Women Were Still Stereotyped in 1998
According to its dictionary definition, a stereotype can be an innocent thing, a mere stencil, or a preexisting form or stencil that can be used to make a template for an image. However, when a stereotype is a cultural and a psychological rather than a physical or artistic device, and is wielded against an entire gender, and filled with the copier's notions of correct behavior to the extent that it limits the ability of another person to be a fully functional and fully fledged human being, the stereotype must be questioned and subsequently broken down.
In 1998, although feminism was officially en vogue, the popularity of "chick lit" was at its height, and speculations about it being easier for a woman to be killed by lightening than to be married over the age of thirty or so had become less vociferously promoted by the media, there was still a notable cultural prejudice against women. Stereotypes that limited, calcified and smothered rather than sustained a fuller conception of what it mean to be female were still expressed and held within the American cultural dialogue and framework.
In seeking hard evidence for this fact, one must first ask what are the most detrimental stereotypes about women. According to the stereoyped, female gender role, women are considered to have more social qualities. Women are traditionally perceived to be more emotional, sensitive, supporting, gentle, kind, and affectionate than men. In contrast, again, according to stereotype, men are assumed to possess more "agentic" qualities, in terms of having the extroverted qualites of independence, assertiveness, competitiveness, daring, and courage under fire --...
thus "typical" males are said to emphasize goal attainment and leadership, whereas their female counterparts emphasize social relationships and making others feel good about themselves. (Rodler, Ashmore, DelBoca, & Wohlers, 1986, cited by Kirchler, Holzl,2000, p.1)
Of course, one could say that placing a strong emphasis on social qualities and nurturance is not necessarily a negative stereotype, or one contrary to leadership. But when such a rubric of the male vs. female dichotomy of relationality is present within the American societal cognifive cultural structure, that values individualism, and although such stereotypes are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, when applied to individuals within leadership positions and seeking leadership positions, they can be deliterious.
To demonstrate this fact a study by Kirchler, Holzl, and Rodler resorted to an unusual but perspacious source of cultural data, namely those of obituaries. These obitiuaries were written by the organization in which a deceased leader had been employed and published in various newspapers of record in the years 1974, 1980, 1986, 1992, and 1998. 894 obituaries reported explicitly on persons who had been working in leadership positions. 39 of the obituaries pertained to deceased females and 757 to deceased males. The greater number of the latter was due to the fact that more males could be identified as organizational leaders and thus more male obituaries of leaders could be found in the pages of the columns.
In…
