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Shubhangini Shaktawat
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Gender Stereotypes and Their Impact on Women’s Career
Gender stereotypes are like a force that drives our society and controls everything in it. Each and every individual’s actions and words depend largely on the status that he or she has in the society and this status is given to him or her by the society through these gender stereotypes. Hence, we know the importance that people give to gender stereotypes in general. They have no logic or base but are believed to be true and practical by people. Gender stereotypes in our society are misogynistic to a great extent, impacting largely on women’s careers.
Firstly, women have to choose their career keeping in mind these gender stereotypes. They have to give it a thought at least a million times and ask themselves whether their family will support their decisions or not. They have to think over it and evaluate whether the society will accept them as whoever they want to be and as whoever they want to work as. They have to mull over the pros and cons over and over to come to a conclusion. They do all this only to hear from people around them, “What will people say?”
Secondly, women have to then see the consequences of working where she chooses to; whether her colleagues would accept her the way she is or not, whether her male colleagues would be decent enough to not misbehave with her, whether her boss would consider her capable enough to promote her working well or will they prefer her male counterparts over her, whether she would be able to manage working if her in-laws and husband deny the idea of it, etc.
A woman’s life is controlled by not the woman herself, but by each and every person around her. She is judged and people make assumptions about her without even knowing her back story. This is what a woman’s life is in a misogynistic society like ours. If people think, mind you, if people just ‘think’ that she is careless and characterless because she is wearing a shirt in which her bra-strap shows, then she is declared characterless in the society. She is then deprived of any and every opportunity in her life. She cannot take her own decisions. She cannot even live her life on her own terms. Hence, gender stereotypes definitely impact a woman’s career negatively.
A woman myself,
Shubhangini Shaktawat