Gender Stereotypes In 'What Women Want'

What Women Want is a comedy that portrays a lot of gender role stereotypes. Now that I have watched the movie I will be discussing the way gender stereotypes are shown throughout the film and answering the following five questions. Does a woman belong in the corporate world? Is it acceptable for a man to have a boss who is a woman? Who makes a better boss: a man or a woman? How should men and women work together in a job situation? What are some of the benefits and difficulties?

The main character Mel Gibson, is a man who thinks that men rule the world. He grew up in not the best environment and because of that it made it him look at women as sex objects instead of believing that women could amount to something. When he went to work that morning he was under the impression that he was going to get a promotion, but shortly after arriving, he was informed that he did not receive the promotion and that they actually hired someone for the job; a woman. Mel Gibson was not happy about the decision the company had made and was going to do anything to sabotage the new employee so that he could take the job that she was given. During the film an event happened that gave Mel Gibson the ability to read into women’s minds and hear everything they were thinking. He later uses this power to his advantage and …show more content…
This stereotype was proven wrong in the movie when he admits to stealing her ideas out of her head, and said that she was more fit for the position than he was. There were also tons of smaller stereotypes hidden in the film, one being that women should be seen as sex objects instead of being considered as intelligent as men are. In the movie, there is a secretary and one of the thoughts in her head was that he wasn’t treating her like she was intelligent or even like she was a person and that she basically had a college degree for no