Stereotypical Beliefs Regarding Women - Essay Example

? Attribution Theory Attribution Theory Stereotypical Belief Regarding Women Women are perhaps the individuals with most controversial social issues due to associated stereotypical beliefs against them. One of these includes the idea that “they cannot do as good of a job as a man.” There are many reasons that we could actually say this, and they are tantamount to how we in general entertain the thought of a gendered society led by men (Kimmel, 2000, p.204). This is how we make attribution, by simply trying to assume that there must be certain cause of an event (Forsterling, 2001, p.13). In fact, we noticed how we generally consider men as powerful, the head of the family or in the state. In all aspects, including political, social and socio-economic concepts, men are viewed to have played a significant role that includes higher-ranking power. In all of these, we considered from the start that the women’s role as next to men, just as mere supporters and cannot totally perform that higher responsibility society expects of men. I personally noticed this point by observing that men usually do hardy jobs at home, while most mothers are there to support the family in terms of their service and comfort for their husband and children. Women cannot usually do heavy loads, but in the beginning, men have the fundamental role to provide for the entire family to survive. Men are there to ensure substantial security, while women are usually mere supporting entities. How Women Might Be Stereotyped We are living in a society dominated by male, and there is no question about that. When we say this, we are actually embracing the idea that there is a higher rank or position given to male. Men got this opportunity to lead, as integral component of a civilization inspired by ancient hunting-gathering society from the start (Kimmel, 2000, p.204). By then, men were given the ability or obligation to feed their family, creating a role for themselves as individuals who were built for the kill. Due to this role, they were expected to be more aggressive, strong and powerful and to dominate when they congregate with women. This left women behind men as society placed standard of power in terms of the men’s ability to provide survival for the human populace. The trend continued. From the past, most great people who were renowned for great title were men. These may range from kings, knights and philosophers who were able to present their excellent strengths and skills or capacity. Today, the same trend continues, though there were some women who finally were able to break the barrier and drew the line between power and their mere roles from the past. However, today, we still carry this view of a male-dominated society particularly if we based it on the religious standpoint. Male has the authority over women as integral component of living in a patriarchal society, where a powerful God is gendered male. As a result, men are supposed to lead in a society where there is a great privilege of taking dominion over women. Furthermore, men are expected to play higher roles than women do. This gives men the opportunity to be given with high level of responsibility that is supposed to be far excellent than what women might be able to accomplish. What Informed My Views? The idea that “women cannot do as good of a job as a man” is suggested no other than the society itself. We see this happening around us. For instance, most men from the past in the corporate world were given the opportunity to be on top of the ladder of success, leaving women behind them and as only mere supporters of their leadership and conceived authority and power. In addition, a father is the head of the family, which is another important depiction that the society certainly gives a higher responsibility to men than women. This gives me a preconceived notion that women cannot actually do the important role that men are supposed to play. Thus, making men incomparable to women and mostly entitled of a higher privilege and opportunity. It is therefore clear that the society puts higher expectation for men to be great and perform things even better and beyond what women can do. For this reason, it is obvious that the society looks forward to establish a great opportunity for each of us to see a great comparison we have on men and women and how we expect the former to excel over the latter. How Did the “Women” Stereotype Affect Society? The stereotype once I had against women has a great impact on the society. This keeps women begging for justice for quite a long time from now, as they were claiming equal opportunity in the same way men experience their share. Women were claiming important and essential things that men cannot do. In this way, they remind us to change our standard on how we view what a “good job” is. This continues to remind the society in general that we need to believe on the matter of redefining our standard to view women as equal counterpart of men. In other words, the stereotype we have against women continues to change our approach and revolutionize the way we create society today. Sharing My Experience There was a time when I had the opportunity to work observing both men and women doing it together. I noticed women were inferior when it comes to strength, allowing me to believe the idea that men would do better outcome. I was so preoccupied with the thought that with the level of strength men have over the women, the former would then be able to come up with the best output and must absolutely present it far better than how the latter would do it. From that time on, there was a sense of belief in my mind that men are superior to women and are always predestined to produce output far better than what women can create. Looking Back When My Views Were Disproven I encountered many questions like “what is the essence of a woman?”, and came to realize many significant issues in line with being women. When I heard answers in response to this question, I was amazed with the thought that women could be equal with men, though it might not be in physical strength, but in other aspects. In this way, they too can produce a remarkable output in other aspects. I reacted poorly on this if we based it on my capacity to refute my preconceived stereotype against women. I specifically identified the point that we are setting a particular standard in the society that would help men turn out best than women. On the contrary, we might be so preoccupied with the thought from the past that women could not do good as men, allowing us to produce a standard that would gauge women inferior to men. I was able to justify this point, allowing me to agree with the thought that in some other ways, there are things that women can do good, but men would most probably initiate poorly. Change of Engagement I believe that most of the points on how we perceived things around us have substantial influence of our immediate environment. In fact, our behavior could be strongly influenced by the environment if we based it on the context of environmental perspective in psychology (Feldman, 2003). Based on the case I have presented here, the society dictates how we should consider looking at a woman and how we come to think of the idea that they could not do good as men do. However, it is also the environment itself, which compelled me to believe that women can act as equal to men, if we based it on some other aspects. Concerning this point, I now managed to look fairly at the woman as equal counterpart of a man, and it depends on which perspectives we would try to look at it. Strategies to Change Stereotypical Belief Against Women Finally, here are some important strategies that I would like to recommend in order for us to change some of our stereotypical beliefs against women. The first strategy is to maintain among ourselves a wider understanding of things around us. This is important because this would enable us to see varying point of views, allowing us to increase our knowledge on a particular area or subject matter. The implementation of this is simple. It simply starts among us by integrating it with our daily life, to make it as an integral component of our lifestyle. The next strategy is to consider the relevant purpose of everything. When we know the purpose of women, we begin to embrace the thought that they have unique roles that at some point men could hardly play. This begins on our individual thought and it should be a matter of decision prior to its implementation. The third strategy is to encourage ourselves to always have an open mind. When we do, we are trying to open ourselves to various learning that will increase our knowledge of the things around us. Just like the previous strategies, the implementation of this is a personal decision to make. The fourth strategy is to know more of ourselves in order for us to understand our innermost intention. This is also important because we would now have the basis of any stereotypical belief and grounds towards it, so that it would be easy for us to correct any mistakes we might have acquired in stereotyping. This requires understanding more of ourselves. It is a good point to understand first ourselves before we could understand others the right way without any hint of stereotypical belief. The last strategy is to observe around us. Through this, we would be able to know the things that might give us the opportunity to understand diversity and its purpose. This requires keen insights of various things. References Feldman, R. S. (2003). Essentials of understanding psychology (5th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Forsterling, F. (2001). Attribution: An Introduction to Theories, Research and Applications. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Kimmel, M. S. (2000). The gendered society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Read More