Lana Hickson
Professor Flores
English 1301.
9 June 2014
Girl
“After a long hard day of work, a man arrives home. He walks in to a perfectly clean house, where his squeaky clean children, who have been taken care of all day by their mother, run up to him and hug him. He walks into a spotless kitchen, where there is a hot meal waiting for him, and a perfectly kept wife ready to serve him.” This is what many Americans see as the perfect life, the way they envision life should be lived. Even though times have changed, views on stereotyping women have not. From the time we are young children to the time we are mature adults, women struggle to overcome the gender-biased stereotypes that are entangled in our society. Gender stereotypes are biased ideas about a gender of people based on limited information, but assumed to be true about every person in the group. Some stereotyping many Americans put on women are that a stay at home wife is a good wife, that all women will get married and have children, make less money than men, are weaker than men, should not play rough sports, and can not be politicians. While not all women agree or want this, it is stereotyped to women from little on. One of the more frequently seen stereotypes in our society is that good women stay home and raise their children. Most households require two incomes, which makes it difficult for the wife to stay at home. The percentage of women in the job field is 46%, in 2011. (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/Demographic/products/indwm/) Which proves that not all women have conformed to the gender-biased stereotype, that a stay at home wife is a good wife. Another known stereotype is that women do not participate in aggressive sports. Every four years, the Olympic games prove this stereotype to be incorrect. Many women participate in the Olympic games and professional sports that range from basketball to boxing, along with other aggressive sports. Physical strength is a trait generally assigned to men, but now is often shared with women. This stereotype that women are weaker than men is easily disputed when the society sees female firefighters, police officers, and our most respected armed forces. For example in the 1960’s the percentage of women in the total services was 1.3%, which has increased in 2014 to 14.6%. (http://iwl.rutgers.edu/documents/njwomencount/Women%20in%20Military%202009%20Final.pdf), (http://www.statisticbrain.com/women-in-the-military-statistics/). This amazing increase is proof that all men don’t posses greater physical strength