Identify and Explain One Significant Cause of Gender Stereotypes

¶ … cause of gender stereotypes?

The debate about what causes gender stereotypes tends to be divided between two camps: that of nature vs. nurture. 'Nature' advocates suggest that there are profound biological differences between the sexes; 'nurture' proponents focus upon culture. Overall, although there are clear biological differences between men and women, what culture 'does' with those differences suggests that 'nurturing' or cultural context can have a profound, often hidden way in which men and women are able or not able to express themselves.

According to Natalie Angier, men as well as women can be affected by stereotypes in a negative fashion. In her essay, "Why men don't last" Angier notes that men tend to be more prone to violence, drug addiction, gambling and other negative social outlets to deal with their emotions. Women may be more apt to be depressed, but men are more likely to be 'successful' suicides. Males apparently take behavior to extremes, which Angier believes is fundamentally rooted in a culture which denies males appropriate vehicles for expressing their emotions. Denied expressive social connections and a venue to talk about what they feel inside, men turn against themselves or against others in destructive ways.

However, although men may be less emotionally expressive than women, this does not necessarily mean that they are less talkative and verbal than women. In her essay "Sex, lies, and conversation," the socio-linguist Deborah Tannen shows how miscommunication between the genders tends to be rooted in the different assumptions brought to conversations. Women often feel that men do not listen to them because men have been acculturated to use a different conversational style. Men use communication as either fact-finding or as a way of showing dominance; women use conversation as a means of demonstrating reciprocity and showing caring. Men are more inclined to try to take an objective view of even intimate talk or respond with silence if they feel they have nothing to say, which frustrates women who demand validation for their feelings. The values of society are transmitted through the genders' different verbal styles which they learn from parents, from peers, and from teachers. No one is born knowing the language, it must be learned, and self-presentation is acquired through observing members of one's own gender. Women grow up learning that intimacy is about sharing secrets while men primarily bond through physical, nonverbal means, like playing sports. Tannen does not state that these differences are rooted in biology, rather they are rooted in the roles women and men are expected to play in our society: women are supposed to be nurturers, males are supposed to be aggressors.

Different communication styles can be frustrating, but as chronicled by Susan Jacoby, when women are dissuaded from doing or acting in ways that are not 'feminine,' this can have real economic consequences. Jacoby's essay, entitled "When bright girls decide that math is a waste of time," explores the roots of math phobia amongst women. Because of the nature of the sciences and math, young people must often decide fairly early on that they want to pursue these subjects at a high level in high school and college, which is just when girls are feeling the greatest pressures to conform to be socially accepted. The performance of girls who formerly excelled in math sharply drops off during these years, although there has been some improvement in terms of women pursuing higher-level studies in the sciences. By rejecting science, women limit their opportunity to pursue careers that pay well and to share the full range of their talents with the world.