STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE, & DISCRIMINATION

STEREOTYPES
It is a biased thought about a person due to the incorrect belief that the category accurately describes
them. Stereotypes can be positive or negative and when overgeneralized are applied to all members of a
group. Some stereotypes conveys positive example such as, STEM students stereotype as intelligent or
matalino, and Filipinos being known as hospitable. However, most stereotypes are drawn from negative
generalizations like equating our Muslim country men as terrorist and viewing farmers as “mahihirap” and
less educated.
2 Categories of Stereotypes;
 Explicit - the person is aware that they have these thoughts toward a group of people and they can
say it loud. A person can choose not to turn their stereotypes into actions.
 Implicit - the person does not know if they have these stereotypes since it lies on their
subconscious. A person has no control or awareness of it, and may manifest into actions or
behaviors.

GENDER STEREOTYPES
Significantly, stereotypes about gender are beliefs about the characteristics and qualities
attributed to men and women in society. Stereotypes in gender create widely accepted biases about certain
characteristics or traits and perpetuate the notion that each gender and associated behaviors are binary.
Under this assumption, if a man or women act differently from how their gender is expected to behave
there is a disconnect in the evaluator’s mind.
Traditional Gender Stereotypes
Women Men
Not aggressive Aggressive
Dependent Independent
Home oriented Dominant
Emotional Tough
Sensitive Active

4 BASIC KIND OF GENDER STEREOTYPES

1. Personality Traits. Women are often expected to be accommodating and emotional, while men are
assumed to be self-confident and aggressive.
2. Domestic Behavior. Some people presume that women will cook, clean the house, and take care of
the children, while men take care the finances,work, and home repairs.
3. Occupations. Some people are quick to assume that teachers and nurses are women, and the doctors,
pilot, police and engineers are men.
4. Physical appearance. Women are axpected to be thin and graceful, while men are supposed to be
tall and muscular.

HYPERFEMINITY & HYPERMASCULINITY STEREOTYPES

Hyperfeminity is an exaggerated adherence to a femine gender role as it relates to heterosexual
relationships. In this manner, people usually exaggerate the qualities they believe to be female.
Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for exaggeration of stereotypical male behavior such as
importance of physical aggression, strength, and sexuality while exhibiting emotional self-control as an
indication of durability as well as composure and impassiveness in times of stress. In these case, people
exaggerates the qualities they believed to be masculine.
INFLUENCES ON GENDER IDENTITY AND STEREOTYPES
1. Media. Gender stereotypes are pervasive in media and popular culture.
2. Friends ( peer groups). Friendship patterns and peer pressure contribute to gender stereotypes especially on
boys, who tend to self-police peers, ridiculing those who demonstrate feminine personalities.
3. Family. Parents begin to transmit sex-role stereotypes as soon as a child is born. Girls and boys are treated
differently. Mothers mostly favored affiliative play with their daughters. They encourage interactions that were
responsive, supportive and warm. Fathers, on the other hand, respond negatively to cross-gender behavior
especially with their sons.
4. School. The role of school has become more prominent in the lives of children. Teachers have prefference to
treat boys and girls differently through role assignments, rewards, & punishments for academic work.
COMMON TERMS IN GENDER STEREOTYPES
1. Gender role - Socially constructed and cultural specific behavior and expectations for women.
2. Gender division of labor- societal healthy ideas and practices which define roles and activities that are
believed and appropriate for men and women.
3. Gender identity- ones psychological sense of oneself as male or female.
4. Gender dysphoria- term that applies to the discontent with the physical or social aspect of person’s sex.
5. Gender schema- term applies to the organized set of beliefs and expectations that guides a person’s
understanding of gender or sex.
6. Gender consistency- understanding of our own and other people’s sex is fixed across situations
regardless of superficial changes in appearance or activities.
7. Gender script- refers to a temporarily organized gender related sequence of events.
8. Gender typing- term applied for the classification of an infant at birth as either male or female.
9. Gender expression- a behavior and physical appearance that a person utilizes to express their gender
10. Gender discrimination- a systematic, unfavorable treatment of individual by their gender, which denies
those rights, opportunities or resources.
PREJUDICE
Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude usually negative towards an individual based
solely on the individual’s membership or social group. It represents our emotional response upon learning
a persons membership to a specific group like age, skin color, race, disability, generation, nationality,
religion, sex, & sexual expression .
Prejudice put into action is an attack to human rights, including the right to life and safety, the right to
housing, education, healthcare,decent work, and so on.
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
 Social Identity theory. A person’s sense of self comes from their overarching group background.
People are put into groups. It is believed that the groups are assigned to
shape who people are and who they become.
 Scapegoat Theory. It says that prejudice is a way for people to blame others for their problems.
Support for this theory comes from the fact, when times are tough, prejudice
seems higher. People who feel separated or disconnected are more likely to find
people to blame for their woes.
 Conflict Theory. Prejudice is present when competition exist over a lack resources. It says that
In order to hold onto their possessions, power, & status privileged classes will
Justify behaviors that keep the other groups down.
 Authoritarian Personality Theory. A personality type that involves rigid thinking, obeying authority,
seeing things in black and white, and believing in a hierarchical structure of society.
Authoritarian personality believe that some people are just better than others.
 Culture Theory. Called as cultural transmission theory, which says that prejudice is part of
culture’s norms and that prejudice is transmitted through culture. Essentially,
culture theory says that children are taught stereotypes of other groups which leads to
prejudice and discrimination.
DISCRIMINATION
It refers to action or behaviors towards an individual or a group of people. Discriminatory
behaviors take many forms but they involved some form of exclusion or rejection. People who are
discriminated on are treated worse than the way people usually treated just because they belong to a
certain group or they have certain characteristics.
Examples of discrimination:
Genocide. The action of recognizing someone as different so much as they treated
inhumanly and degraded.
Apartheid. It means separateness is a form of racial discrimination wherein one race is viewed as
less than other, resulting in the separation of black and whites and the mass murder of
Jews in concentration camps.
LGBT Discrimination. Happens when LGBT people are treated as lesser than straight people.
Discrimination happens early in the childhood as they get bullied when they act or
dressed differently than the other kids, during adolescence they get judge, bullied or
physically assaulted as they explore or express their sexuality.
Institutional Discrimination. Restricting opportunities or privileges that may be available to
other group is discrimination, like a right to vote on national elections. In the Philippines
women are only gained to vote in 1937 and before that, Filipino women had no legal
rights even to own properties. Institutional discrimination which refers to practices which
serve to reinforce norms or preference, privilege, and limited access to service or resources.
Gender discrimination. It is a subtle or overt display of unequal treatment in opportunities,
benefits, privileges, & expectations due to attitudes toward a particular sex.
 TYPES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION
1. Discrimination in education- the unequal treatment in admission, financial aid, grading, classroom
assignment, counseling guidance, academic programs and opportunities.
2. Discrimination in employment- has four ways in which people are discriminated in a workplace;
* Hiring the employer or the hiring officer has biases regarding the work
ethic of a gender.
* Promotions- prevent women and members of the minority sector from
rising beyond their level in corporate hierarchy.
*Pay and benefits- men generally receives higher pay and given more
opportunities to grow career-wise.
*Firing- being terminated from a job due to prejudice against one gender.
3. Maternity and pregnancy discrimination- a pregnant female can’t get a job because she is pregnant
while others get demoted of fired from work because of her pregnancy.

PATTERNS OF INEQUALITIES

1. Inequalities in political power and representation.

2. Inequalities in economic participation and opportunities.
3. Educational attainment.
4. Sexual and domestic violence.
5. Difference in legal status and entitlements.
FREEDOM & EQUALITY

Article 1 of the universal declaration on human rights states that all human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and rights. This declaration was drafted by member countries of the United Nations,
including the Philippines, in 1948, this monumental document outlines the fundamental rights of every
human being that should be protected by everyone at all times. Its preamble recognizes that the inherent
dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace of the world.
While discriminatory policies, traditions, ideas, practices, and laws exist in many countries, many
have shifted towards making opportunities and privileges accessible to everyone. In many countries
people with same sex can now get married and create their own families while enjoying the same rights
like straight couples. In the Philippines, all establishments are now required by the law to have an access
ramp for people with disabilities.
Appreciating diversity of the human race is key to make a safer and more inclusive environment,
regardless or race, sex, gender, religion, sexuality, or creed.