1. Women in positions of power often have a difficult time knowing how they should manage their emotions. Too much emotion does not fit the stereotype of a leader,
yet no emotion does not fit the stereotype of a woman, so it often feels like a lose–lose battle for women leaders. Look up two recognized leaders in the same field, such as, occupation or government level, one man and one woman, expressing emotion. Are there any articles or pieces of information regarding the reactions of the public when seeing the leader get emotional? Is this consistent with the research from the textbook? Take a look at Forbes top 10 stereotypes about powerful women. Based on this information, what advice would you give a female leader regarding emotion expression?
NOTE: Do not duplicate leaders! When a leader has been mentioned, other students’ answers to this question must use another leader.
Link:
Forbes top 10 stereotypes about powerful women: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/10… to an external site.
2. Display rules are a culture’s rules for which emotions can be expressed or displayed. List American society’s general display rules for three categories: (1) everyone, (2) women, (3) men. When we think about the full spectrum of human emotion, do these rules make sense? What might be the backlash of a man or woman breaking one of these display rules? How do these display rules compare to other societies and cultures? In what ways do we learn the display rules for our society? What are the implications of these display rules in our society?
3. There are numerous pronouns aside from he/him/his and she/her/hers that people who are nonbinary use. For example, they/them/theirs or ze/hir/hir. Write a brief story that involves the use of a lot of pronouns. Write it using conventional pronouns. Then, rewrite the story using they/them/theirs as the pronouns. Was this easy or difficult and why? What is the importance of using someone’s preferred pronoun (even when they are not in the room with you), particularly if that person is nonbinary? An additional resource you may find helpful: https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/Lin… to an external site.
