Gender Related Business Stereotypes

- Jake

It is commonly known that different fields and majors commonly attract stereotypes and expectations of people, and the business field is one of the worst in this aspect. Generally people think of business men and women to be dressed nicely 100% of the time and to be very fake. It seems that the image people usually get is a very well dressed but unethical car salesperson.

I quickly searched "businessman" and "businesswoman" and found these two images. I feel these accurately represent what people generally think of the business field. Some of these defining qualities include: well dressed, serious looking, located in a city, younger/middle age, and intimidating demeanor. As we can already assume, it is rare that someone will actually fit this specific mold of "businessman/woman," but in this post I would like to focus on a different aspect of business stereotypes; gender stereotypes.

In many fields, primarily business, it seems that the standards are that "women take care and men take charge. We can see this in the article found here. Essentially this means women are expected to stay home, cook meals, clean the house, and care for children while the men go out, work, and provide for the family financially. Other common stereotypes of women in business are that they are generally single and put their job in front of their relations, making them lonely. They are also seen as cold, tough, and masculine.

It is extremely unfair, but it seems that the negative jobs or stereotypes of the business field are linked with women rather than men. For a very long time we have related dominant jobs and characteristics with manly qualities. This has shaped images of what people in these positions should look like in our mind. Eventually this leads to the development of stereotypes. This is not at all fair to women and likely plays a factor in the wage gap, but these were all started by us as a society. Because we judge people and view positions of power as manly we have developed these stereotypes subconsciously, which directly affects women in these roles. As more and more women are independent and gain positions typically held by men, I hope that these stereotypes will start to change for the better and more accurately reflect the personalities of people in these types of fields and roles.

Works Cited

"Businessman Profile Looking to the Left." Freepik. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.

"Today’s London Woman." Todays London Woman. N.p., 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.

Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge:” Stereotyping of U.S. Business Leaders ExposedABOUT CATALYST (n.d.): n. pag. Web.