1. Masculinity and feminity – Myths and Stereotypes

2. Gender is not the same as sex
Gender – non physiological aspects of being male or female – the cultural expectations of being masculine or feminine.
Gender identity – An individuals private experience of the self as female or male
Gender role – set of behaviors socially defined as appropriate for one’s self.

3. Stereotype
Stereotypes are socially shared beliefs that certain qualities can be assigned to individuals based on their membership in a particular group – gender, race, national origin, social class, age, religion or even height.

4. Gender Roles

8. Williams & Bennett, 1975
Women: Affected, affectionate, appreciative, attractive, charming, complaining, dependent, dreamy, emotional, excitable, feminine, fickle flirtatious frivolous, fussy, gentle, high-strung, meek, mild, nagging, prudish, rattlebrained, sensitive, sentimental, softhearted, sophisticated, submissive, talkative, weak, whiney.

9. Williams & Bennett, 1975
Men: Adventurous, aggressive, ambitious, assertive, autocratic, boastful, course, confident, courageous, cruel, daring, disorderly, dominant, enterprising, forceful, handsome, independent, jolly logical, loud, masculine, rational, realistic, robust, self-confident, severe, stable, steady, stern, strong, tough, unemotional, unexcitable.

10. DeLisi & Soundaranayagam, 1990
There were agreement on the following:
Female core traits:
Niceness/nurturance dimension
Male core traits:
Potency/power dimension
Differences:
Females saw themselves as capable, competent, dependable, intelligent and responsible.
Males saw females as attractive, good-looking, sexy and sofe.

11. Do stereotypes imply prejudice?
Prejudice: The negtive valuation of persons or their activities because of thei memebership in a particular group.
Sexism: The brand of prejudice that is based on a person’s sexual category.
Discrimination???

12. Feminist

17. In Africa men wear the finery
Kukuku
Tunisia

18. Masai

19. Self-image

20. Stereotypes of African Americans

21. Asian stereotypes

22. Arab women the veil

23. Gender Schema
Schemas are cognitive structures that derive from the integration and organization of particular types of knowledge.  Once developed, they influence the categorization, interpretation, and comprehension of social events and behaviors.  Self-schemas, in particular, are those cognitive structures that contain integrated and organized information about the self--the unique aspects of people's personality, abilities, achievements, interests, and appearance

29. How are stereotypes maintained
Childrearing practices
Toys and clothing
Media – ads, stories, movies, sit-coms
Other

30. Self–fulfilling prophecy
The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be summarized in these key principles:
We form certain expectations of people or events
We communicate those expectations with various cues.
People tend to respond to these cues by adjusting their behavior to match them.
The result is that the original expectation becomes true.
This creates a circle of self-fulfilling prophecies.