SEX-STEREOTYPIC ROLE NORMS
Sex stereotypes denote not only the differences in attributes between men and women, but also the behaviors suitable to each. If, for instance, an irate student were to scuffle physically with a same sex roommate, observers’ reactions would differ greatly if the students were women or men. Similarly, if the same student were to burst into tears after a particularly stressful episode, reactions to him or her would again take gender into account. These examples illustrate the fact that there are behaviors deemed “appropriate” to one sex and not the other. Inappropriately engaging in cross-sex behavior can result in social sanctions.
Norms governing the approved masculine or feminine stereotypic image are clearly defined and widely held (Lunnenborg; McKee and Sherriffs; Steinmann and Fox). They specify behaviors that are thought to be not only characteristic of each sex but also desirable and therefore to be encouraged. (Although we may expect women to be catty, we do not demand that they be so; therefore cattiness would be a sex-stereotypic attribute, but not a sex-stereotypic norm.) By and large the norms specify that passive, emotional, and socially sensitive behavior is appropriate to women, but tough, rational, and aggressive behavior is appropriate to men. Consequently “feminine” little girls are preferred to “tomboys,” and “masculine” little boys are preferred to “sissies,” both by their peers and by adults. Similarly, women who display “womanly” traits and men who display “manly” traits are more favorably evaluated and judged more psychologically healthy than those who do not (Costrich, Feinstein, Kidder, Marecek, and Pascale).
Because stereotypes dictate what behavior is appropriate to males and females, they have a self-renewing quality: they influence the way in which children are reared. Socialization proceeds according to our assumptions about the sexes: what children “should” be like, and what they “naturally” are like. Many parents protest this idea, vigorously claiming that they treat their sons and daughters identically, that their sons play with dolls as well as with guns and their daughters with guns as well as with dolls. But researchers and other objective observers disagree.
Even when newly born, parents of girls and boys view their children in accordance with sex-role norms. When asked to describe their infants on an adjective checklist while still in the hospital, the girls were rated by both fathers and mothers as softer, smaller, finer-featured, and less attentive than the boys were (Rubin, Provenzano, and Luria). They did so despite the fact that doctors reported no objective differences in either size or activities level. Clearly expectations about how happy and healthy little girls and boys should be influenced their judgments.
Parents also have been shown to treat children differently when they are male or female, always cultivating appropriate masculinity and femininity in their progeny. Girls by and large are treated as if they were more fragile than boys and do not as frequently engage in rough-and-tumble games and activities (Kagan). The message communicated is one of appropriateness—little girls should not be as aggressive as their brothers. A myriad of other behaviors also become designated indirectly as appropriate or inappropriate to girls and boys—through the clothes they wear, the toys they play with, and the television programs they are encouraged to watch.
By the time most children are school age, they already have developed sex-appropriate behaviors. This can be verified by observing them at play. Boys prefer to play with blocks, trucks, and carpenter’s tools, and girls prefer playing house and dress-up (Nadelman). This tendency is reinforced in school. Observation of nursery school classrooms indicated that boys received rewards and attention for disruptive behavior and girls did not; boys were encouraged to experiment on their own more often than girls were. Although the teachers in this study reported being unaware of their differential treatment of girls and boys, they clearly were encouraging boys to be active and independent, and discouraging these behaviors in girls (Serbin, O’Leary, Kent, and Tonick).
The learning and incorporating of sex-appropriate behaviors is a powerful force during socialization. It also becomes a critical dimension along which others are evaluated. It is in this way that sex stereotypic norms feed discriminatory practices. There are some tasks and job responsibilities seen as unsuitable to women, and their engaging in them or even expressing a desire to do so is unfavorably viewed.
In summary, stereotypes about women have both descriptive and normative components. The former characterizes women in a manner undermining their competence and effectiveness. The latter casts as deviants those women whose behavior seems inappropriately masculine. Each can have potentially detrimental consequences for an achievement-oriented woman.
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