Gender Stereotypes and Vulnerability Influences

Abstract

Scholarship is replete with objections, denunciation, and grimaces regarding the marginalization, discrimination, and deprivation of women in several facets of many societies, especially in Africa. This is, however, critically contested and regrettably unexplored. It lends credence to why contemporary research on gender stereotyping poses a significant, yet largely unaddressed, challenge to women in a number of societies. Women face an array of barriers that prevent them from playing an active role to their full potential and contributing meaningfully and sufficiently toward societal development. The study situates gender stereotypical notions in Africa within the correlation between the vulnerability influences to stereotypes and the socio-cultural norms Findings reveal that gender continues to be a foremost issue in the discourse of social vulnerability and negative stereotype which threatens performance and influences the ability of women to achieve their goal in life.