Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes present a conventionally simplified and standardized conception or image concerning the typical social roles of male and female, both domestically and socially. To simplify this definition, gender stereotypes are beliefs held about characteristics, traits, and activity-domains that are "deemed" appropriate for men and women. For example, traditionally, typical characteristics for women are piety, submissiveness, and domesticity, while authority, and social behavior, are traits commonly held by men. However, as the product of social activity, gender stereotypes are neither perpetual nor static. They are influenced by the social ideology and economic mode held at a certain period of time accordingly, and are changing, even at times reversing, with every significant social transformation. In the following section, this change and "crossing" of gender stereotypes will be discussed.

Male and female, which consist of human society, are two natural and contradictory forces in the cosmos. The ancient Chinese labeled them as Yin and Yang. Yin represents the female, the negative, the darkness and softness. The Yang, on the other hand, represents the male, the positive, brightness, and hardness. Yin and Yang, according to the Chinese, are, in a constant state of flux, interacting with each other and thusly balance the universe. It is because of the strong belief of this universal law, which decides the nature of female and male. This in turn results in the primitive gender stereotypes found throughout history. Men and women take their responsibilities respectively according to the division of the natural characteristics of gender. The gender stereotypes are reflected in various fields, such as marriage, family, politics, and economy.

In Asian countries, traditionally, the females role was to be in charge of domestic matters, such as serving her husband, looking after her children, and performing household chores like cooking and cleaning. This type of female was appreciated as "virtuous". An old Chinese proverb on women states: "Talentless is virtuous". "Tolerance" and "obedience" were womens attitudes towards their lives. According to this gender "philosophy", in ancient China, women had no right to go to school. Schooling was available only for a rich familys male figures. Family was the single content of a womens life, which in turn was regarded as yet another virtue. It is because of this social moral concept, that women, after they were born, together with their family began to prepare for their marriage passively. Marriage was the only measurement for a womans life value. Females had no self-esteem or a concept of their own selfhood. Instead, society viewed them as an appurtenant of their husband.

Tracing the reasons for these types of gender stereotypes, one can perceive the influence of a "men-dominated" social system where the male dominates the activities related to economics. The economy mode, to a certain extent, decides the social position of men and women: men are the center of family and society, which women are a part of property of men. Followed by this gender stereotype, responding social characteristics emerge, such as the family mode of one husband having several wives; men are the definite economy-controller of family and society, etc.

Along with feminists advocating social, political, and other rights equal to those of men, and "womens increased participation in the paid labor force" (Diekman and Eagly 1171), gender stereotypes changed along with social transformation. This is endued with new signification to "gender stereotypes". As the statistic shows, womens labor force participation increased from 34% to 60% between 1950 and 1998 and conversely mens decreased from 86% to 75% (qtd. in Diekman and Eagly 1171). Thus it can be seen that employment gives women opportunities to improve their social status and transform their social role. This essentially challenged the stereotypical gender roles held at the time.

It is my belief that a child may form stereotypes based largely upon his or her own up-bringing within the family. As the family is the direct exposure to the child during the first concept-formation period of the childs life, it serves as the primary experiences for the child, and hence has a profound affect on how the child will develop thoughts in regards to stereotypes (Roman). To manifest the change of social behaviors of men and women, I will compare three generations social role change in my family according to what I saw and what I heard in regards to the gender stereotype issues.

Financially, the conventional gender stereotype is shown as the financial provider vs. the domestic role. My great-grandfather was a rich landlord, who owned thousands of acres of land and about one hundred of laborers. Within the big family, my great-grandfather held absolute power as a manager and controller. The other male family members were his assistants and supporters. As my father told me, going to the teahouse with male relatives or friends to discuss business or political matters was one of the main characteristics of social activity for male figures at that time. Opposite to a mans life, women stayed at home, guiding and assigning the employees to deal with the house chores. Occasionally, they gathered together to have discussions of a female nature. In general, at that time, the gender roles of male and female were strictly discriminated: women belonged to the family and men belonged to the society; men were the financial provider and women were the majordomos of the house.

In contrast, during my grandfathers generation, the change of the social structure was evident. My grandparents went to college together and after they graduated, my grandmother had a teaching job at a school and my grandfather served as a government official. Therefore, financially, both of them were undertaking the economic responsibilities of the family. Although my grandparents family mode was not typical or popular in that certain historical period, at least it can be perceived that the conventional stereotypes were eroding and newer gender stereotype were beginning to emerge. Female figures were crossing the gender-bound plain, and made their participation significant not only domestic work, but to the social activity as well.

As we progress to the time of my fathers generation, financially speaking, during the course of my up-bringing, importance and responsibility lay with both of my parents. Both worked and thus subsequently provided for the household income. This financial pattern became the main family economic mode in China at the time. This crossing of gender roles throughout history has resulted in greater role-similarity and is one of the significant factors to stimulate social transformation.

Besides the change of gender stereotypes in matters of finance, in regards to marriage, it has also experienced remarkable changes. It has taken China thousands of years to accomplish an acceptance of the so-called "free marriage". Let us look again at the three generations of my family for another example.

During the time of my great-grandparents generation, a childs lover, or mate, was determined by their parents, and not to the childs own choosing. When the child was born, his or her parents would invite a trustworthy fortune-teller to augur the "other half" of him or her according to the babys birthday, nature, the five elements, etc. This occurred even when the "another half" had not been born yet (the teller would indicate the specific family). As such, there was no right for young people to choose their companion for a marriage. However, the advantage for being a man was, that if he was not satisfied with his wife, he was allowed to look for and alternate, even in the case of subsequent attempts. By contrast, if the bride-to-be even so much as were to attempt to look for another man, it was customary to have her impugned, punished, or even put to death.

There is a famous scholar in Chinese history, Gu HongMing(1857-1928), who was the first Chinese intellectual to be proficient in several western languages and knew European culture thoroughly; who is also known as a leader of the conservative "culture heroes" and a strong supporter for man-dominated society. In his book, "The Spirit of Chinese People" (1914), Mr. Gu stated that the gender stereotypes were the incarnation of social civilization. "The man and woman, the type of human beingswhich a civilization produces, is this which shows the essence, the personality, so to speak, the soul of that civilization" (Gu 2). His standpoint on this matter is undoubtedly objective. However, speaking to the relationship of men and women, his concept is full of feudalistic color. He has a well-known trope describing men and women: men are like the teapot and women are like the teacup. It only works that one teapot matches several teacups; reversing the objects (several teapots vs. one teacup), it will be out of logic and unreasonable (Gu).

The polygamous marriage system has dominated China over thousands years. Economically powerless status deprived women from marital equality. Polygamists, like Go HongMing, establish their theory to weave a "hotbed" for men to regale their rights and desires, and, at the same time, to weave a web trapping women to resign themselves to adversity and accept "selfless" education. Conducted by the "no-self" theory, women consecrated them to the men and the feudalistic tradition.

During my mother and fathers generation, marriage was still controlled by the parents. Another characteristic was that male was allowed to be the active party, while the female was expected to be the passive party. It was considered as the social rule. Anybody who attempted to cross the bound of this social rule would be derided and disdained by the society around him or her. Nonetheless, more and more young people started to repeal and strive to break free from the shackle that was imposed by the feudality. Obviously, at the present, "free-marriage" is not an issue any more. However, from the change of social role on marriage, it can be perceived that the gradual process of improvement of females social status led women to acquire the freedom and democracy belonging to them. This process, simultaneously, is changing the sex stereotypes.

In short, gender stereotypes are changing and crossing along with the social structure. When this structure undergoes change, such as womens participation of the paid workforce in large numbers during the 20th century, womens role goes toward greater equality and less sex segregation (Diekman and Eagly 1184). From the change of the gender stereotypes, we can feel the improvement of social civilization. Gender stereotypes are the reflection of social function system, as well as the essential factor to motivate the social development. Since gender stereotypes are dynamic forces, we believe the eroding of sex difference will continue.

Works Cited

Diekman, Amanda B; Eagle, Alice H. "Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future." Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 26 no.10 (Oct. 2000): 1171-88
Gu, GongMing. The Spirit of Chinese People. Beijing, China: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Pr., 1998.
Roman, Brent. Personal Interview. 1 Oct. 2002.