Gender Differences In Expressing Emotions

Both,men and women hold firm beliefs about how emotions differ by gender. The most common stereotype, considers women as the more emotional sex compared to men. Women are believed to experience and express more emotions, while emotions such as pride and anger are experienced and expressed more often by men.

Studies have shown that the main difference in emotions, between men and women, is the way they express those emotions, rather than how they experience those emotions. Studies have shown that gender stereotypes color people's emotion reports. For example, a man will think that, he cannot be emotional, since men are not emotional.

Another study found that when individuals report how they feel at the moment,they focus more on the present situation and feelings and less on how their feelings conform to the beliefs held by their gender.

This shows how people tend to behave in gender appropriate ways.Females try to show their feminine side by paying attention to their appearance and diet,expressing 'feminine ' emotions such as fear or sadness and inhibiting 'masculine ' emotions such as pride and anger.

Power also plays an important role in understanding gender differences. In the gender hierarchy,women are seen as having less power and status than men. This is because women are believed to express less powerful emotions such as sadness and fear. On the other hand, men are believed to express the powerful emotions of anger and pride, which help maintain their power and dominance in society.

Another reason for the difference in expressing emotions is because when men tend to get angry,they express their anger through physical and verbal assaults. Women on the other hand, tend to express their anger with tears,which is commonly misunderstood as sadness. Women have also reported that they are less comfortable than men in expressing their anger. Such differences in expressing emotions,labels men as powerful and women as powerless.

The differences in expressing emotions among the genders,most likely stems from society. Parents, cultures and other social groups tend to conform to gender stereotypes.Another study found that, parents themselves talk to their preschool children differently about emotions. The emotion of sadness is emphasized more with the girl child,than the boy child. These same notions about emotions are then carried later in life. These gender -specific lesson about regulation of emotions teach young boys and girls to be masculine or feminine, powerful or powerless.