Gender roles are not biologically determined but are socially constructed and can vary widely between different societies and cultures.  At their core, gender roles are an arbitrary set of characteristics society believes each person should embody based on their gender.

A gender stereotype is harmful when it limits women and men’s capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and/or make choices about their lives.

Wrongful gender stereotyping is a frequent cause of discrimination.

Why does this matter?

Gender stereotypes, on the surface, may seem like a trivial issue, if we impose rigid ideas of masculinity and femininity on children, we limit their potential and actually cause real harm in later life. “When individuals are unable to meet society’s expectations of how they should behave based on their gender, they may feel isolated, misunderstood, and even punished.” As a result, individuals might develop a sense of failure, anxiety, stress, or depression.

What if Misogyny?

The definition of Misogyny is a hatred, a contempt for, mistrust of and prejudice against women or girls.

It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men. It is an ingrained and institutionalized prejudice against women and promotes prejudice and harmful gender stereotypes.

It can manifested in various forms such as physical intimidation and abuse, sexual harassment and rape, social shunning and ostracism.  It can cause women and girls to feel powerless, afraid and angry.

Put simply it’s the feeling or the belief that men are much better than women.

Some perpetrators of domestic abuse are misogynists.

They do not respect women and girls and do not believe they deserve to be treated with the same respect as men and boys. They use domestic abuse as a form of control because they believe that as a man, they have more rights than women or that women should be held accountable for men’s actions.

Society often feeds into these myths and from a young age, unhealthy behaviours for boys are encouraged, such as:

not crying,

being mocked if they ‘lose to a girl’ and

not asked to do certain chores because that is ‘a woman’s job’.

Society constructs these gender roles and reinforces them throughout a lifetime, this can lead to men believing they are entitled to power and that women are the ‘weaker sex’.

The opposite to Misogyny is MISANDRY which is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men or boys. Misandry can manifest itself in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of men, violence against men, and sexual objectification of men.

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