Gender stereotypes represent generalized characteristics and unjustifiably attributed characteristics of women and men that reflect gender perceptions and social roles. They are formed by generalizing conclusions about the behaviour, abilities, personal characteristics and interests of other persons solely on the basis of gender, although neither all women nor all men fit these attributes. The problem with gender equality, however, is that we begin to apply the built-in stereotypes to more than what they really are: an impulse, a simplified influence that we have built up in our childhood by observing the world around us, based on the current gender balance mentioned above. The stereotype that girls perform poorly in mathematics, for example, leads one to believe that there is an inherent difference between women and men, which is the cause of this discrepancy. But in reality, girls are just as capable of mathematics as boys – except that we live in a culture that, for the most part, allows girls to think about mathematics as difficult, boys are under greater pressure to excel in this field. The so called ‘stereotypical threat’, which has already been researched extensively by scientists, leads to the fact that when we hear that we should not (or do not need to) be good at something, often we really are not. Numerous studies show that female students performed worse on tests when told that men were usually better at this. When test subjects were told that men and women were equally successful in this test, the test results were even.

Gender stereotypes are most clearly reflected in women’s and men’s choices – educational choices, career paths, and caring responsibilities within the family. Such choices, of course, affect employment within companies and organizations, as they lead to segregation in the choice of occupations (e.g. fewer women in the natural sciences, fewer men in the caring professions). At the same time, the work process influences the belief that men and women have exclusive character traits (e.g. men are more independent at work while women prefer to work together), which has a negative impact on the assignment of teamwork roles and the organizational structure of the company or organization. Last but not least, gender stereotypes are also applied to the recruitment process and are projected onto the gender of the job applicant, thus creating an entry barrier to certain jobs, as discussed above.

The GEMA Certificate introduces processes into the company that affect the understanding of gender stereotypes, our own unconscious biases, and also the recruitment process itself through the implementation of new measures to improve employee satisfaction at work.