oversimplified beliefs or images about a group of people that ignore individual differences.
From French 'stéréotype,' combining Greek 'stereos' (solid/firm) and 'typos' (impression/type), originally describing a printing plate that was fixed and unchanging.
The word 'stereotype' literally came from printing—where the same metal plate would be used over and over to print the exact same image—which is why it perfectly describes how stereotypes work: they're the same fixed image repeated endlessly.
Stereotypes historically restricted women to narrow roles (domesticity, passivity, ornament). These reductive categories have been weaponized across gender, race, and class to limit opportunity and autonomy.
When discussing stereotypes, specify which groups are affected and acknowledge how overlapping stereotypes compound harm. Use examples that show agency and complexity.
["generalizations (when accuracy matters)","assumptions (to highlight cognitive bias)","reductive categories (to name the mechanism)"]
Women have consistently resisted stereotyping through scholarship, activism, and lived counter-examples—from Suffragettes challenging the 'dutiful woman' to contemporary movements naming intersectional harm.
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