Traditional Roles
Gender stereotypes influence traditional feminine occupations, resulting in microaggression toward women who break traditional gender roles. These stereotypes include that women have a caring nature, have skill at household-related work, have greater manual dexterity than men, are more honest than men, and have a more attractive physical appearance. Occupational roles associated with these stereotypes include: midwife, teacher, accountant, data entry clerk, cashier, salesperson, receptionist, housekeeper, cook, maid, social worker, and nurse. Occupational segregation maintains gender inequality and gender pay gap.
Early computer programmers were women. This has reversed in recent decades, however, with programming being perceived as a masculine occupation. In the field of medicine, the role of physician was traditionally seen as masculine, while the role of nurse was considered feminine. These associations are now considered outdated in much of the world, although certain specializations, such as surgery and emergency medicine, are dominated by a masculine culture and have a higher salary.
Leadership is associated with masculinity in Western cultures, and women are perceived less favorably as potential leaders. However, some people have argued that the "feminine"-style leadership, which is associated with leadership that focuses on help and cooperation, is advantageous over "masculine" leadership, which is associated with focusing on tasks and control. Female leaders are more often described by Western media using characteristics associated with femininity, such as emotion. Role Congruity Theory, which proposes that people tend to view deviations from expected gender roles negatively, is sometimes used to explain why people have a tendency to evaluate behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman.
Read more about this topic: Feminine
Famous quotes containing the words traditional and/or roles:
“The invention of photography provided a radically new picture-making processa process based not on synthesis but on selection. The difference was a basic one. Paintings were madeconstructed from a storehouse of traditional schemes and skills and attitudesbut photographs, as the man on the street put, were taken.”
—Jean Szarkowski (b. 1925)
“There is a striking dichotomy between the behavior of many women in their lives at work and in their lives as mothers. Many of the same women who are battling stereotypes on the job, who are up against unspoken assumptions about the roles of men and women, seem to acceptand in their acceptance seem to reinforcethese roles at home with both their sons and their daughters.”
—Ellen Lewis (20th century)