Children 's Gender Identity Development : The Dynamic Negotiation Process Between Conformity And Authenticity

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

Furthermore, Slaby and Frey conducted a research in which they asked young children what gender they used to be, they are and what gender they are going to be in the future. They identified that children did not realise that gender can not be changed and is stable over time.

This article, “No Way My Boys Are Going To Be Like That,” converses that young children are becoming aware of gender processing, which means

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they

Gender role expectations are inescapable in our society as we naturally tend to sort humans into categories, the easiest one being gender. Upon first meeting a person, most people automatically classify the other’s gender. With this classification come the inevitable gender role expectations. Even for those who consciously try their hardest not to cloud their perceptions of others based on “traditional” gender role expectations, it is almost impossible not to subconsciously succumb to these expectations that are ingrained in our minds virtually since the day we are born. These expectations often influence how one interacts with another. This is especially important when taking into consideration the effects that gender socialization of children through gendered toys, media, and parental affects child development.

Environmentally, a child’s experiences impact gender identity. Depending on family values or morals, a child could be confused by their gender. When a baby is born, there is much control on colors (if boy or girl) and ideas of the parents on how they would want to raise their daughter or son. For an example, a father would treat his son in a rough or unemotional way, while a girl would be protected and nurtured. Known as traditional roles, a boy doesn’t cry or play with dolls, but he can roll

Sharon Begley bring to light that many of the studies claiming sex differences within the human brain have been falsified. Many of these types of studies depict things that separate people of different genders into stereotypical depictions of gender roles. Gender roles and expectations can have negative impacts on parenting and growth development. The point that I found both interesting and important is how adults treat and or classify infants before the infant has self-recognition of their own gender identity. It never truly occurred to me that adults are mostly responsible with how children perceive their own gender. Beginning with gender conformity, I found the results regarding doll preference to trucks very interesting. Children have been

Gender identity is defined as the identification of a human being as being male or female. The knowledge that we have about gender acquisition is still not as accurate as we would like. Biological and environmental factors are at play and not one or the other seems to be completely wrong. Biological views relating to gender identity are supported by chromosomal and hormonal based differences. Environmental perspectives emphasize on modeling and experience (individual and cultural) affecting gender acquisition. However, the only unbiased way to assess gender identity is by taking into account both biological and environmental factors (McCabe, 2007). This paper focuses on gender identity in early childhood development.

Gender is the characteristics of people as females and males. During preschool years, children begin to fall into their cultures gender roles. Gender roles are the expectations that society has in regards to how females and males should think, act, and feel. Two social theories that are central to children’s gender development are psychoanalytic theory of gender and social cognitive theory of gender. Freud proposed in the psychoanalytic theory of gender that children develop a sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent, but eventually loses this attraction causing them to identify with their same-sex parent. In the social cognitive theory of gender, children’s gender develops through the rewards and punishments from their parents for gender-appropriate behavior. Both theories rely heavily on the influence of parents. Moreover, children in both theories learn about gender roles through observation. They adopt the sources characteristics and imitate what they see. In contrast, social cognitive theory contains other sources from which children learn gender roles such as culture, school, peers, etc. Also, psychoanalytic theory believes that children are aware of their gender much earlier, while social cognitive believes that children become aware through the negative or positive experiences they encounter. Bandura believed in reinforcement, while Freud took a biological approach.

Gender- role stereotypes are well-ingrained cognitive schemes we use to interpret and categorize behaviors as either being masculine or feminine. As early as age two and three, children are able to recognize and label themselves as either male or female; around age four or five children have already started to prefer activities defined by the culture as appropriate for their sex and they also begin to prefer to engage in play activities with same-sex peers (Bem, 1981). In the past, researchers have come up with proposals and theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon. “The gender schema theory proposes that the phenomenon of sex typing derives, in part, from gender-based schematic processing, from a generalized readiness to process

In conclusion, the articles in the book were interesting. Each chapter provided a different outlook on the many complexities on the concept of gender. Gender can be and should be fluid in that there are a variety of ways to identify, perform, and express gender. The rigidity of the gender binary in our culture traps everyone in a box that many may not feel comfortable being in. If each person could make their own choices with their bodies and how they present gender, there would be more liberated individuals. This idea is brought forth in the article. “Children’s Gender Self-Determination: A Practical Guide” and it is the idea of gender self-determination. I like the thought of people overcoming limits that have been forced upon them and being

Gender should not be intertwined with the term sex, which refers to the physical differences in individuals. Instead, gender is the idea of being male or female, and it is well understood by the time children reach the preschool years. Differences in gender become more pronounced as children age, and societal expectations are reinforced by parents and peers. Behavioral differences may be evident since parents may treat their child differently according to gender. A big example of this is how parents may react to a child’s first

In the past, one gender was always considered inferior in many ways. Throughout civilization, women have been considered the weaker sex, whether it is intelligence, physical strength, or emotional stability. The installation of these ideals is evident in the fact that children are labeled before they have a chance to live (Lehoczky). Gloria Steinem once eloquently said “A gender-equal society would be one where the word 'gender' does not exist: where everyone can be themselves.” This statement suggests that there should not be categorical genders, but a society of people who embrace differences between individuals instead of groups. Studies show that there is no scientific reason behind a child’s preference of color. This proves that nurture, not nature, influences a child’s preference. According to this experiment, by age one, children can distinguish faces by gender. By age two, children can label other genders and sort objects into gender categories. By age three, children can identify their own gender and believe sex is determined by external attributes. Between ages three and six, children can develop gender constancy and rigid gender stereotypes. By ages eight and nine, children begin to be more flexible in gender stereotypes

Gender roles have been around since the beginning of time. Men were the hunters and women were the gathers. Nowadays, gender stereotypes have been forced on children since the day of their births. When a baby is a girl, her room is pink, flowery, and full of dolls. If a baby is a boy, his nursery has blue wallpaper and a toy chest full of trucks and baseballs. Though these stereotypes seem harmless, the gender roles forced on kids in the future have extremely negative effects. Though gender roles suggest simplicity and order, parents should not raise their children with gender stereotypes because the roles are outdated, they pressure children to conform to a certain standard, and they will cause psychological issues in the future.

A child’s main gender role influence comes from parents; their sense of self concept results from the ideas, behaviors, attitudes and values that they are exposed to from early on in their development. Children begin to see how the parents view gender, their approval or disapproval of the child’s behavior and how certain behavior is reinforced. Two areas in which related issues could be introduced in early childhood and elementary education are gender role expectations and families (Meyer, 2010). Units on families are common at this level, and gender roles are taught and reinforced through the informal curriculum of preschool and elementary schools. In education, the