015 suggested that corporate America has made almost no progress in improving women’s representation. Women are underrepresented at every level, and women of color are the most underrepresented group of all, lagging behind white men, men of color, and white women. Due to this, women are also outnumbered in senior leadership positions. Only about 1 in 5 women make it to the C-suite while others remain at lower positions throughout their careers.
While many believe that we have moved on from the traditional ideologies of women as housewives, there are women who leave their jobs to focus on family. Even though women are allowed to work, there is a social/cultural understanding that if needed, women are going to be the ones who will leave their jobs for the family rather than men. Similarly, women in the middle east suffer from the same discrimination. The World Economic Forum estimates the wage gap between men and women in the Middle East to be between 20 and 40 percent. Women are unable to achieve promotions into higher positions due to a high number of male counterparts. These discriminations in both cultures are similar as it seems like even though they have accepted women to have power, they still don’t believe them to be equal to men. It is clear that there is still a cultural bias over who is more suitable to work in the career force and if needed, who is to leave work and look after/focus on the family.
Another similarity the two cultures share is the transition both cultures are making from a patriarchal society into an egalitarian society. Even though we are not there yet, it is an idea that the younger generation is working towards from both cultures. The new generation for both cultures are more flexible with their cultural views and religious ideologies acknowledging the rights of everyone as an equal person. This would a person to identity themselves as whoever they want and gender roles would not be labeled on people based on their gender. This would eventually sort the differences that North America and the Middle East have between each other which has resulted into a lot of conflicts and might promote peace and unity between the two cultures.
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Get custom essayThe notion of gender identity and gender roles come from cultural beliefs, values and traditions. Even though religion does play an important part in the formation of cultural values, sometimes the culture becomes more important than religion itself and ends up affecting ideologies like gender roles and gender identities. Gender roles are set by cultures implementing the rights and wrongs for a gender which may include how to dress, act, speak and etc. The two cultures, North America and the Middle East, are very different from each other. The biggest difference that affects gender roles has been religion/culture. Due to these, there has been differences between the two cultures.
In the majority of John Donne’s poetry, it is easy to characterize Donne as a domineering speaker, one who frequently overbears the female voice. Yet in “The Flea,” Donne complicates the prototypical gender roles seen in most early modern love poetry. Throughout the poem, the poet uses symbolism and unspoken dialogue to imply a complicated and conflicted relationship with the poem’s addressee. Instead of insisting upon a stable patriarchy, Donne uses these devices to destabilize hierarchal systems of power associated with gender.
Get original essayExhibiting classic elements of metaphysical poetry, Donne utilizes the most unlikely images to symbolize romance. In this poem, it is the flea itself that the speaker uses to try and persuade his lover to engage in premarital sex. By using the flea as a symbolic framework element, Donne is able to set up a unique banter between the speaker and his addressee. To the speaker, their “mingled” blood within the flea’s body is equivalent to the exchange of bodily fluids during sexual intercourse (4). However, his recipient obviously does not agree, having “denied” him what the flea symbolically enjoys (2). Unlike lots of love poetry where the male figure dominates, the flea serves as a symbol for the mutual union of love making and a woman’s role in seduction. The opening stanza provides a compelling example of previously mentioned blurred gender lines: the male seducer becomes identified with the seduced female by the insects mutual sucking (“It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee”; line 3). In a sense, Donne introduces the innovative idea that romance is mutual and sacred, rather than solely for a man’s sexual pleasure. While an overall look at the poem may lead readers to believe the speaker is a misogynistic character concerned only with his own sexual gratification, a closer look at the speaker’s persuasive monologue suggests a progressive view of women.
“The Flea” depicts an interaction between two equally intelligent people playfully challenging each other. Although the woman in the poem is silent for its entirety, it is ironically her unspoken voice which controls the poem. By even suggesting the woman’s ability to engage in a witty argument, Donne is subtly complimenting female intelligence. Not only does she have the ability to understand his proposition, but also to respond and participate in the banter. Furthermore, the woman is presented as preoccupied with preserving her honor, or “maidenhead,” instead of succumbing to the male’s plea (6). The opening lines “Marke but this flea, and marke in this, / How little that which thou deny'st me is” immediately establishes a woman’s right to refuse a man’s sexual desires (1-2). The later lines regarding “a sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead” indicates the woman’s desire to remain pure and virtuous - positive attributes in the eyes of early modern society (6). By presenting the poem’s addressee as morally excellent, Donne reveals the barbaric and overtly sexualized ideals possessed by men. Likewise, Donne emphasizes a woman’s power to deny a man sex. Although the male speaker presents a somewhat convincing argument, the woman ultimately controls the outcome. By line 19, the poem’s addressee has become “cruel and sudden,” and she decisively kills the flea. By “purple[ing] [her] nail in blood of innocence,” the woman kills not only the flea, but also symbolically squashes any hope the speaker may have had in getting the woman into bed with him (20). Granting the woman power to deny the man and “triumph” in the argument suggests an implicit praise of virtuous women (23). By refusing to accommodate the speaker’s wishes, the addressee maintains her purity and honor throughout the entire poem. Thus, instead of creating a weak and vulnerable woman, Donne choses to present the poem’s addressee as a woman who has her own self-agency and righteousness.
Ostensibly, “The Flea” can be seen as a contemptuous representation of women. However, a closer reading of the poem reveals Donne’s desire to destabilize conventional gender hierarchies. Throughout the poem, the poet uses symbolism and unspoken dialogue to imply a complicated and conflicted relationship with the poem’s addressee. Presenting the woman in the poem as respectable and wholesome allows for a stark contrast to the overtly horny and sexualized male speaker. Ultimately, it is important to look below the surface before attempting to characterize John Donne as a misogynistic male chauvinist.
Work Cited
Donne, John. “The Flea.” Seventeenth Century British Poetry: 1603 - 1660. Ed. John Rumrich and Gregory Chaplin. New York: Norton, 2006. Page 33. Print.
Giovanni Boccaccio’s medieval work of art The Decameron highlights both the righteous and sinful ways of humans, through the telling of short stories. Boccaccio’s tales cover a wide array of topics, including adultery, love, devotion, trickery, and attributes of selfish and selfless people. Many commend Boccaccio because of his courage to shine a spotlight upon the distasteful aspects of medieval life, specifically the impartialness to extramarital affairs. Boccaccio’s Decameron provides a lens into medieval life which was greatly separated by gender disparities, economic divides, and contrasts in social status.
Get original essayGender disparities are a very significant portion of Boccaccio’s writing, and the different portrayals of men and women are obvious. In the society that The Decameron takes place in, women have been trapped in a lower social standing than men. Yet, Boccaccio demonstrates that a woman’s lack of social standing does not influence her levels of control in any sort of relationship. In fact, women seem to have an upper hand in many aspects of male-female relationships. For example, Ghismonda’s relationship with her father Tancrede in Day IV portrays a bond which the female holds power over the male. Ghismonda, disheartened by her father’s stern threats against Guiscardo, held her own life above her father's head as a threat saying, “I certify thee, that whatsoever thou hast done or shalt do with Guiscardo, a thou do not the like with me, mine own hands shall do it” (P. 199).
Ghismonda’s threats are not those posed without meaning, and they are out of her love for a man. Ghismonda threatened to end her own life to reiterate how important Guiscardo was to her. Ghismonda eventually took her own life to spite her father, showing her blatant disregard for gender disparities.
Boccaccio demonstrated a woman’s seemingly unlikely social advantages again when telling the story of the Day VI. The story of a woman accused of murdering her husband, only to be forgiven by her father yet tormented by the judge, testaments to their social upper hand. The young lady, much like Ghismonda, explained that she would rather slay herself than be accused improperly, thus keeping her dignity. She said, “I purpose to abide no longer on life; but, ere I go about to slay myself, I would fain take fitting means to preserve my honor and the secret of the love that hath been between us twain and that the body..” (P. 223).
Andre Viola, whom insisted on preserving her dignity, could achieve being viewed as innocent if allowed to take her life. Selfless acts like these are usually performed by women in most of Boccaccio's stories. Ghismonda taking her life to both spite her father and reunite with Guiscardo proved that she had little fear of repercussions, especially by Tancrede. Similarly, Andre Viola, who wanted to preserve his self-image, had little influence on the motivations of men. Andre Viola was influenced by everyone’s accusations of her, male or female. Gender disparities are very common in Boccaccio's writing, but often times women are portrayed as selfless and fearless, caring not about consequence they may face from a man.
One of the few examples in which a woman does not seem completely advantageous in a situation is in Day V, the story of the knight whom endlessly chases his transgressor. Yet in this story, though the woman may seem like a victim due to her the consequence for her “actions”, both the male and female are being punished, simultaneously. Placing aside the main storyline of the man who moved to Ravenna to be relieved of his anguish, Boccaccio’s story of the knight and his prey contains more important, yet implicit, information. The knight, who feels he is pursuing “divine justice” by chasing after his transgressor says, “I, who once loved her so dear, should pursue her, not as a beloved mistress, but as a mortal enemy, and that, as often as I overtook her, I should slay her with this tuck”. (P. 280).
The knight, though he used to be completely enamored by this woman, now must chase after her, never to find that his task his complete. Though the knight felt “wronged” by the woman he adored, he is truly the subject of punishment, because he must chase after her, while never feeling accomplished for her murder. Boccaccio’s inclusion of this story is very crucial to the portrayal of men, as opposed to women. He implies that chasing after women to no end is a waste of energy, especially when a woman is able to readjust herself and keep fleeing from her suitors. It is important to note that Boccaccio recognizes many women as time and energy consuming, with no reward upon their “capture”.
Second, to gender disparities, economic divides play a crucial role in Boccaccio’s tales. A noteworthy story to elaborate upon this is in Day V, the story of the Nightingale. Caterina and Ricciardo, who have been sleeping together on the balcony of Caterina’s home, were caught in a loving embrace. Yet, instead of driving Ricciardo from her father’s home, or murdering him, they were immediately wed. This is due to Ricciardo being of the acceptable social and economic class, suitable for Caterina. Unlike Guiscardo, who was strangled to death for premarital affairs, Ricciardo is described as “a young man of the Minardi of Bertinoro, comely and lusty of his person, by name Ricciardo, who much frequented Messer Lizzio house”. (P. 262).
Later, after catching his daughter engaging in lewd acts, Messer Lizio asks Ricciardo, “Do thou, to save thyself from death and me from shame, take Caterina to thy lawful wife”. (P. 264). This exchange is extremely noteworthy when documenting the influence of social class in the perception of the transgressor. The relationship between Guiscardo and Ghismonda, and Caterina and Ricciardo are essentially the exact same amount of sin, lust, and secrecy. Yet, Guiscardo and Ghismonda are dead, yet Caterina and Ricciardo live, due to the difference in economic standards. While Boccaccio was unafraid to portray females as the leads of their own lives, he was apprehensive towards a relationship which was counterculture: one that crossed economic lines.
The only story which was accepting of a relationship with differing economic tiers, was that of the Falcon in Day V. The relationship, as described in the beginning, was one-sided, and the woman had little interest in her suitor. She, Madam Giovanna, was a widow with many riches left by her husband. Federigo had little to his name besides his farm and his bird, because he had spent many of his riches away attempting to attract Madam Giovanna. Yet somehow, Boccaccio yields to the yearnings of the reader, allowing the two to be united by their love, rather by their wealth or political premise. Madam Giovanna says to her suitor, “‘I know very well that it is as you say, but I would liefer have a man that lacketh of riches than riches that lack a man.’ Her brethren, hearing her mind and knowing Federigo for a man of great merit, poor though he was, gave her, with all her wealth, to him” (P 286).
Boccaccio elaborated further, essentially explaining that their marriage was successful due to his positive personality traits and their shared wealth. With respect to the other tales explained, this story is particularly odd. Relating back to the tale of Ghismonda, Ghismonda and her lover eventually are laid to rest in the same tomb, because of their vastly differing economic stature. And although Guiscardo was in love with Ghismonda, and she with him, neither could create an outcome near to what Federigo and Madam Giovanna created. It seems as such that since Madam Giovanna had no authoritative male restraining her from pursuing this relationship (i.e. father, husband), she was free to do as she pleased with respect to her wealth and social image.
On the contrary, Ghismonda was held back by her father from pursuing the relationship which she wanted, which led to her demise. Perhaps Boccaccio is inadvertently explaining that women are held back from choosing their true love by men, and if permitted, men of lower social status would be their suitor of choice.
In Boccaccio’s tales, intertwined between economic status and gender divides, is the significant issue of political contrasts. Usually, between a woman of higher stature and a man deemed unworthy, these stories do not prove a common ending, yet elaborate upon a woman’s true desires in a lover. Day IV tells the story of the young Lisabetta, described as a “right fair and well-mannered maiden, whom, whatever might have been the reason thereof, they had not yet married” (P. 217).
The tale immediately describes Lisabetta as a woman who was not married off by her wealthy brothers, which indicates her social status. Lorenzo, her lover, was described as “agreeable”, but his wealth is not elaborated on. Boccaccio demonstrates women's’ preference, yet again, for men of lower status. After Lorenzo is killed, and the basil plant Lisabetta finds solace in (including Lorenzo’s head), is robbed from her, she is inconsolable to the point which she sobs to death.
The story, though short, proves that Boccaccio is not an advocate for marrying outside of a distinct social caste. In most of the stories provided, a woman eventually threatens to take her own life, or her life is stripped from her. Boccaccio created this story to be distinctively morbid from the rest of the “forbidden love situations”. When reading the story from a distance, the plot is seen as a wealthy young female who was not permitted to marry a socially downcast male, so she eventually died.
Lastly, this story fulfills the criteria created regarding a wealthy or powerful woman seeking to court a young, socially downcast male. Because she has three older brothers who wish to keep their family rid of commoners, the solution found is to murder Lorenzo, and through this, murder Lisabetta. Boccaccio’s portrayal of the outcome of courting a man outside of a specific social realm is often times morbid and blatantly obnoxious.
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Get custom essayGiovanni Boccaccio is very explicit when he describes the plight of pursuing a lover. Often times, if not all the time, women are inhibited from being united with a man due to an authoritative figure who exercises control over her life. Yet, in many stories, Boccaccio’s tales exhibit the idea that women are in control of their own fate, especially through their means of death. While women are usually prohibited from being united with a man outside political, social, or economic classes, they can exercise control of their lives by threatening to take their own life, which happens very often in The Decameron. The Decameron, though a masterpiece in emboldening humans’ sinful and righteous nature, provides an outlook on women which is very authoritative, and not progressive at all for its time.
Since this was the first class about gender and sexuality, almost everything I learned was new to me. Something that I thought was very exciting during this class was that for all the topics we discussed I could compare them to how they are similar or different from home in Europe. It was really interesting to learn so much about topics like feminism and the LGTBQ+ community. I had a basic concept of what they meant but through this class I got to know a more detailed and elaborated view on these topics. Especially, the discussion posts were a real asset to learning more about gender and sexuality because I saw the same topic from so many different sides and opinions.
Get original essayThe first text I thought was very insightful and interesting to read was Feminism is For Everybody by bell hooks. This text was definitely compelling to me since I barely knew anything about feminism before reading this book. The only thing I kind of knew about it was that these women demonstrate and are against men being the oppressing gender. This is exactly what hooks mentioned in her book as well. She talks about how in the beginning of the feminist movement it was seen for a large part as an anti-male movement and many women who became feminist were angry because of bad experiences with men in their relationships. Additionally, there were groups of men that were anti-feminist, these men formed kind of a feminist movement but then the male version. A fascinating point that was pointed out by hooks was mentioning what the feminist movement can do internally to help men feel less attacked and understand the importance of feminism. Hooks argues this idea of a man’s lack of identity due to society and states that the feminist movement must broaden their vision. She thinks that a “feminist vision which embraces feminine masculinity, which loves boys and men; and demands on their behalf every right we want for girls and women” is needed (hooks, 71). These pieces combined show that men aren’t a problem within feminism but rather society.
The next text is probably one of my favorite texts of the semester. It had a large impact on me, but not because it changed my vision on this topic, it established my thought. The text is “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” by Judith Butler. I liked how she talked about philosophical standpoints on gender and sexuality and how she used several quotes from Beauvoir that were on target. According to Butler, Beauvoir states that “gender is no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather it is an identity tenuously constituted in time – an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” (519). Another claim made by Beauvoir is: “Any gender is an historical situation rather than a natural fact” (Butler, 520). In my opinion, these are statements that are spot on and factual, however in my experience I know that there are many people that don’t agree with these statements. Butler’s essay corresponds greatly with another topic discussed in class: drag culture. In the article “Learning from Drag Queens” they talk about how “Drag performances challenge the biological basis of gender and the fixed nature of sexual identity” (Taylor and Rupp, 12). Drag queens are the example that prove Beauvoir’s statements. How one becomes a woman or man is based on one’s acts not on physical characteristics. Additionally, one’s identity is not decided when one was born, but it formed through out one’s life. Identity is formed through behavior, acting and decisions. Drag queens are examples of people that are formed by historical situation rather than by natural facts.
The next text is the fictional text The Handmaid’s Tale which was different but very enjoyable since I saw similar topics from another perspective. Even though this text was fictional, it made a huge impact on me because I know that there are parts in the world where society’s cultures are similar to the one in the book. The part I liked the most about The Handmaid’s Tale was looking at the resistance shown by the handmaids. The fact that resistance might not always be as obvious and clear but when looking deeper into the text several signs are shown. In the passage when Offred asks the Commander about the Latin sentence in her room: “nolites de bastardas carborundorum which stands for “don’t let the bastards grind you down”, Offred realizes that a previous handmaid must have carved this sentence into the wooden floor showing resistance against the patriarchal and totalitarian society. Offred’s resistance is not as noticeable because she resists more by working in a secret way instead of being straight up and confrontational. Others reading the novel might think Offred is not really resisting because she obeys her oppressors and therefore willingly participates. On the other hand, Offred does resist her oppressors in the small ways that are offered to her. She preserves her own life and autonomy as an individual through her thoughts, reflections and descriptions on what she sees and experiences. Offred resists against becoming an reproductive object as society sees her.
The Handmaid’s Tale made me think of the #MeToo movement which I see as the more modern version of resistance compared to the resistance shown in the book since social media is the main tool that makes this movement so successful. The article “#MeToo and the Promise and Pitfalls of Challenging Rape Culture Through Digital Feminist Activism” by Mendes talks about activism through social media. Social media helped women of the #MeToo movement to be brave enough to speak up. Because of one woman that started the movement by sharing her story, other women who probably don’t even know her, got triggered to speak up as well. Through social media their voices were heard and things did actually change. As mentioned in the article “Although #MeToo is perhaps one of the most high-profile examples of digital feminist activism we have yet encountered, it follows a growing trend of the public’s willingness to engage with resistance and challenges to sexism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression via feminist uptake of digital communication” (Mendes et al, 236-237). This shows that activism and resistance through social media impacts the world immensely.
From the book Colonize This! I chose the text “Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt” because it’s about a culture very different from mine and it’s interesting to read about their principles and experiences. In the text, Martinez shares a story about the expected behavior in her culture. Women in her family are the ones who have to take care of everyone. Martinez is “one of many dutiful daughters” (152). Martinez’ family doesn’t give her a choice, in their culture the sons pursue their career and make money while the daughters take care of the family. Martinez mentions the word ‘Marianismo’, which means that women are not to make decisions for themselves. She obviously doesn’t support this statement and her parents don’t first-hand support it either. However, it’s still deeply rooted into the dynamics of her family. One of the things Marianismo comes with is, “Do not be independent minded” (Martinez, 154). Martinez struggles majorly because she wants to strive towards her goals and explore but she’s being held back by her family and culture because what she wants doesn’t fit into their expectations. The same culture was also talked about by Sandra Cisneros in The House on Mango Street. She particularly talks about her father who wants her to be a weather girl on television or marry and have babies. He wants her to stay at their house until she gets married; however, Cisneros doesn’t want to follow her culture’s principles and rules so she follows her own path by moving out of the house and going to study. Even though she pursuits her own career and keeps doing what she likes to do, she always feels a little guilty towards her parents. Martinez also feels this guilt. Cisneros mentions: “I feel like a bad daughter ignoring my father, but I feel worse when I don’t write. Either way, I never feel completely happy” (xix). This shows that Cisneros follows her own path but still feels a little guilty towards her family because she loves them.
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Get custom essayAltogether, I enjoyed this class a lot. I am a science major and an international student so this class definitely opened up my view on many topics and issues that are going on in society in the United States. I hope I was able to open up other people’s perspectives and views on various topics as well.
To what extent do male and female literary characters accurately reflect the role of men and women in society?
Get original essayChimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses dominance, control and power to accurately reflect the role of male literary characters and silence and oppression to reflect the role of female literary characters in society in Purple Hibiscus. Eugene Achike has power over his family, companies and newspaper which leads to a desire of abusive control which can be seen through his family relationships. Obiora and Jaja assume the role of dominance, like an older son who was lacking a father figure and cared about the well-being of his family would. Beatrice Achike nurtures her children and plans for them, regardless of the abuse and oppression she undergoes due to her husband.
Eugene Achike, referred to as Papa, is one of the main characters present in Purple Hibiscus. He is the father of Kambili, the narrator of the book. Papa is dedicated to his religious studies, as well as his snack companies and being the editor of the newspaper he works for. Kambili is talking about the new baby while characterizing her father when she says, “Kambili was written in bold letters on top of the white sheet of paper, just as Jaja was written on the schedule about Jaja’s desk in his room…Papa liked order.” (pg.23) Papa wanting order or control in the household is similar to the stereotypical role of men in a household. In many forms of literature, men are perceived as the “bread-winners.” According to dictionary.com, a bread-winner a person supporting a family with his or her earnings. This can be seen again when Kambili doesn’t place first in her class and her father takes her to school to look for Chinwe Jideze and points out the fact that she only has one head, the same advantages that Kambili has, so Chinwe should not do any better than Kambili. “’Why do you think I work so hard to give you and Jaja the best? You have to do something with all these privileges,’” (pg. 47) shows Papa believes the structural influence he puts in Kambili’s and Jaja’s life is beneficial, since when he was growing up he didn’t have these privileges of a private Christian school or transportation from a personal driver.
Another example of how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s characters reflect gender roles in society is the relationship between Obiora and Aunty Ifeoma. Similar to the controlling, bread-winner role Papa has on his family, it is a western cliché that if the father is missing from the family, the oldest son will assume that role. On page 74, it is revealed that Amaka’s, Obiora’s and Chiaku’s father got into a car accident, and that was the reason he was not present in their lives. When Kambili and Jaja are visiting Nsukka, Obiora tells Amaka to stop being mean to Kambili, siphons fuel for Aunty Ifeoma’s car and slaughters chickens for his family. This shows dominance and responsibility within Obiora, where he assumes a role within his family, something that Jaja wishes he had. Towards the end of the story, after Papa dies and Mama is broken, Jaja says “I should have taken care of Mama. Look how Obiora balances Aunty Ifeoma’s family on his head, and I am older than he is. I should have taken care of Mama.” (pg. 289) Jaja feels this need of dominance like his father, earlier in the book when he kneels next to his mother on Palm Sunday and helps her pick up the broken ballet figurines and tells her to be careful, like a caring husband might do for his wife. This also can be seen when Jaja takes the blame for his father’s death.
A female character which accurately reflects the role of women in society is Beatrice Achike, also known as Mama. Not all married women are sheltered and silent, and subjects of marital abuse, however the majority of mothers are caring and want what is best for their children. This can be seen many times from Kambili’s perspective. Mama’s characterization begins when Kambili is in her room studying and Mama brings her uniforms in so that they wouldn’t get rained on. Mama and Kambili share a moment, like any other relationship between a mother and daughter, when Mama tells Kambili she is pregnant. When Kambili and Jaja come home from Nsukka, and their father pours boiling water on their feet for walking into sin, Mama is there to comfort Kambili afterwards. “Tears were running down her face…She mixed salt with cold water and gently plastered the gritty mixture onto my feet. She helped me out of the tub, made to carry me on her back to my room, but I shook my head…” (pg. 195) This shows Mama assuming the role of a woman, of a mother, the role to be caring and protective of her children. Finally, Mama chooses to protect her children by killing the man who oppressed and abused them since they were little. “’I started putting poison in his tea before I came to Nsukka…,’” (pg. 290) Mama tells her questioning children. We can assume that she did this because of the harm he was inflicting on her and her children.
Throughout Purple Hibiscus, the gender roles between the characters stays constant. One is able to see the inborn struggles between each character and the problems that are caused because of each struggle. The oppression of the Mama and the care Mama gives to her children accurately represents female roles in society. The power struggle in Papa is also extremely evident with the way he treats everyone in the family. Obiora’s need to care for his family when his father is not present also shows a role of a young man in society. Adichie does a great job representing each facet in the roles of each character.
Every citizen is a reporter, Oh Yeon-ho said as he launched Ohmynews in 2004, largelyas a fierce reaction to partisan politics in South Korean (Oh, 2004). “The citizens of the Republicof Korea had long been preparing for a grand revolution in the culture of news production andconsumption,” he said. “All I had to do was raise the flag.” The success of his site provided ahigh profile example of a movement many others had predicted. Glaser defined citizen journalism as the idea that “people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others.” (2004). Gillmor (2004) applauded the abilityof the “people formerly known as the audience” to bypass legacy news organizations, such as TVnetworks, newspapers, and magazines, and report the news their own way.
Get original essayWhen the citizen journalism movement reached the United States, however, it took on amuch different flavor than the fierce political discussion of Ohmynews. The Northwest Voice, acitizen journalism website in Bakersfield, Calif., began in early 2004 as well, and became one of the first citizen journalism experiments in the United States. Its content, however, focused moreon human-interest stories (Glaser, 2004). Some of the site’s most viewed stories covered lighter topics, such as a mother’s reaction to sending her child to his first day of school (Meyer, 2006). Other citizen journalism sites followed a similar script.
In a case study of MyMissourian.com, aColumbia, Mo. citizen journalism website based on the Northwest Voice, Bentley et. al (2007)found that the most popular stories covered issues that normally did not receive much attention in the mainstream media. Women, for example, filled the site with stories of their lives andcauses, even though the site was originally created to discuss the 2004 presidential elections (pg.249).The idea that citizen journalism exists to cover only issues of the fairer sex, however, is amisconception. Mayhill Fowler, for example, has bucked the trend since 2008.
Off the Bus project that contained influential information about what politicalfigures said in her presence not knowing she was on the beat as a reporter (Boehlert, 2009). Herboss Arianna Huffington is herself an influential figure in citizen journalism. “At HuffPost, wesee citizen journalism as an integral part of what we do – and, via Eyes and Ears, our citizen journalism community, we’re harnessing the wisdom of the crowd to tackle stories too big forone reporter, attend events traditional journalists have been kept from (or have overlooked), andto find and highlight the small but evocative story happening right next door,” she wrote (2009).Another citizen journalist argued the movement needs more female voices to flourish.“If citizen journalism is to make the strides it should … there needs to be parity of the sexes and a reliable sense of mutual respect. Otherwise it might as well be tabloidwriting. Muting of female voices will only be a detriment to the concepts behind citizen journalism” (Askcherlock, 2010).
For citizen journalism to make the gender equality strides Askcherlock mentions, media professionals and researchers need to better understand how audience members of both gendersreact to user-generated content. They also should determine what role, if any, gender plays in credibility and some of its core components, such as social presence, coorientation, andexpertise.This is an important question to consider as women have closed the gap in overallInternet use (Pew, 2012). More than 85 % of men and women say they use the Web regularly. Citizen journalism opportunities are also expanding. Dube (2010) lists 23 citizen mediainitiatives created by legacy media organizations, including CNN’s iReport, CBS’ EyeMedia,BBC’s iCan, and independent sites such as MapYourMoments. CNN paid more than $750,000for the iReport domain name in 2008 to expand its ability to publish user-generated content(Learmonth, 2008).
This study uses an online experiment to examine if participants’ reactions to stories published on a major news organization website differ based on the story’s author and his or her declared gender. The study has a specific focus on credibility and the measures that lead up to it,such as social presence, coorientation, and expertise, and asks whether, if at all, men and womenreact differently to staff writers and citizen journalists, especially if the author’s gender matchestheirs. Social presence, for example, will answer whether participants notice authors that sharetheir gender more than others. Coorientation will help explain if participants think authors sharetheir beliefs and perceptions more if they also share their gender. Expertise, as a concept, willhelp explain whether participants think authors that share their gender are more of an expert onthe topic they are covering and therefore more trustworthy. As this study deals with audience perceptions based on gender cues, it could also help inform why some authors would choose tohide or even alter their gender online to reach a certain audience.
Pearson (1982) was one of the first to suggest male writers have more credibility thanfemale writers. She also wrote in her book (1985) that female writers believed they would havemore credibility if they were male, and writers of both sexes thought they had more credibilitywith members of their own sex than with those of the opposite sex.White and Andsager (1991) also suggested that women found newspaper opinioncolumns written by women more interesting than those written by men, while men felt the sameabout male-written columns. However, they suggested that there would be no difference incredibility between male and female writers regardless of the reader’s gender. In other words, thetype of story, they suggested, mattered.
News pieces seem more credible on the surface thanopinion columns.These credibility differences between men and women revolve around basic gender stereotypes (Deaux & Lewis, 1984). A gender label alone can lead people to infer a variety of gender-related characteristics (pg. 1002). Several studies (Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972; Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, & Broverman, 1968)identified two sets of characteristics that are ascribed to women and men. Subjects associatedwarmth and expressiveness with women more than men, and competence and rationality, withmen more than women. Personality traits are the essence of gender stereotypes (Deaux andLewis, 1984). Gender stereotypes are able to bind people together, and also are important in thesocial perception process (Grant and Holmes, 1981, 1982).
Deaux and Lewis (1984) also found information about how one stereotype componentcan influence other components. However, gender information alone does not lead to theinference of a certain set of characteristics. “In most cases, however, the influence of gender can be outweighed by other information, such as role behaviors, traits, and the like” (pg. 1002). Inother words, if readers only have the author’s name and lack other cues about the author’scredibility, they may fall on gender stereotypes.
These same gender stereotypes seem to drive how men and women use a medium. Menlook for information on a wider variety of topics than women do, “from researching products to buy to getting information on their hobbies to looking for political news. Sometimes, men andwomen look for different kinds of information” (Fallows, 2005). After the events of September 11, men visited more websites to tell them about things that were happening; more women saidthe internet helped them find people they needed to reach. (p.iv). A larger percentage of womenthan men said in the study that they suffered from information overload online. While men andwomen both appreciate what the Internet does for their lives, men said they valued how it helpstheir activities, such as jobs and pastimes, more than women while women valued relationshipswith family, friends, colleagues, and communities (pg. v).
Both genders are increasingly exposed to cues beyond gender stereotypes to help themdetermine the credibility of the information they find online. These other cues can mitigate theeffect of gender stereotypes. Matheson (1991) found that within a computer-mediatedcommunication environment, participants who thought they were interacting with a womanfound her to be more cooperative and less exploitive. This occurred only when participants wereexplicitly told the person on the other side of the conversation was a woman. “It is conceivablethat such information focused subjects on the characteristics of the other that were similar totheir own, and hence invoked gender relevant dimensions of themselves, which were, in turn,‘projected’ onto the negotiator” (pg. 143). It took a strong suggestion to outweigh other cues andcause participants to go back to their default understanding of gender.
Flanagin and Metzger (2003) suggested sex is a significant factor when looking at perceived website credibility measures. “It is the interaction between author’s and viewer’s sexthat seems at the base of this relation” (pg. 698). For instance, their research suggested same-sexcredibility evaluations were lower than opposite sex credibility evaluations. Credibility would behigher when the sex of the message source matched the sex of the receiver. Four years later,Flanagin and Metzger (2007) underscored the importance of website features in determining perceived credibility. They suggested that a site’s frame, such as whether it was a news or shopping site, was the main determination of credibility. Their earlier study looked only at whatthey called “personal websites,” where a single author was clearly identified and she, in this case,was sharing about her life. For instance, participated said reviews on shopping websites from people like them were more credible than expert reviews. On news websites, however, expertopinions were rated the most credible.
Armstrong and McAdams (2009) supported these findings when they suggested thatinformation-seeking was one of the main determinants of credibility. Their study focused onWeblogs or blogs, one of the most common user-generated content forums online. A blog allowsan author to publish her own news stories or thoughts, feelings, or opinions in a chronologicalformat. A blog is primarily a content delivery system. The authors manipulated the gender descriptors of the blog’s author, and found that gender cues can influence the perceivedcredibility of blogs because individuals may perceive some topics as “belonging” to female or male bloggers or as requiring a particular expertise. They found blog posts written by men weredeemed more credible than those written by women, but the writing style and topic of the blogwere also likely to influence the perceived credibility of the post. As blogs become more prevalent and accepted as sources of credible information, they suggested that gender cues wouldbecome less important. Tone, in fact, could have a greater influence than gender. A more cynicaltone increased perceived credibility among young people.
To understand the effect of gender on credibility, however, it is important to define theconcept more precisely for an Internet age. Its definition is not as straightforward as it was 10years ago. It is still true that the more credible people find a news source, the more likely theywill be to use it. However, people use media that they say are not credible. For example, Reeves& Nass (1996) found audiences consistently awarded higher credibility marks to TV, eventhough TV stories lack the depth of and borrow extensively from newspaper reports. The reasonthey suggested was the human dimension.
At its most basic level, credibility is not simply an objective measure of a medium’sfeatures or messages (Flanagin & Metzger, 2007). It revolves around subjective evaluations of how stories, sources and organizations are presented. Reeves & Nass (1996), Wackman (1973), Kim (2010), Sundar (1999) and Rafaeli (1988) have shown that credibility needs to includemeasures of how much a person likes a medium, how much they have come to rely on it, andhow connected they feel to it and its agents.
The human dimension of the “credibility crisis” Gaziano first wrote about in 1986 has become even more complicated in 2012. The Internet has made more information available thanever, while muddling some of the core concepts of traditional credibility. Deciding what iscredible requires examining relationships between people and their sources for news even more.
Early media scholars approached credibility from two measures: do you trust the mediaand do you believe what you read? Gaziano & McGrath (1986) expanded the definition toinclude 12 measures. Their scale coupled questions about trust and believability with concepts such as objectivity, complexity, completeness, truth and reputation. Despite the comprehensivenature of the Gaziano & McGrath scale, researchers found other elements. Meyer (1988), aformer newspaper editor himself, boiled the Gaziano & McGrath scale down to one element – believability – while adding the idea of community affiliation. Beaudoin & Thorson (2004)reinforced Meyer’s addition by suggesting that credibility grows the more the newspaper connects to the community. Perloff (2003) added another human element in examining persuasive research – perceived expertise. Expertise links credibility to what people judge as theextent of a source’s knowledge and experience on a topic.
Another way to look at credibility is to break it into separate components that examinedmessage, source, and organizational credibility separately. Source credibility, for example, couldinclude Perloff’s expertise dimension, while organizational credibility spoke more to Meyer’saddition of affiliation. Separating the concepts has proven useful. Sundar (1999) demonstratedthe need to examine source credibility on its own when he asked readers to rate stories based onthe type and number of quotes they had. But he also found an interesting connection between a person’s relationship with a source and credibility. People judged sources based more on who thesource was rather than what he or she said. His study speaks to the personal nature of credibilitydefinitions, whether they deal with sources, messages or organizations. The human elements of messages take three forms – social presence, coorientation, and expertise – which work together to create a connection that leads to credibility and override gender stereotypes.
The ways in which non-human agents such as TV news broadcasts or even newspapersmake receivers feel as if they are human constitutes what researchers call social presence. The three dimensions social presence are (1) source attention, or how much focus the source receivesin the presentation relative to other cues, (2) co-presence, or how much an audience member canfeel the other person’s existence, and (3) mutual awareness or the feeling of being “known” byanother (Biocca et al., 2001; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Tamborini & Skalski, 2005). Social presence is the personal characteristics that make a receiver connect with the source. It can becreated from pictures, word choice, and tone, among other elements.
Recognizing a human presence is not enough, however. Credibility also depends on howclosely a person allies with the source. Wackman (1973) wrote the goal of communication for information exchange is to increase coorientation between two people. He defined coorientationas the level of similar attitudes and the perceived congruency of those attitudes. Findingsomething to relate to in the media is not hard. In fact, Reeves & Nass (1996) said it is natural.
Inwhat they called the “media equation,” they suggested coorientation between source and receiver existed even as messages were disseminated through the media. People have evolved to respondto other humans. When they see something that resembles a human, they respond to the mediathe same way they would to another person, and they tend to like media that act in a humanfashion. Gender stereotypes play a role in how audience relate to the media.
Another element of source credibility is perceived expertise. Hovland et al. (1953)suggested two dimensions of source credibility: trustworthiness and expertise. They argued thata receiver’s tendency to accept a speaker’s message depends on her estimation of how informedand intelligent the speaker is and how likely the speaker is to make valid points. Perloff (2003)defined expertise as a core characteristic of credible communicators. Whether a communicator should emphasize her expertise or her similarity to the audience can be a dilemma. Stories onfactual matters, such as news, might rely more on an expert’s knowledge than similarity (Perloff,2003). In order for news to connect with readers, it must pay attention to each of the threeelements – social presence, coorientation, and expertise – because stronger connections have theability to dramatically alter perceptions. As connection grows, so does credibility. Sundar (1999)identified relatedness as one of four elements that defined both online and newspaper credibility.
Greater social presence can also lead to reliance, which Wanta (1994) suggested can increasecredibility.Defining credibility for the Internet age requires more than just a study of site features.Flanagin & Metzger (2007) found that source matters. The nature of the organization and itsmessages were determining factors in the credibility respondents assigned. Participantsconsistently gave news sites the highest credibility scores, even when they had never seen that particular news site before. They could learn from the social cues the site provided how credibleit was, but interestingly, the more social presence the site had the less credible it was. Personalweblogs were rated the least credible even when they had the exact same, almost verbatimstories, as the news, and e-commerce sites. Meyer, Marchionni & Thorson (2006) also foundsocial presence was not positively related to the credibility of news websites. The main predictor in their study was expertise. Subsequent analysis revealed coorientation not social presence positively predicted expertise.
The impact of new credibility concepts, such as coorientation, social presence, expertiseand interactivity online does not invalidate the more traditional credibility definitions originally applied to newspapers. Credibility online must join the Web’s ability to make connectionsthrough technology with traditional concepts of trust, believability and expertise. Definingcredibility also necessitates an understanding of the values and purpose of Web communication.Sites that connected most with audiences (Flanagin & Metzger, 2007) are sites that presenttrustworthy information in formats that spoke to the audiences and allowed them to connect.Johnson & Kaye (2004) also suggest relationships help determine why users sometimesrate opinionated blogs more credible than news Web sites.
They linked credibility both on andoffline, with how familiar a person was with the medium. Those with more familiarity with theInternet and less with traditional media rated political blogs more credible. Traditional mediacould attract an audience with less familiarity with traditional news media online if they adoptedmore of the social presence and coorientation attributes of the Web.To measure and increase credibility in the Internet age, researchers need to examine notonly if trust, belief, and expertise exist. They must look at how individuals come to create thesefeelings and how the options available online can help. Most importantly, connection may enableus to overcome gender stereotypes in information processing.
Based on the literature, this study examined the following hypotheses within the citizen journalist context:
H1.
Gender match, or whether the receiver’s gender matches that of the sources,will have a direct positive effect on credibility perceptions for stories writtenby a news organization staff writer.
H2.
Gender match will have a direct positive effect on credibility perceptions forstories written by audience members.
H3.
The components of credibility, such as coorientation, social presence, andinterest, will mitigate the effects of gender on credibility.
The study is based on a 2 (story author) x 2 (author’s gender) within-subjects experiment,which asked participants to read four news stories, all ostensibly coming from the same major news website. The stories were basic news stories on six separate topics selected to be non-controversial. The researchers specifically avoided stories dealing with politics, religion or women’s issues. The topics were technology, health, U.S. news, entertainment, world news, andcrime. The gender of the story author, along with whether the author was a staff writer or audience member was manipulated. In the end, each participant read a story written by a maleand female staff writer and a male and female audience member. The order of the authorshipconditions, the topics, and the writer’s gender were randomized through a simple website-based program called a PHP script.
The random assignment and within-subjects design helped theexperiment to focus on the variance authorship created, not other external factors.Respondents answered the same questions after each story. Respondents rated the social presence, expertise, coorientation, credibility, and interest they had in each story. The questionsfollowed Meyer, Marchionni & Thorson (2010), which used a similar model to determine how participants ranked the credibility of stories written in traditional news, opinionated, and citizen journalism formats. Story titles for this study included “After tornado, town rebuilds by goinggreen,” “Air Force One Backup Rattles New York Nerves,” “In digital age, can movie piracy bestopped?” and “Students, musicians fight and fear Taliban.”Social presence measured how much readers noticed the person behind the story, with questions such as “I felt like I got to know the author,” “At times, I felt like the author was in theroom with me,” and “I thought of the author while reading the article.” Expertise measured thelevel of proficiency participants thought the author had with the topic through questions such as (either a Master’s or a Ph.D.).
Another 53 % reported incomes less than $25,000 annually, while12 % had incomes of more than $100,000 a year.The story was the unit of analysis. Each participant then had six units of analysis.Statistical tests focused on the differences between the participant’s gender and whether itmatched the author’s. An independent samples T-test focused on all the stories, asking only if gender matched. The only statistical significance was found when an audience member was theauthor. Expertise (t(343)=-2.22, p<.01) and story credibility (t(343)=-2.66, p<.01) were bothstatistically significant in the negative direction. This meant that when the author’s gender didnot match the participant’s, the story was rated less expert and less credible. (See table 1). Next, the researchers examined if any difference existed for men and women across theauthorship conditions.
For men, the only statistically significant variable was story credibility(t(374)=2.62, p<.01) if the story was written by a staff member. Male participants (see table 3)found the staff written story more credible if the author’s gender did not match. In other words,male participants rated stories written by staff writers who were women more credible than thosewritten by men.For women (see table 4), statistical significance was found only for audience writtenstories. If the author’s gender did not match the participant’s, women found less social presence(t(343)=-.248, p<.01), story credibility (t(343)=-2.42, p<.01), and interest (t(343)=-.346, p<.01).In other words, women assigned more social presence, story credibility and interest to storieswritten by other women. These t-tests provided no support for:
H1:
Story credibility will dependon matching gender for staff written stories.
H2:
Credibility for audience written stories will also rely on gender match. For staff written stories, only menseemed to care about gender match and were likely to rate stories written by women more credible. For audience written stories, women rated stories written by other women morecredible, and also gave those stories higher social presence and coorientation scores.To determine the effects of the variables that the literature suggests can predict credibility,univariate ANOVAs examined if there was any interaction between the story’s author andgender match. For men, only interest was statistically significant in the ANOVA (see table 5), and gender match was the only influence.
For women, social presence, story credibility, and interest had statistical significance,while expertise, even though it was significant in the t test, had no statistical significance whenthe gender match and authorship were examined together (see table 6). Social presence was notsignificant with gender match alone, but was significant for the author condition and for theinteraction. Story credibility was significant for gender match and authorship, but not in theinteraction. Interest was significant for gender match and the interaction, but not for authorship.
H3:
The predictors of credibility will mitigate the impact of gender cues. The only element that affected credibility for the men when the author’s gender matched was interest, and this variable was not statistically significant for the authorshipcondition. In other words, interest determined credibility for men more than gender.
For women, story credibility was affected by both gender match and authorship, but notin the interaction. Authorship was statistically significant at the p<.01 level, while gender matchwas significant at the p<.05 level. Women related better to stories, staff or audience written, that present their point of view, but find staff written stories more credible. However, interactioneffects were found for social presence and interest, which suggest these variables mediate gender effects. Women noticed other women more in audience written stories, while they gave higher interest scores to stories written by women, regardless of whether the author was a staff writersor an audience member.
These findings suggest that a more nuanced relationship between gender and credibility iscontinuing to emerge online. This study examined the growing citizen journalism movement todetermine whether audience written stories are more susceptible to gender stereotypes. This wasan effort to explore ways to encourage women to participate in citizen journalism, regardless of story content. As Mayhill Fowler has demonstrated, women citizen journalists are just as capableof covering politics as they are of chronicling their child’s first day of school.What this study suggests is that traditional journalistic definitions of credibility apply for stories written by staff reporters on legacy media websites. The cue that this is a professionally produced story is a more powerful predictor of story credibility than gender. Manipulating theauthor did little to influence experiment participants as far as staff written stories were concerned.
The author matters in professional news, but whether his or her gender matches the audiencemembers does not. This may represent what Armstrong and McAdams (2009) predicted when blogs and other forms of user-generated content become more mainstream. What matters then isthe expertise and professionalism of the author, not whether he is a man or woman. Simplyattaching that author to a respected news organization engenders trust for men and women.
For user-generated content, however, gender stereotypes continue to have some influence, but that influence, for the most part, can be mitigated by how connected a person feels to thestory and the site behind it. Men, for example, found audience written stories nearly as credibleas staff written stories, while they found female staff writers more credible than male reporters. Women, on the other hand, felt more connected with female writers only when they wereaudience members.In other words, gender matters less than social presence, or the measure of how muchreceivers notice the author behind the study. Men may simply chose news that is interesting tothem regardless of who wrote the story. This represents a repudiation of Pearson’s early researchthat male writers are more credible. In fact, this study suggests that men may think that female journalists write more interesting stories.
This study offers some support for the perception that citizen journalism relates more towomen than men. Women are looking for a similar point of view when they approach citizen journalism. They look at other cues when reading staff written stories, but rely somewhat ongender stereotypes for nontraditional stories. This confirms Armstrong and McAdams (2009)finding on blogs and Flanagin and Metzger’s (2003) finding in personal websites. Women aremaking more clear distinctions between citizen journalism and traditional journalism online, andnotice gender distinctions more than men.What they notice most, this study suggests, is the presence of other women in citizen journalism forums and how credible their stories seem, not necessarily expertise or coorientation.
This may support in part the perception that women are more attracted to user-generated content, but not because the stories are produced by other women. They still judge it based on its perceived credibility. In other words, they are not giving content a pass simply because theauthor is another women. The lower scores women assigned to interest may mean they are morecritical consumers of user-generated content even while they appreciate seeing other women getinvolved. The key for them was social presence or noticing the author’s part in the story. Writers, both professional and amateur, who want to reach a female audience, could focus more on distinguishing themselves through their writing, such as being more transparent with their sources of information, the process that went into creating the story, or even their personalreflections on why the story is important.
As Askcherlock, Fowler and Huffington argued, citizen journalism may present new andexpanded opportunities for female voices to join the news process. In fact, this study seems tosupport the idea that women’s voices are vital to the continued growth and success of citizen journalism ventures. As women get involved, however, they must stand on their own merits andnot any roles or stereotypes assigned to them in the past.It is also interesting to note this study found no detrimental effect on organizationalcredibility for publishing audience written content. Audience written stories may have receivedlower story credibility scores, but this difference was largely eliminated when social presenceand interest were added to the equation.
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Get custom essayIn other words, CNN m
Gender stereotypes and their effect on children will be covered throughout this piece of writing as well as how gender stereotypes can be suppressed. Parents are one of the largest influence over children and will imprint on how children see themselves, who they think they are, who they should be, what they are worth, and what they can or can not do in society. That is why parents can help break the societal norms and defy the gender stereotypes that are set upon us at birth. Gender stereotypes not only affect the roles that we are supposed to take in society but also what chances we are or are not given in life that is primarily based on our gender. In recent time people are becoming more accepting of children being raised gender neutral. It is becoming popular with celebrities as well as everyday people because of the opportunities and advantages there are when a child is not labeled as either a male or female.
Get original essayA stereotype be described as a generalization applied to a person or situation. Gender stereotypes are ingrained ideas about what behaviors are appropriate for Both males and females. Common gender stereotypes can include: that it is not acceptable for males to show too much emotion and cry; that men are strong and aggressive; that females should be submissive and weak. Young people are greatly aware of the stereotypes that are applied to gender by this age and day and will have begun to accept some of these as truths that are applied and known by everyone. Rigid gender stereotyping greatly encourages inequality between both sexes and can set children up to expect and accept power imbalances within relationships and opportunities later in life. They can be either accurate or inaccurate.
Stereotypes can affect a person, place, thing, or situation. A lot of people are affected by this but those who are affected most greatly are children. Of course both male and female and the effect can start as young as the age of five. This affects how people see others and also how they are judged. As mentioned earlier this does affect both male and females but the effect is different for each gender, positive or negative. With gender stereotypes being placed upon us at birth it affects our life chances which are opportunities or possibilities, “children need to live in a world where all possibilities are open to them. They need to live amongst no gender limitations and differences”(Gender Stereotyping).
Children's behavior and understanding of acceptable masculine or feminine qualities come from their parents influence. Parents influence their children's view of gender and how they decide what it means to be a female or male. Children are influenced by their parents roles they take on inside and outside their home and through the language that is used with the children themselves. Furthermore, how parents connect with other people such as friends and family members can impact the children’s expectations of personal and non-personal relationships. In most societies, gender is constantly made salient and it is near impossible to completely eliminate gender stereotyping.
A child's burgeoning sense of self, or self-concept, is a result of the multitude of ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that he or she is exposed to. The information that surrounds the child and which the child internalizes comes to the child within the family arena through parent-child interactions, role modeling, reinforcement for desired behaviors, and parental approval or disapproval (Santrock, 1994). As children move into the larger world of friends and school, many of their ideas and beliefs are reinforced by those around them.
A further reinforcement of acceptable and appropriate behavior is shown to children through the media, in particular, television. Through all these socialization agents, children learn gender stereotyped behavior. As children develop, these gender stereotypes become firmly entrenched beliefs and thus, are a part of the child's self-concept.There was an NYC news article on, why girls don’t think they are good enough. It explains that there were two experiments held and that there were ninety-six children that participated and there was an equal division of male and female.
For the first experiment, the children that were age five were told two stories. One story was about a person who was really really nice and the other story was about a person who was really really intelligent. At the age of five years old the children equally assigned the person of intelligence with their own gender. The second experiment was with children that were six years old and the same stories were told. The female children were less likely to associate the story of intelligence with their own gender and with the male children the association had stayed the same(Why Young Girls).
Overall and in the long run gender stereotypes affect children negatively even if it cannot be seen, “it has been well-established that gender stereotypes have an overwhelmingly negative impact on our young children”(Gender Stereotyping). In a society which is rife with gender stereotypes and biases, children regularly learn to adopt gender roles which are not always fair to both sexes. As children move through childhood and into adolescence, they are exposed to many factors which influence their attitudes and behaviors regarding gender roles. These attitudes and behaviors are generally learned first in the home and are then reinforced by the child's peers, school experience, and television viewing.
However, the strongest influence on gender role development seems to occur within the family setting, with parents passing on, both overtly and covertly, to their children their own beliefs about gender. This overview of the impact of parental influence on gender role development leads to the suggestion that an androgynous gender role orientation may be more beneficial to children than strict adherence to traditional gender roles.We should start breaking societal ‘norms’. A norm can be described as, a basic rule of society that helps us know what is and is not appropriate to do in a situation. Norms evolve over time as social attitudes and expectations change.
At a young age, children divide themselves by gender and with that each child is more likely to follow their gender stereotype because they will think some options are closed off to them because of their gender. If there is encouragement with gender play than those chances of the children falling into their stereotypes will lessen, “encourage their young children to mingle and play with boys and girls. This will help to minimise the effects of gender segregation”(Gender Stereotyping). Another way to lessen the likelihood of gender stereotypes is to praise children by telling them they are a smart kid or a good kid instead of using gender-based phrases such as ‘you are such a good boy’, and ‘you are a nice girl’, “replace this gendered terms with non-gendered ones and gender will be less important for your kid”(Gender Stereotyping).
Children who have parents with strong egalitarian values tend to be more knowledgeable about nonsex-typed objects and occupations than other children. Children whose mothers work outside the home are not as traditional in sex role orientation as children whose mothers stay home. Children whose mothers work outside the home experience the world with a sense that everyone in the family gets to become a member of the outside world and their sense of self-includes the knowledge that they have the ability to make choices which are not hindered by gender. Families with one or more androgynous parent have been found to be highest on scores of parental warmth and support, “these androgynous parents are found to be highly encouraging regarding achievement and developing a sense of self-worth in sons and daughters”(Parental Influence).
Because of the strong influence of parents on gender role socialization, those parents who wish to be gender fair and encourage the best in both their sons and their daughters would do well to adopt an androgynous gender role orientation and encourage the same in their children. In recent time it is very slowly becoming common and accepted to raise children gender neutral. Gender and sex are different, although most people think they are the same. Sex can be defined as, a person that classifies as a male or female based on anatomical or chromosomal criteria. Gender can be defined as, social forces that create the difference between men’s and women’s behavior, preferences, treatment, and opportunities, and the characteristics of men and women that reflect these forces.
One of the most recent celebrities to come out and say that they are raising their children gender-neutral is Pink, “we are a very label-less household”(Pink on why she’s raising her child as gender neutral). Pink is a widely known music artist who has been around since the nineties. She has two children who were born as female and male. She is quite intent on raising her daughter as gender neutral so that she is able to make free choices that will not be dictated by what society thinks women should or should not do and can or can not do. There are also many everyday people who are raising their children gender neutral so that their children have more and better life chances. Society sets limitations based on gender and most of the time the limits are not fair for either male or female.
Overall stereotypes and gender stereotypes are social generalizations that have been around since the beginning of time. The predictive generalizations can be either accurate or inaccurate in portraying the subject. Rigid gender stereotyping promotes inequality between the sexes and can set young people up to expect and accept power imbalances within relationships later in life. The effect of gender stereotypes is often and usually negative for both male and female. It starts affecting people as young as the age of five which is when children start to form ideas of themselves, what they are worth, and what they can do in society.
Children are greatly influenced by their parent or parents through the roles they are assigned inside and outside their home and through language that is used with children themselves. How parents interact with other adults, children, and family members can impact the children’s expectations of personal relationships. Because of the strong influence of parents on gender role socialization, those parents who wish to be gender fair and encourage the best in both their sons and their daughters would do well to adopt an androgynous gender role orientation and encourage the same in their children.
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Get custom essayIn most societies, gender is constantly made salient and it is near impossible to completely eliminate gender stereotyping. In modern time it is slowly becoming common and normal to raise a child or children gender neutral. Parents are starting to realize the long terms effects of raising children based off of gender stereotypes and that they actually have fewer opportunities in life if they are categorized as either male or female.
This research paper discusses the impact of gender stereotypes on women advancement in the workplace. Although men declare that women have gained their rights, yet it is still obvious that there is a lot of work to do in order to achieve balance. To analyze gender stereotypes in the workplace, this essay is divided into three sections. The first section of the research paper explains how several factors play a role in shaping the gender stereotypes thus limiting women abilities. Factors such as: society’s perception, teaching and parenting system and the gap between males and females vastly affect women’s decisions and developing. The second section argues the contribution of media in stressing the gender stereotypes of workplace. People are so affected by what they see on screens, so, media plays a significant role in shaping women’s identity and selections. The third section, debates the consequence of being subjected to pressure and harassment in the workplace on women. Working in a stressful environment will serve in women giving up on what they want and aim for. Such elements are the result of socially conducted norms and they result in sculpting the way women perceive themselves and also the way the society reacts to them. Nevertheless, an opposing point of view states that men are subjected to higher pressure s a result of gender stereotypes. Finally, in the conclusion, some solutions are proposed to prevent further damage to women’s career and society’s overall wellbeing.
Get original essayThroughout history, differences between males and females have been classified in to two categories: biological differences (hormones and physical appearance), social and cultural differences (due to social norms and mind sets). Gender stereotypes are the result of all these differences, and they appear when someone generalizes an attribute or a characteristic on a group of people who are of the same gender. Stereotypes might lead to the disregard of one’s personal effort and limit their choices, especially if it is in the work place. These stereotypes can either affect the genders positively or negatively. Yet, it is obvious that the negative effects are more directed towards the females’ side and that is due to some cultural and social norms. Glass ceiling is one of the dangerous effects of gender stereotypes that triggered the revolution against these stereotypes in the workplace. It is a term used to represent the intangible barrier which prevents people, especially women, from pursuing a specific career. Women face a lot of discrimination as result of these stereotypes, such as: pay gap, difficulty in reaching senior positions, neglect of promotions and benefits; also they endure a lot of stressful events. On the other hand, another point view declares that stereotypes affect men negatively more than women. They have to abide to the rules stated by the society in order to maintain their “masculine” character. Men are expected to be firm, responsible, and independent or else they will be discriminated by the society. In fact, gender stereotypes are increasing the gap between men and women in the workplace and this gap is being expanded by the help of the media thus putting pressure on women outside and inside the work place.
In the 21st century, people started seeing more movements to fight stereotypes, especially the gender-based ones. One of the reasons that pushed people to start these movements is the urgent need to diminish the gap that occurred between females and males because of the gender stereotypes. Society and culture have set these stereotypes according to their perception of women, and classification of jobs which lead to a huge imbalance between men and women in the work place.
It has become crystal clear that if women want to reach top management positions, they will have to deal with lots of challenges. These obstacles are the result of the link made between the socially defined attributes and women. Women are not perceived as decision makers nor as leaders. This goes back to the out-dated mind-set that thinks if women are put under pressure then they will become emotional and break down. There are a lot of factors that the society and culture take into consideration in order to end up with these stereotypes. One of the factors is that women are not given the same educational opportunity as men. According to UNESCO, regardless of the advancement, a bigger number of young ladies than young men still stay out of school – 16 million young ladies will never set foot in a study hall and ladies represent 66% of the 750 million grown-ups who are without essential education abilities. Recently, it has been seen that some women are graduating with a master degree. However, in the past, girls were not allowed to finish their high school degree, so they do not develop an identity. This serves a lot in increasing the gap between the opportunities of men and women to reach senior positions. Women are rarely seen occupying political positions or pursuing an effort-full career. For instance, in Lebanon, women present only 4.68% of the parliament, and this percentage is not increasing significantly. Similarly, women present only 23% of the world’s politicians. It has all begun from the way of parenting and educating. Parents and teachers do not encourage the girls to put a foot in “socially-prohibited” fields because they do not perceive the girls as leaders and decision makers. So, girls grow up to have low self-esteem regarding their abilities. They are not even allowed to dream; once they start to develop ambitions they are directly fought and stopped. Moreover, the burden of domestic work and the socially classified jobs forms a barrier that hinders women from proceeding in their work. To further clarify, society accepts a male chef more than a female one although that cooking is considered as one of the domestic jobs. These jobs are supposed to be allocated to women. Yet, the same society judges a woman and fights her if she wanted to be an engineer, mechanic or a builder. Hence, the challenges faced by women to proceed in their careers are due to the generalization done by the society.
Typically, STEM fields are associated with men domination. Usually, the life of an individual is decided by the socio-cultural factors; therefore, the roles assigned to girls will be determined at the moment of birth. Also, these roles are the responsible factors that decide the extent of participation of girls in Scientific and Technological fields. Socially conducted stereotypes are due to inherited and unconscious bias regarding women abilities in the scientific subjects. In schools, mentors direct females toward the emotions-oriented majors, while they direct males towards the scientific and technical majors. Experiments have shown that girls experience more emotional pressure and stress when undergoing a math test. Girls’ performance is affected when they do a math test in a room that is denominated by men; however, their performance is improved when the boys exit the room. Today, statistics declares that only 27% of females are studying computer science and percentages in other scientific majors are not even better. Many associate this with the lack of presence of female pioneers in these fields, and this makes it a vicious cycle. Girls’ self-confidence is not boosted because they are not receiving enough support from their environment nor they are seeing enough role models to influence them. In a comparison with men, women present only 30% of the world’s researchers. Moreover, studies have proved that women receive less support than men in their research. In a survey conducted across 130 countries, it was found that female scientists were granted less funding, lab space, office support and insurance for equipment and travel. Nevertheless, in the majors that need caring, (such as: nursing and teaching), females are excelling. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 91% of the world’s nurses are females while only 9% of them are men. On the contrary, solely 5% of the pilots in the world are women. Hence, jobs that require more scientific sills are dominated by men while careers that demand caring are controlled by women. Parents and mentors have set a rigid picture about the females’ abilities in the minds of the young generation. As a result if this system, girls doubt their capabilities and ambitions whenever they think about studying a major that is associated with males. The time to start combatting stereotypes has come and it is necessary to create programs that encourage women to enter STEM fields.
Gender stereotypes contribute in producing discrimination against women in the job environment. They impose what employers tend to look for and expect from an employee. Employers search for a specific talent in a gender; instead of searching for talents and opportunities in general regardless of the gender. Women face poor presentation in top positions, weak promotions and benefits and inequality in wages, Studies in Europe found that only 3% of the top 50 firms are led by women and for every 10 men only 1.5 women are in the corporate boards. Another study done in 2006 found that some attributes are directly associated with a specific gender regardless of the effort and performance. 953 managers were asked to allocate 14-key leadership attributes to 2 categories – male and female. All attributes that were considered as taking charge behaviour were allocated to males while attributes that were considered as taking care competent were allocated to females. This explains the prejudgment present in people’s mind regardless of the accomplishments done. The gap also appears in the wages men and women receive, and by this, the vicious cycle reappears. People occupying senior positions tend to gain a higher salary and since men occupy these positions more than women then it is normal to see higher salaries for men. So, previous problems should be solved in order not to clash in to new obstacles. Also, top management positions need a lot of effort and long-hours working. It is hard for women to balance between their work and private life because they are expected to be responsible for their families and home. Studies found that women spend 26 hours per week taking care of their families; yet, males spend only 9 hours per week looking after their children. This gives males a higher opportunity to reach top positions and gain higher salary. When women earn a salary less than men, it keeps them dependent financially on men, consequently increasing bias and things keep on turning around with no solution. Another phase of discrimination appears when women have to do more effort than men in order to be promoted or appreciated. Despite the advancement witnessed regarding the wage gap, a woman still earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Within the absence of a logical reasoning for this difference, women still find themselves discriminated and not encouraged to invest their efforts and thoughts in certain jobs. Further, women are assigned for support roles rather than top management posts. They are 21% less likely to be promoted to a top management position with respect to their male counter-part. Therefore, gender stereotypes are the main reason that prohibits women from advancing and developing in their career.
Today, media is one of the most powerful tools that are able to spread ideas and beliefs. As any technology, media has its beneficial and non-beneficial sides. It is contributing in stressing the gender stereotypes in the work place, thus affecting the new generation rather than implying solutions. Recently, people’s life has been connected to all sorts of screens, so, whatever is featured on these screens has a great influence on the minds.
Given all types of media, TV, radio, magazines, and social media, and regardless of the type, gender stereotypes are expressed in all of them. Media has always pictured females as sex objects and they stress only on the physical appearance of women. For example, in Mohammad Iskandar’s song, he forbids his daughter from working because he assumes that she will be subjected to sexual harassment by her boss. This song is widely spread among youth and teens. It will implant fear in the mind of the girls knowing that if they work then they will be sexually harassed. This demotivates them to work and be independent. On the other hand, boys will tend to normalize the idea of harassing a female, because it is accepted by the society and the media. A research done by UN women, found that out of 100 countries, 46 % of the media contributes in promoting gender stereotypes while only 6 % promotes for gender equality
It is pretty obvious that women are under-represented in the movies industry. Media shows women in movies as sex objects, where it is seen that women at the workplace wear revealing clothes and tries to seduce their boss. Although, women occupy 40 % of the working force in real life, yet they are represented in only 22.5% of the movies in employment. However, these 22.5% are allocated to inferior roles with respect to men. Females who have done these roles were 93% of the time shown doing stereotypically female chores such as cleaning and caring. Also, women mainly occupy the inferior roles like being a nurse, secretary, or a waitress. 89% of the nurse roles are presented by women, while regarding the secretary roles; women present 81% of them. A typical scene is where a nurse tries to rescue a patient but she fails, and then a male doctor enters the room and succeeds in getting the patient back to life. Another scene is where a female secretary works for a well-known business man. Such scenes have a great impact on the young generation; especially that TV takes a huge portion of their time. Young girls who are exposed to such scenes are dangerously affected because it impacts their point of view with respect to the profession socialization and considerably sexual orientation cliché frames of mind and convictions about work. Girls between 2 and 6 years old are mostly affected; because at this age they begin to form their gender identity and start playing gender-types games such as cooking and cleaning. They grow up convinced that they are unable to be in a superior job position because their self-esteem was not strengthened back since they were still children.
It is well known that some words are more powerful than actions. Discrimination in the workplace is also portrayed in the language used. The differences between the words used for women versus men also have a great significance on the career choice. For instance, girls who have leadership skill are usually described as “bossy”. The word “ambitious” is considered as an insult if it is said for a girl, but, if it is said for a boy it will be considered as a compliment. These expressions put further pressure on females pushing them to be nice in order to not be judged by their work colleagues. They might also behave in a way that opposes their character. Moreover, when someone applies to a job they are likely to be described in different adjectives based on their genders. Adjectives such as “remarkable”, “remarkable”, and “exceptional” are typically allocated to men applicants. Nevertheless, attributes such as “kind”, “caring”, and ”sensitive” are assigned to female applicants. Words like these tend to shape and form the identity of females which pushes them away from the jobs that judge their character. Researchers in Waterloo and Duke Universities found that jobs which contain masculine-themed words are mostly dominated by men. The same thing is applied for feminine jobs, thus gender stereotypes are allocating jobs according to the gender. Moreover, parents contribute in assigning careers to their children by the language they use. They always call their daughters by the name of princesses; however, they call their boys by the title “doctor”, “engineer”, and “captain”. Consequently, the language used with genders clearly shapes and forms the identity of females and males’ decisions regarding their careers.
With respect to working females, workplace might be the most stressful place. They are subjected to massive pressure either by their boss, male counterparts or even by the society. All of this pressure is due to the gender stereotypes present in the work.
Naturally, females are supposed to be the only creatures on earth that can deliver and have children- except for some rare cases in birds-. Yet, companies and the societies manage to apply discrimination against women who need time to take care of their families. If a woman wants to take a vacation she will either be fired, given a short-period, or be deprived of her salary. These consequences form a great obstacle for women who feel passionate about their jobs. In other scenarios, some firms fire pregnant women because they are considered disabled or will take a maternity leave. Also, pregnant women or mothers are 100% less likely to be promoted, 79% less likely to be recommended for hire, and are paid $10,000 less salary than their male counterparts. These percentages clearly show that employers and societies’ perception of women dangerously affect women advancement. Furthermore, women encounter different type of pressure regarding their outer appearance. Based on gender stereotypes, women are expected to be fully dressed and have full make-up on or else they will be considered more of a “male”. In a company (Price Waterhouse), an employer delayed the promotion of a female employee because he considered her physical appearance not feminine. She did not feel comfortable in wearing short dresses nor in applying too much make-up and for this reason she was not promoted. If a woman wears revealing clothes and applies excess make-up then she will be described as “trying too hard”, on the other hand, if she neglects her physical appearance then it will be said that they do not care about their jobs. However, some jobs require their employees to travel. Married females might apply for a position that requires traveling a lot. Some females are accepted into this position because females are expected to be conservative and stay with their children at night. Besides, some husbands feel jealous of their wives’ male colleagues. Hence, women are put under a lot of stressful events by their employers, husbands and societies in their work due to gender roles.
Working in an uncomfortable atmosphere has great impacts on how women proceed in their workplace. Sexual harassment forms one of the most dangerous sources of danger. Since some men believe that women should always be ready to fulfill their needs, then sexual harassment appears frequently at the workplace. This causes a lot of psychological harm to women thus pushing them to quit their jobs. According to a research done by Jason Houle and colleagues, sexual harassment causes depression symptoms and some mental issues such as self-doubt and anger. These symptoms affect the employee future progression, work productivity and relationship with other work members. In addition to that, as movements began increasing to stop the job classification based genders; females acquired courage to step into men-dominated fields. Meanwhile, the numbers of females in these sectors are still few and less than men. According to Women’s Bureau, women represent 25% of the sectors that are “socially” perceived as “male oriented jobs”. Harassment in these fields is witnessed in higher rates than in fields that are more mixed because females will be subjected to greater number of men. As The Law Offices declares, one third of the women working in a male dominated job have experienced sexual harassment. This demotivates women to enter these fields thus restressing gender stereotypes and preventing women from pursuing their dream careers. For instance, Sarah, a 27 year old girl works as an electrician, a job that is supposed to be “masculine”. She was subjected to sexual harassment by her boss. He sent her sexual messages and tried to physically assault her. When she officially reported this incident, the top management blamed her and accused her for being the stimulus behind his acts. Not taking these acts into consideration and putting laws to stop them rather than blaming females is risky. Females will no longer speak up, all what they will do is quit the job and stay at home. Nevertheless, when women leave their jobs and stay unemployed due to harassment financial stress will appear on the long run. The “Me Too” movement reported that 30% of women who were subjected to sexual harassment have developed depression and anxiety on the long term. In one word, sexual harassment is able to stop women from chasing their jobs and harm them.
On the other side, the other point of view states that men are subjected to negative effects due to gender stereotypes in the workplace more than women. Men are deprived from several joys due to social norms. They have to obey the “masculine rules” assigned by the society. One of these roles is being responsible to support their families financially. They are required to pay for the wife’s and children’s needs, schools and hospitals. This put a lot of pressure on them to earn enough money that can cover all of the above necessities. Further, men are expected to be emotionally strong. Men face a lot of pressure because of the work demands, yet they are unable to break down, cry or be depressed. Women can fall apart under pressure because they justify it by saying that it is their “hormones”, while men cannot. If men cry they will be considered as “gays” or they will not be considered as real men. Additionally, men also love their children and wish to spend more time with them. Employers tend to reject a male employee’s request for a vacation for child care. This gives mothers an advantage in building valuable relationships and spending quality time with their children. To conclude, males are also subjected to pressure to stereotypes and it might be more than women.
Men still neglect the fact that there are single mothers, widowed women, and young ladies that are involved in the workforce. These ladies experience the same pressure due to stereotypes because the society will judge them according to their marital status and also according to their career ambitions. Widowed and single mothers have double responsibility. They have to play the role of the father and the mother at the same time, thus they are responsible for the financial state of their children and family. Employers do not take these females into consideration when they give them lower salaries than their male counterpart. Also, they are not given enough days off to spend quality time with their children although that their children might need them more than they would need their father. In addition to that, young ladies who are aiming to put their first step in the world of business are fought and faced by the gender stereotypes. Instead of updating and developing the old mind set, the same gender stereotypes are still limiting the girls’ abilities to advance in their careers. Society has allocated many jobs to men. However, there are a lot of women who are deprived from their right to choose the major they want because of the so called gender stereotypes. In fact, women have gained some rights, but they are still way back behind the rights of men.
Summing up, in this research, several claims were discussed to prove the negative effects gender stereotypes have on women in the workplace. These stereotypes are drastically expanding the gap between men and women, which is consequently preventing them from progressing towards a better professional status. These standardized formulas were fixed due to various reasons such as the parenting and teaching system, society’s perception and old-dated mind sets. On top of that, media subscribe in stressing the idea of gender stereotypes. As a result of this, women are forced to endure annoyance, pressure, and assault.
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Get custom essayFinally, if a comparison is done between the past and the present, it will be obvious that a major change has taken place. Nonetheless, this change has not delivered the best outcome yet. So, in order to have a better result that allows men and women to excel equally in their careers, some modifications should be implemented. First, employers should consider equity instead of equality. Women should not be obligated to choose between their children or jobs. They should have the right to take a paid vacation after their delivery and then be able to return to their work. Second, change the parenting and educational systems because they have significant influence on the young generation. Equally, the content displayed by the media should be supervised because it also impact the way genders perceive their abilities and identity. Finally, empowering women at the work does not only benefit females, but it also benefit he society as a whole.