On Gender Stereotyping and Employment Assimetries

Abstract

Every day women face obstacles which do not allow them to reveal their possibilities in payable workplaces. There exists a preconception and women's discrimination that defines and activities different and most frequently narrower possibilities for their existence related to their participation in labour market. Women are most often valued not according to their personal abilities, but following the settled stereotypes that they possess poorer abilities and they are not able to perform work that requires responsibility or that women are less creative, etc. In the scientific literature, stereotypes of gender roles are defined as a cultural and social approach towards the very thing that is traditionally considered being 'masculine' and 'feminine' roles and functions. It is stated in the article that the stereotypes, formed in the society might influence women's and men's work choice as well as create the labour market that is divided under genders, and 'what is more the stability' of woman's social status iniquity necessarily fosters addressing to the culture as one of the most significant reasons, those restrict the confirmation of woman's and man's equality in the society. The purpose of the article is to review the gender stereotypes and their impact on women and men in the labour market. Women experience pressure due to the necessity of their social and economic status; women's career development is more complicated and problematic than men's. The analysis of statistic data, performed in the article revealed that the formed level of women's employment is lower than men's. There is noticed powerful segregation of labour market and undervaluation of women's work. Men and women are spread in different professional groups, and there are delegated less responsible and lower qualification works for women. Thus in order to perform the implementation of gender equality in labour market, it is needed to change traditional gender roles, despite the fact that their change or elimination is always related to the change of collective beliefs and that is a result of collective actions determining qualitative changes of the entire social life.

Exploring occupational gender‐role stereotypes of male nurses: A South African study

“…Gender stereotypes are cultural and social attitudes towards what is traditionally considered male or female roles and functions (European Commission, 2009). The concepts of gender role and gender stereotype tend to be related in that gender stereotypes affect conceptualisations of women and men to establish social categories for gender (Kiausiene, Streimikiene, & Grundey, 2011). In the study by Stockard and McGee (1990), their findings revealed that occupational gender-role stereotyping was found to be the strongest predictor of occupational preference among children.…”

Gender Stereotypes in Occupational Pattern

“…The segregation of occupations based on gender does not see the women's career having a consistent orientation towards achievements in the hierarchy of professions (Kiaušienė et al, 2011). The segregation could be horizontal (men and women occupy different professional groups) or vertical (under same occupation, women are allotted less responsible and low qualification work).…”

“…Stereotypes of gender roles are defined as a cultural and social approach towards the very thing that is traditionally considered being masculine and feminine roles and functions (Kiaušienė et al, 2011). Women are sidelined from jobs based on prejudices and stereotypes, thereby reinforcing the occupational structure which is bound by gender role expectations (Cassidy & Warren, 1991).…”

“…Masculinity is used to denote rationalism, physical power, critical thinking and self confidence, whereas femininity denotes weakness, dependency, emotionality and obedience. This mindset undervalues the women work and men and women are spread over in different occupational and professional groups with less responsible and lower qualification work being delegated to women (Kiaušienė et al, 2011). These gender stereotypes are reinforced in the labour market and lead to gendered occupational segregation (Verma et al, 2017).…”

visión general de la brecha de género en la región de Europa

“…La situación de la mujer en los diversos ámbitos sociales ha sido analizada desde distintas perspectivas en varias investigaciones, como por ejemplo (Kiaušiene & Štreimikiene, 2011), (Maceira, 2017), (Best, Sinell & Heidingsfelder, 2016), constituyendo actualmente un asunto de gran interés.…”