“Men don’t cry”, or “girls can’t play football” are some of the sentences we have all heard at some point in our lives. Who said all these gender dividing sentences and how much truth is there to them? What kind of impacts do such beliefs have in our society?
Gender stereotyping has been in our lives for as long as time. It begins as children, as girls and boys are given different toys to play with, and taught certain colours they should choose. Then continues on to adolescence and adulthood in their education and career choices. This in effect reflects on society as a whole with both benefits and consequences.
Men can and should cry, as this is a basic show of emotion. Men are expected to stay ‘strong’ and crying has been portrayed as a sign of weakness from a young age as if males have no right to cry. Whereas women are seen as having the right to cry whenever they like or need. This in turn gives society the impression that women are weaker than men. However, the implication this has on men is having to hide their emotions and therefore sometimes living their lives in secret depression.
Gender stereotyping also rears its ugly head when it comes to education and career choice. Education is a right for both males and females. Although more females have tertiary degrees than males, when it comes to salaries, females are lower than that of males in the same roles. Females are generally steered toward careers such as nurses, babysitters, teachers whereas males are shown towards surgeons, pilots, engineering jobs. Even if both males and females hold the same job title at the same company, men receive higher wages than women do.
We may think we’re safe from this at home, but that’s not the case there either. Women are expected to become mothers and take care of the family and the home, while men are expected to work and provide for the family. This puts a strain on both genders who don’t want to comply with the ‘norm in society’. Men who stay at home and look after the children and their homes are often frowned upon. If we can have ‘stay-at-home mums, we should be able to have stay-at-home dads too.
This silent, undisclosed discrimination puts phenomenal strains on society as a whole. We need to understand that man or woman, we are all human. Humans should be able to choose what they want to do in their lives, regardless of gender.