Gender Stereotypes and Stereotyping

Abstract

This chapter delves into the theoretical and empirical literature on gender stereotypes to describe how gender stereotypes are conceptualized and measured, how these group-level stereotypes affect judgments of and behaviors toward individual women and men, and the implications of those judgments and behaviors for equitable policies and social institutions, such as schools and workplaces. It highlights both the assimilative influence of gender stereotypes, whereby perceivers judge individual women and men consistently with gender stereotypes, and their contrastive influence, whereby stereotypes serving as comparative standards of judgment may produce counterstereotypical outcomes. The importance of context in understanding the effects of stereotypes and the importance of considering gender in combination with other demographic categories are emphasized. The chapter ends with some consideration of self-stereotyping effects.