Media Stereotypes’ Effect on Women in the Workplace Essay

“Stereotypes are categories that constrain and shape what a person believes about, and expects from, other people” (Bartlett 1910). The workplace is one of the most active environments for women to be stereotyped against. Women are judged in ways such as being weaker than, and not as active as a man. This can be a problem for a woman in a male dominated occupation by making them feel, or seem, not as valuable as a man. For example, women in the police field will face the struggle of being seen as weaker, gentler, and to submissive to fight crime compared to men. This type of behavior leads to women not receiving much earned promotions, and having more struggles applying to male dominating jobs.

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Even before we can understand what this means, people are constantly exposed to them through advertisements, toys, clothes, and the media including television shows and movies. To evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in television programs targeted towards young children, I chose to watch four different shows called Phineas and Ferb, Little Einsteins, Horrid Henry, and Sofia the First. When picking what shows to watch, I intentionally selected at least one that looked targeted towards boys, another that appeared to be targeted towards girls, and finally one that seemed gender neutral. I also made sure to watch at least two episodes of each program to determine whether the themes I observed were

Gender roles influence every characteristic and aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves to the degree of our contribution in social life. From a ripe young age, children become exposed to this type of gender bias right away, which can negatively affect and shape their whole outlook on life. Consequently, as these young boys and girls mature both physically and emotionally and move on into adulthood, they are, in essence, shoved into a world that impacts their attitudes and behaviors towards gender roles and stereotypes. These specific attitudes and behaviors first cultivate in the private doors of their parent’s house. Afterwards, these same biases become reinforced by the child’s peers, school experience (education), television viewing, and, of course, advertisements in the realm of print and television media. From the looks of it, it is near impossible, for children to not become subject to some degree of gender bias at an early age. As a child grows and develops, the stereotypes follow them into the next phases of their lives (i.e. adolescence) and then on into adulthood. Not only are these gender stereotypes destroying girls, they are also killing boys. The components of this essay will attempt to illustrate how advertising in print and television helps to perpetuate gender stereotypes in our world. Along with that, one must ask the question of how much harm these negative biases in gender roles truly affects the minds of men, women, and young children.

The media plays a big role in how one gets and stays informed about all the local, national, and international events. Media can be local and national news channels, newspapers, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Even though all media reports on the same event that does not mean that all the information is the same, the way it is reported, the same or the way people perceived the information. Most often the way media may report an event affects the way one looks at the event, how one remembers it and the way one creates, and justify any racial bias or stereotypes that one may have. Some prime example of this is the how media portrays Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin compared to White male shooters.

Men are seen as the handy workers and women are seen as the caretakers. Women are affected a great deal by stereotypes relating to the jobs they receive. “The majority of jobs surveyed were perceived as sex-stereotyped. Both males and females expressed preferences for jobs that they identified as being segregated and stereotyped towards their sex,” (Gross 61). Certain people who influence these stereotypes are managers of corporate companies refusing to give women certain jobs and equal pay.

Advertisements, movies, TV shows, and other such things that consumers and viewers look at set a certain standard for society. They tell society to look a certain way and act a certain way. People don’t see a problem with messages that the media puts out, but it is a problem, especially when it affects people's self-esteems, labels people, and creates stereotypes about class and gender. Jean Kilbourne talks about one of these standards in her text “Two ways a woman can get hurt”: Advertising and Violence. Kilbourne focuses on gender norms in society, and how advertisements portray them. bell hooks a cultural critic, scholar, and prolific writer, author of Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor has similar views but she focuses on class, and how society represents the different classes in media, such as in movies and tv shows. These points can be seen in many tv shows and movies. Gossip Girl, for example, is a tv drama that attracts young adults, that shows the division between classes. Gossip Girl is about a group of teenagers who live in the upper East side of Manhattan, New York. The main characters Serena, Blair, Nate, and Chuck are all very rich. Then there is Dan who is also a main character and Jenny his little sister, that are considered to be poor. It is very obvious from the beginning how different they are from their classmates from the beginning of the show. It is seen in the way they dress, do their hair, their hobbies, where they live, and how they

Throughout history, discrimination in all forms has been an endless battle; whether it 's race, gender, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it’s happening every day. One significant discrimination problem the world population is combating, takes place in the work field. Women, who are as equally trained and educated, and with the same experience as men are not getting equal pay, “The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns”(Coleman). This form of discrimination dates back for centuries and derives from the common stereotype that since men provide for women and women take care of the home and children, men consequently are more effective in the career chosen. In today’s world, the realization that man and woman can produce the same outcome, have the same education, and have the same capability to accomplish the same overall tasks as men is becoming more popular, especially as the idea of women not being as valuable as a man is being proven wrong.

It’s no question that women have been put under very specific stereotypes, specifically since the 1800s, women are to “stay home to take care of their children and perform household chores, while the men were the bread earners” which, over the next century, would turn out to be a hard stereotype to break (“The Evolution of Women in the Workforce”). After the Civil War, African American women had to provide for themselves and loved ones, post freedom of slavery, which would result in the joining of the workforce. Married white middle class women would soon join but it wouldn’t come to make a huge impact up until World War II: 1939, where it became vital for women to start working. The Draft of World War II was issued on September 16th, 1940 for men to leave their jobs behind, as well as their families and go on to fight for America’s freedom (The National WWII Museum). After a drastic decrease in the workforce the government then saw an opportunity for the use of women to help with the shortage of supplies and resources used during the war. Propaganda posters would come into play to encourage women to get up and join the working forces, such as Rosie the Riveter. Rosie the Riveter displays a

Women are perceived as being less knowledgeable or less qualified than men. They are also viewed as being less responsible or unreliable, due to family related issues, than men are. In addition, women are seen to be less committed to labor force participation than men. "High turnover rates and low productivity levels in females-dominated occupations" produce this stereotype (Adler 450). Gender stereotypes of this nature result in loss of opportunity for women to gain the necessary job experiences for advancement (Bell 67).

Nurses, counselors, teachers, wedding planners, interior decorators, and pediatricians are just some of the important positions women hold in the workforce, however, there has been a lack of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related careers. Women tend to be drawn more towards careers dealing with secretarial work, health care and retail instead of engineering, chemistry, and technology. One of the biggest reason women do not enter these fields is due to cultural stereotypes. Another is due to the multitude of positions available to women that are not STEM related. Finally, women tend to look for jobs that are more flexible, hands on, financially rewarding and socially welcoming.

Gender stereotyping prompts wage segregation. Largely, women’s wages are just eighty percent of men's wages (Heilman 2015). These measurements do not get from different pay rates from diverse occupation positions that men and women hold; rather, they originate from a study of pay rates that men and women acquire for precisely the same position and precisely the same job requirements. One reason women are paid less for the same work, is that women are paid in view of gender stereotypes.

Stereotype threats are negative consequences about one’s race, sex, nationality, or social group. Stereotype threats are used a lot more frequently than people realize. Gender is a powerful stereotype that affects many people’s decisions and actions. The stereotype of women in the workplace has come a long way even in the last twenty years. Many businesses tend to want to diversify their demographics by making the ratio of men to women almost equal. “Demographic projections anticipate that by the year 2000 women will exceed 50 per cent of the total workforce…” (Johnston and Packer, 1987). Women were able to make their way in to the workplace when men were off at war during the 1950s. During this time, women proved their ability to do the same kind of jobs men did. Many women worked as machinist, factory workers, and clergies.

The judgments we make about people, events or places are based on our own direct impressions. But for most of the knowledge, we rely on media. The media actually re-present the world to us. However, the media only shows us some aspects of the world, ignoring the rest. So basically, the media chooses what is to be shown and what is to be discarded (Andrew Pilkington and Alan Yeo (2009)). . In this essay, I will explain what stereotypes are and primarily give an example of a famous men’s magazine called ‘nuts’ and explain how these stereotypes are created by print and the digital media and what are their impacts on people.

Stereotypes have become a prevalent issue in our media. They, without our knowledge, prevent us from moving forward as human. In this essay, I will discuss the effects of stereotypes in media on gender roles, religion, and race.

Stereotypes are a part of everyday life. They help us differentiate and categorize to make quick decision on a person's character; however, stereotyping can be misleading or incorrect resulting in false judgment and mistreatment. In the workplace, this can show to be especially heinous. Stereotyping is a preconceived notion that all members of a group are the same, and behave in the same way. This act of judging others based on perception can cause many problems; especially when linked to the work environment.