Gender roles and stereotypes ingrained within the younger generation

Partha Haloi

(parthahaloi46@gmail.com)

The display of gender roles and stereotypes in our society is a never-ending phenomenon that is constantly faced by each and every human being regardless of its gender-specific.

It can be drawn out clearly that most young individuals are living in a categorized environment and are affected by the lopsided mindset of society. Society is the prime factor that promotes gender roles and stereotypes. It never allows an individual to accept itself as it is. In short, society is a flag bearer of 'bigotry'.

There are basic gender stereotypes marked by the community, out of all the prime example has to be the belief that women are meant to be in the kitchen and look after the entire household, whereas men are meant to take care of the financial stability of the family. It is taught to an individual at a very young age that being feminine means being inferior and being masculine is being superior.

Children are taught from a very young age that they must keep their hobbies and stances different from the opposite gender and these differences have already been set by these self-proclaimed custodians of our society. They say that boys traditionally have an active stance and girls are passive. They say that the role of boys includes tough play and certain firmness to demonstrate independence and masculinity, whereas girls' behaviour includes focusing on relationships and intimacy and emotional care and are only free to do those things which have a defined boundary. During the elementary school years, gender stereotypes broaden to include sports, school subjects, and personality traits.

It is a matter of concern that how these children use gender stereotypes to make inferences about others at a young age. When making judgments of other people, children and adults will apply their gender stereotypic expectations to them. Even more than adults, children will rely on a person's sex to make judgments and they are less likely to consider other relevant information about the person than adults are.

As Miriam Gonzalez, a Spanish international trade lawyer said, "Neither boys nor girls are born sexist, there is something that we as a society do to them to make them reach that point."

How can education help to eradicate such beliefs:

Somewhere or the other, it must be noted that education is not the sole but an important solution to all these. In its Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO said, "The support of governments is crucial. For example, curricula, textbooks and teacher training programmes should be periodically reviewed to ensure that gender stereotypes are not perpetuated and apprenticeship programmes, tutorials, networks or scholarships should be considered to promote and encourage the incorporation of women into stem fields."

Charity starts at home:

It is to be noted that before blaming it all on society and relying solely on education, individuals must be taught to ignore these disbeliefs in their homes by their families and relatives. The families must educate them on equality. Reinforce children in their preferences regardless of whether or not they correspond to what the stereotype makes us expect.

It is to be concluded that the worst sufferers of such remarks are the young generation who struggle hard to fit into society's expectations as they know that they would never be accepted as they are.

However, despite many legal, cultural and intellectual evolutions over time, gender stereotyping remains ingrained in society. Even after claiming to be modern, the young generation is getting more conservative when it comes to gender equality. And this will only come to an end if we as a society check our own biases before blaming other individuals for the same.