Shall we begin? SLIDE How often have we heard these comments in our culture?

Some people may feel angry when gender based comments are made, while others
may agree to these comments as genuine differences between the sexes. SLIDE
This is a problem of gender stereotypes, which I will present to you today. I will
begin my presentation by telling you what are the most common gender
stereotypes known at present, then I will present my arguments against gender
stereotypes, and, of course I will finish with a short summary and conclusion. The
presentation should last about 10-12 minutes. If you have any questions, Ill be
happy to answer them at the end.
To begin with, gender stereotypes are often defined as organized, consensual
beliefs and opinions about the characteristics of women and men and about the
purported qualities of masculinity and femininity. SLIDE The content of gender
stereotypes may be analyzed into four separate components that people use to
differentiate male from female. All these components are relatively independent,
but people associate one set of features from each of these with women and
another set with men. The first component is personality traits. Women are often
expected to be passive and submissive, while men are usually expected to be selfconfident and aggressive. Second component is domestic behaviors, that is caring
for children is often considered best done by women, while household repairs are
often considered best done by men. Thirdly, there are many gender stereotypes
regarding occupation of males and females. Until very recently most nurses and
secretaries were usually women, and most doctors and construction workers were
usually men. The last component by which people tend to differentiate women
from men is physical appearance. Women are expected to be small and graceful,
while men are expected to be tall and broad-shouldered. SLIDE Now lets have a
look at some more examples of the qualities which usually influence how we look
at women and how we look at men. SLIDE
Moving on, I would like to present my arguments against the issue of gender
stereotyping and prove that it IS an issue that ought to be dealt with. During
childhood, stereotyping may serve to simplify cognitive processing and allow
children to make easier decisions and judgments, but adults do not require such
simplification. Nevertheless, stereotyping continues, and unhealthy relationships
might be the consequence of it. For example, if women, as well as some gay men
and male-to-female transgender people, exaggerate the qualities they believe to be

feminine, then they believe they are supposed to boost men's egos by being
passive, naive, innocent, soft, flirtatious, graceful, nurturing, and accepting. In
contrast, men that exaggerate the qualities they believe to be masculine, might
believe they are supposed to compete with other men and dominate women by
being aggressive, worldly, sexually experienced, hard, physically imposing,
ambitious, and demanding. Therefore, women are more likely to accept physical
and emotional abuse from their partners and men, accordingly, are more likely to
be physically and emotionally abusive to women.
What is more, gender stereotypes prevent people from improving their skills. In
this case, gender stereotypes refer to the difficulty for people who belong to a
group stereotypically seen as being not very good at a particular thing theyre
trying to do. For a woman doing a math test, she has an acquired stereotype threat
that if she does badly, people are going to judge her because shes a woman and
that she is going to confirm what everyone already knew, that women are bad at
math. It creates a whole host of harmful psychological effects in peoples minds.
And psychologists have discovered if we make gender seem not relevant to a task,
then men and women perform equally well. Right now, when it comes to women in
traditional male domains, its like a track star running into a headwind their
performance is impeded.
Of course, there are average differences between the sexes, but they aren't
consistent enough to accurately characterize the entire group. Just because ONE
man or ONE woman fits into ONE stereotype for their gender, it doesn't mean they
will fit into another. The possession of traits associated with gender is not as simple
as 'all men are like this or all women are like that'. So having gender stereotypes
hinders people from looking at their partner as an individual. Especially when we
talk about ones emotions. Men are thought of as less emotional than women and
more inclined to use logic and reason when dealing with daily stresses. The
emotions of happiness, sadness and fear are believed to be more characteristic of
women, whereas anger has been found to be more characteristic of men. In keeping
with the popular idea then, it seems men are to some extent, less in tune with their
emotions and less likely to express their emotions,in contrast with women. But
perhaps it is the stereotypes of differing gender roles that men and women play in
this culture, which influence these variations. SLIDE Lets take a look at this table,
which proves that men are capable to express their emotions, but stereotypes of

masculinity and toughness deny males their emotions and prevent them from fully
developing a full range of emotional resources.
To sum up, I have presented several most common gender stereotypes of our
society and I have provided arguments to prove that gender stereotypes are wrong
and harmful. And that leads to the conclusion that we see gender stereotypes all
around us. We also see sexism, but dividing men and women into neatly separated,
simplistic categories is harmful for human relationships. When something goes
wrong between a male and a female, people often blame their partner's gender
immediately. Being of the opposite sex is not what makes it seem like ones partner
is from another planet. It is not so much gender, but human character that causes
difficulties. There are ways to challenge these stereotypes to help everyone, no
matter their gender or gender identity. First, we should point it out. Secondly, we
should be a role model to our friends and family members. We should respect
people regardless of their gender. We should speak up if someone is making
sexist jokes, we should challenge them. Finally, if we want to do something that is
not normally associated with our gender, we can give it a try.