Essay on Gender Stereotype: Psychology Module, Semester 1

This essay examines the concept of gender stereotypes, their development, and their impact on individuals within different educational settings. It begins with a definition of gender stereotypes as behaviors shaped by cultural and social factors, discussing how these stereotypes emerge through social and biological influences, particularly during formative school years. The essay differentiates between single-sex and co-educational schools, analyzing how these environments can affect gender cooperation and the formation of stereotypes. It highlights the potential for gender stereotyping to create societal gaps and contribute to issues like the "glass ceiling," emphasizing the need to understand these dynamics to mitigate negative impacts. The essay also includes a diagram illustrating the relationship between school types and perceived gender stereotypes. The abstract discusses gender roles, their understanding in children, and the influence of environment, family, society, and culture. It emphasizes the importance of clarifying gender roles for social development and self-concept, while also addressing gender inequality and its effects on individuals. The essay references various academic sources to support its arguments and findings.

Running head: GENDER STEREOTYPE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GENDER STEREOTYPE
Introduction
The basic definition of gender stereotype suggests that it is a behavior developed and
procured by various cultures and subcultures that are prevailing in any given society. The
development of gender stereotypes takes place on two levels. The first level is the social level
where an individual develops certain behavioral traits based upon their cognitive senses. In this
case, a subject observes society and tries to figure out a similarity with a certain gender group.
The second development is associated with the intrinsic tendencies or the biological tendencies
of a person (Malik, 2013).
Most of the gender stereotypes develop during the young days when an individual spends plenty
of time in the schools. Broadly we can define schools into two schools, the first is “same-sex”
school where only one gender is allowed, the second types of schools are co-ed schools where
both the genders studies together. The distinction of a “same-sex” school and “co-ed” education
has deeper attached to it (Yalcinkaya, 2012). In order to understand this meaning, we need to
understand the differential of the outcome. The concept of this differential can be studied in the
case of gender stereotyping as well. The level of cooperation between the genders can play a
vital role in the development of gender stereotypes. The levels of gender cooperation vary in co-
ed schools and “same-sex” schools.
Gender stereotyping at the grass root levels and higher levels can create a huge gap in a society
which is heading towards gender equality at all places. Concepts like “glass ceiling” and others
are mushrooming in society and giving rise to some serious problems that can be termed as
regressive in many ways (Wong, 2018). The identification of the differential between the
behavior patterns of the kids working in co-ed schools and same-sex schools can be utilized to

2GENDER STEREOTYPE
bring in certain amendments in the schooling system to bring down the negative impacts of the
gender stereotyping.
Image 1: The relational diagram showing the orientation of the school in context with
independent and dependent variables with reference to Perceived Gender stereotypes and levels
of the variation.
In the image, we can see the relationship between the type of schools and the dependent
variables. The differential between the differential variables can help a researcher in establishing
a hypothesis that says “the interaction and cooperation with mixed-gender groups or similar
gender groups does not put any impact on the development of gender stereotyping of any given
subject (Jr., 2009) .”

3GENDER STEREOTYPE
Bibliography
Jr., P. W. (2009). Single-Sex or Coeducational Classes. International Handbook of research on
teachers and teaching, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-73317-3_60.
Malik, R. (2013). Differential Effects of Single-Sex versus Coed Education on the Personality
Development of Primary School Students. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences,
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/62cd/dece78bf53bd2f0cf5c876bd0cea66399c21.pdf.
Wong, W. I. (2018). Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious
in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. PLoS One,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6286141/.
Yalcinkaya, M. T. (2012). Differences Between Single-Sex Schools and Co-Education Schools.
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Science,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812011871.