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Stereotypes And Gender Roles Of Women Essay

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A stereotype can be defined as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” Stereotypes are preconceived notions about a group of people. Gender roles are “the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others.” These roles are also known as the social norms that dictate the types of behaviors that are deemed acceptable, appropriate or desirable for people of the two genders. Both stereotypes and gender roles of women (and of men) have spanned the centuries. When looking at medieval texts as well as a Classical Greek text, readers are shown how women, especially, are viewed by society as well as the role they are given. During these times women were typically stereotyped to be less dominant than men and their gender roles were very narrowly focused on life inside the home but in some literature pieces that wasn 't the case. Stereotypes reflect social attitudes about the kind of human being women (and men) are. Stereotypes reflect a person’s character and special nature. Women during Medieval times were extremely unequal to men in all aspects of life. Women were less educated, not entitled to a political vote and were not able to choose whether or not to marry or to have children. It seems as if women, when they became wives, were almost treated as children by their husbands. Women were told what to do, what to say and basically how to live their life by their “superiors,” men. However,
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