Stereotypical gender roles of the people are often arrived at through situational factors. While in most of the 'civilized' world it is considered gender appropriate for a woman to be seen as docile and not taking on hard labor unless of course she is of the lower classes, that is not the case with many indigenous or farming people. 

Those that have to work and dress for a situational reason create different gender roles of the sexual group. Stereotypically it is felt that women should be softer and work within the house, if at all, whereas men are stereotypically viewed as being the bread winners and rough and tough examples of humanity.

Those women who for instance live in the outback of Australia or the wilds of New Guinea are perceived by their culture as being just as feminine as those who living on a plantation in the Southeastern United States or on an estate in the Hampton's of Long Island, New York. The women in the first group live in an environment whose situational factors contribute to the ideal of a women who is more rough and tumble by virtue of the need for survival skills than those who live in the lap of luxury in the United States.

A man looking for a woman to marry in the Outback or Africa would be less likely to be attracted to a woman hailing from those luxurious areas of the United States. Situational factors have contributed to a difference in gender roles and since the very survival of all concerned is such a crucial factor what we in the United States might consider to be stereotypical female gender characteristics might be totally different in different situational circumstances.

Gender roles of the people of leisure, whether attributed to male or female characteristics differ greatly from the gender roles of the people living in environments that necessitate the use of all resources to survive from day to day. Situational factors are the most stringent, judgmental, sculpting of factors when it comes to elucidating and forming preconceived notions. Unless one has traveled extensively, actually I should say lived extensively one will always be prey to the pitfalls of preconceived notions.

By virtue of being human and by virtue of lack of exposure to other mindsets we as humans tend to judge everything by the societal norms of our own specific world. Situational  factors can't be fully understand and assimilated unless one actually lives in another radically different environment and then a full appreciation for the forces that define gender roles can be attained.

By attaining such an understanding of what forms the rigors of gender roles and how they are perceived by others it's possible to come to an understanding of how we are similar as we differ from each other. The bottom line is we all want to live a life unfettered by strife.

Now obviously that isn't entirely possible, but perhaps by allowing for the realities of situational factors contributing to cultural mindsets we can further tolerance of others viewpoints and get along better without preconceived notions that need to be obliterated before new notions can begin to grow.