Question: What would you describe as the main reasons for the perpetration of harmful gender stereotypes, and how can they best be counteracted?

Aífe Hopkins-Doyle answered on 24 Nov 2021:

Hi James, great question. In most instances gender stereotypes are learned through the media, from parents, and peers (we call these “socialising agents” in research). In terms of perpetration, I think often times people don’t even know that they are doing or saying something harmful – they are unconsciously repeating things they have heard others say (e.g., feminists hate men) or they are saying things that they do not realise are harmful because they wrongly perceive them as fact (e.g., girls are bad maths). The best ways to counteract them are to try and make yourself aware of the biased beliefs you might hold about people from different gender groups and to try and challenge this thinking. A good place to start is by reading as much as you can about gender differences and stereotypes (this website has a good section of resources: https://thegec.org/). In terms of challenging others about harmful stereotypes – call it out when you see/hear it (of course only do this when it safe to do so).