Gender stereotypes are self-fulfilling, producing the labor divisions they describe

Evidence

Skrypnek and Snyder (1982) establish a further link between stereotyping and systemjustification by showing that subjects’ gender stereotypes bring about divisions of labor that are consistent with the stereotypes. Specifically, stereotypic expectations led females who were believed by others to be male to choose to perform stereotypically “masculine tasks” such as fixing a light switch or attaching bait to a fishing hook, while females who were believed to be female opted for “feminine tasks” such as decorating a birthday cake and ironing a shirt … Taking the studies by Eagly and Steffen (1984, 1986), Hoffman and Hurst (1990), and Skrypnek and Snyder (1982) together, it seems that gender stereotypes both reflect and reproduce the division of social roles. The system-justification view holds that stereotypes follow from social and political systems in that certain systems lead people to stereotype themselves and others in such a way that their status, role, and the system in general are explained and justified. In this way, stereotypic beliefs both reflect and justify existing social arrangements. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2922 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The impact of stereotypes on social cognition is probably even more profound than Allport knew. The last two decades of research have demonstrated that stereotypes: (a) direct attention to certain aspects of the available information, (b) color the interpretation of that information, (c) influence the way in which the information is retained in memory, (d) shape judgments and subsequent actions, (e) serve as hypotheses that are tested and disproportionately favored in the interpretation of new information, and (f ) play an important role in eliciting from target persons the very same behavior that confirms the perceiver’s biased expectations (for reviews, see Fiske, 1998; Hamilton & Sherman, 1994; Macrae & Bodenhausen, 2000). The overwhelming effect of stereotypes, therefore, is to perpetuate prior beliefs and prejudices; the status quo is bolstered through information processors’ reliance upon stereotypes as a convenient way of organizing information about the social world. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1374 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Eagly and Steffen (1984) found that gender stereotypes are derived from assumptions about men and women occupying different roles. In particular, it was demonstrated that people judge women to be “communal” because it is consistent with their assumed “homemaker” role, and they judge men to be “agentic” because it is consistent with their assumed role of “employee.” Thus, male homemakers were rated to be as communal as female homemakers and more communal than females whose occupation was unspecified, while female employees were seen as more agentic than male employees and males with no occupational description given. Eagly and Steffen (1986) extended these results by demonstrating that part-time female employees were stereotyped as more communal and less agentic than full-time female employees, and part-time male employees were judged to be less agentic than full-time male employees. The authors argued that “the proximal cause of gender stereotypes is the differing distributions of women and men into social roles” (Eagly & Steffen, 1984, p. 752), because people’s stereotypes were mediated by their beliefs about the targets’ occupations. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2919 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: People stereotype groups to justify an existing division of labor; Gender stereotypes both reflect and reproduce the division of labor — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2922; Women must disconfirm gender stereotypes to enter male-dominated jobs — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 753 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Gender stereotypes both reflect and reproduce the division of labor #corroborates (0.97) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2922
• Stereotypes are self-fulfilling prophecies that perpetuate the status quo endogenously #corroborates (0.96) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1374
• Occupational roles rather than sex drive gender stereotypes #complicates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2919
• Frontline work structure, not worker prejudice, creates receptivity to stereotypes #complicates (0.76) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 844