Gender issues and stereotypes

According to the dictionary definition the term gender refers to the sociallyconstructed roles and relationships between men and women. Gender concerns men and
women, including conceptions of both femininity and masculinity but it is different from
sex that rather refers to biological differences.
From the very first moment of their life, or even earlier, babies are assigned male or
female based on physical characteristics and are also sent forward on a path in order to
follow a strict code of behaviour imposed by the society and social rules. When the child
becomes able to express himself becomes aware of several differences which involve
being a boy or a girl (or sometimes something in between) and this is their "gender
identity." Most children's gender identity allineate with their biological sex but however
for some children, there is no match between biological sex and gender identity. The
concepts of gender identity not only those regarding the child's sex are sometimes placed
on children even before their birth, with the selection of paint colors for the nursery, for
example because consumer products inundate children with gender-typed messages on
bed sheets, towels, bandages, clothes, school supplies, toys, and furniture (Freeman,
2007). These products are marketed for specific gender and are also merchandised in
stores by gender, creating segregated pink and blue aisles for shopping. It is a way of
making money by perpetuating gender differences which can affect the child later on.
Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around age 2, and most children
know if they are a boy or girl by the age of 3. (Martin & Ruble, 2004). By age four,
most children have a stable sense of their gender identity. During this same time of life,
children learn gender role behaviorthat is, doing "things that boys do" or "things that
girls do and these are some gender stereotypes that the child will encounter during his or
her entire life. Stereotypes abound in any society and represent the way in which people
from diverse societies try to tolerate differences by makeing generalizations that
categorize individuals into groups (Keefe, Marshall, & Robeson, 2003).

Gender stereotypes are confied to a point that can be harmful to men and women and we
can find them evertywhere in society. The probem is that those kinds of stereotypes can
prevent proper development of man by imposing some limits due to the social pressure
and it is hard to overcome this barrier. Some of the most common stereotypes regarding
girls/women are: girls should be very "girly" and fill their closet with frilly dresses and
their toy box with tea sets and dolls, women are supposed to make less money than men,
women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told women are supposed to
cook and do housework, women are responsible for raising children, women are
supposed to look pretty and be looked at, women love to sing and dance and so on.
Regarding men the most common stereotypes are: men are in charge; they are always at
the top, as husbands, men tell their wives what to do, men are lazy and/or messy, men are
good at math, it is always men who work in science, engineering, and other technical
fields, men do not cook, sew, or do crafts, men do not do housework and they are not
responsible for taking care of children, men play video games and so on. These things
are treated as being "the norm" and expected of every male or female. The problem is
that with all these we don't take into account that men and women are individuals and
they are more than just male or female and that our gender is only part of who we are it
does not define us as people.

Gender problematic in literature

One of the most important problems regarding gender stereotypes is that because of them
many fundamental parts of the human experience was often seen in the context of gender
such as: love, loss, desire, and other feelings and experiences. It often forced men and
women to limitate to a gender perspective, to experience eveything from the male or
female point of view, perpetuating the idea that a man can't see things from a woman's
perspective and vice versa. So, the access to factors like education, experience, time and
financial support, was often affected during the time and it had a big influence on the
ways in which men and women could participate in literature as writers, readers, critics,
and even as characters. Because of gender stereotypes women were seriously
disadvantaged regarding the acces to education. They were not admitted until the late

19th century to the schools and universities which represented the highest intellectual
standards. They were forced to content themselves with a rather more limited education
concentrating on moral virtues, the social graces of music, singing, drawing, dancing and
polite conversation and for sure duing the housework and the raising of children. Apart
from the limitations of schooling and socially acceptable experience, women authors
often also had to labour under economic and legal disadvantages. To start with, as
Virginia Woolf was to write later, a woman must have money and a room of her own if
she is to write fiction (internet source1)

The heroine of Jane Austens last complete novel Persuasion (1818), Anne Elliot says,
Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs
in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands, and indeed until a few
decades ago political, economic and cultural power rested overwhelmingly with men in
the English-speaking world (and in many other cultures). Therefore, gendered approaches
to literature have often sought to counterbalance the male focus that this involved by
concentrating more strongly on womens perspectives.