Chances are that you know that you handle or respond to situations differently than the key men in your life.
Consider how your emotions and language play a part in your personality. For instance, you may want to talk things through, share your feelings, take time to analyze before making a suggestion, etc. Then think how men in similar situations react.
It is these differences that create interpersonal problems when we have the irrational belief all men, or all women, respond in a similar manner. The truth is that both men and women routinely approach a broad range of personal and business issues quite differently.
Enter the Problem of Stereotyping
In 2005, Catalyst, an organization that conducts research in three areas: Women in Leadership, Organizational Change & Effectiveness and Diverse Women & Inclusion, explored how gender-based stereotypes in business continue to endure and limit opportunities for women to advance in the workplace or achieve their potential.
Normally, gender stereotypes are generalizations we make to differentiate groups of people and in the case of men and women it is about how we differ. The purpose of stereotyping is to anticipate and respond to these differences without taking into consideration each person and each interaction. We rely on stereotyping because it saves us time and energy when we lump groups into categories!
Despite the time saving benefits, stereotyping can also spell trouble. People are extremely complex and their behavior is often highly variable from one situation to situation to another. Therefore, when stereotypes are used to make judgments about people – especially their traits and abilities – there is a high probability that those judgments will be wrong.
As Catalyst discovered, we unintentionally respond to people in ways that elicit from them the very behaviors that confirm our stereotypes. One of the reasons is that what we look for we find. If I have a bias about engineers being black and white thinkers, then I will look for evidence to support my theory. I will likely ignore evidence to the contrary but pick up on those things that back up my bias.
There are a number of excellent resources out there that will give you a good basic understanding of common gender dynamics that are prevalent in today’s business environment.
Source: John Agno: When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women
John G Agno: Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.
I absolutely agree the stereotyping is a dead-end. But we can GENERALIZE about how the typical male or female thinks and behaves to define "masculine" and "feminine." BOTH men and women have both. By defining these terms by how the "average" or "typical" male of female operates, we can learn to identify and appreciate both -- in ourselves and others. Www.diference-works.com
Posted by: Caroline Turner | 04/18/2013 at 11:44 PM