Stereotypes in Gender Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Stereotypes in Gender - Essay Example The very fact that the women gave birth made it someway mandatory that they take care of the children. The women’s terrain got defined inside her house. Â  When children grow up, it is the environmental conditioning that works strongly to establish this stereotype. Parents set examples, not because they intend to, but as a normal trend of daily activities and behavior. The child watches the father managing the office and the mother taking care of the cooking or the new baby. Girls usually take their mothers as their role models and boys go after their fathers. According to Dr. Benjamin Spock, people are likely to appreciate girls cuteness and boys achievements. Similar gender identification is followed even in schools where a preschooler is taught to distinguish between the man and the woman through the length of the hair or the dress they are wearing. Even gifts given to children support this distinction; girls are traditionally given dolls, while boys are given cars or sports items. Advertisers target their goods at the gender-specific audience and try to influence spending in separate male and female domains. Researcher Krisanne Bursik conducted a study about ego development at Suffolk University in Boston and compared the results to gender-related traits; of the 209 undergrads that she studied, she found that students who had higher levels of ego development were more likely to express non-traditional gender role traits. Male students, those who had less-developed egos viewed high levels of traditional masculinity as the ideal. She noted that in these men, "gender role conflict may occur for men when rigid, sexist or restrictive gender roles, learned during socialization, result in the personal restriction, devaluation, or violation of others or self." Â