Gender Double Standards For Children

Gender socialization not only has an effect on physical health, it can impact parenting styles as well. (Yoder 1999).

When children are born, mothers and fathers tend to describe boys as firm, alert, and strong, and girls as beautiful, pretty and cute. There is no difference between babies except for gender. The different descriptions reflect the parents’ attitudes about boys and girls rather than the babies’ actual characteristics. These stereotypes find there way into a child’s bedroom. A boy’s room contains more vehicles and sports equipment, while a girl’s room is more likely to contain dolls. Fathers, in particular, treat sons and daughters differently. Fathers play more roughly with sons than with daughters, and usually give them more independence. The different messages that are received by boys and girls from parents and TV become important to the way they view and behave in

When a person is born, they are either male or female. Before they are born, their parents are going to set goals and expectations for them. Sometimes parents will name their child after a famous celebrity hoping they will be just as great as them. Each gender will have different ways they should live their life in order to stay within their gender role. Some will meet the expectations and other will not. That does not make them look less of their gender, they will just be expected to meet them. Over the years, some gender roles have submerged and others have risen above. They will be able to show how the gender roles are supposed to be in jobs, education, and marriage and also how they can benefit from stepping out of the gender roles.

In the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” by Susan D. Witt states that parents expose their children at an early age of what it means to be a boy and a girl. Witt argues that parents do play a role in gender stereotypes to their children as early on as infants. Witt explains how parents decorate a child’s room. Witt states that children grow and develop gender stereotypes at home. She explains how parents encourage their children to participate in sex-typed activities, sports, and role play. Witt reveals that both parents contribute to the gender stereotyping but fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often that mothers. Witt’s audience is

Mothers and fathers have different perspectives on how their children are raised. This causes parents to have different hopes and standards for their children. Parents believe they are being fair and equal but are unconsciously differentiating their standards by gender. Although many parents think they have similar standards for their sons and daughters, parents more often than not have different standards when it comes to their own.

Home life is a core area that can be the biggest influence on ones opinions of gender roles. The content of the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” written by Susan Witt introduces where stereotypical gender association derives. Gender roles can easily be adopted through the household and when children are placed in an environment where it is easily transmitted through the parents’ then that child will follow their parents’ influences (Witt, par. 1). Schooling, media, and society are also large influences on children at a young age to behave a certain way. Self-concept is also a large chunk of the way children see themselves when they begin to grow and criticism from parents can be a large influence on shaping that child’s perspective (Witt, par. 3).

The gender based expectations are taught and the sometimes subtle, often overt lessons begin at a very young age. It starts with the color of the blanket a baby is wrapped up in, the toys bought for them to play with, and extends to the pretend play they engage in. So from the earliest ages of social awareness, society reinforces the ideals of masculine and feminine throughout life. Consequently, it is perfectly acceptable for a girl to put on a purple tutu and twirl about granting wishes to her stuffed animals, while it would be discouraged for a boy. He should be outside in the sandbox setting up his toy soldiers in a mock battle. In spite of the entrenched idea of gender, some mothers and fathers aspire to a more gender-neutral parenting style, that doesn’t restrict their child to specific societal ideals. However, the pressure to conform to the gender binary is ever-present and difficult to deconstruct. The boy that cries when he gets hit by a baseball is called a “sissy” and told to “man up” by his coach. The girl who tells her high school counselor, she wants to take auto

Following a case of sexual assault in Dietrich, Idaho, where three high school football players allegedly sexually violated a fellow student, there has been some debate as to whether society’s expectations of males, expressed through the phrase ‘boys will be boys’, has resulted in harm being done to teenagers. In a opinion piece titled “The Damage Being Done When People Insists ‘Boys Will Be boys’”, written for www.dailylife.com.au and published on the 3rd of June, 2016, the author, Clementine Ford, contends that societal gender expectations have resulted in harm being done to teenagers. She specifically targets parents who believe that their sons should act in ways that are deemed acceptable in society. An included photograph taken from

In this article, “Google, Tell Me. Is My Son a Genius? Stephen Davidowitz believes parents show biases regarding their sons and their daughters. He claimed: “Based on Google searches, contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny.” He supported his claim by citing the sources like; the National Center for Health Statistics (overweight children), The Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (gifted children). Moreover, he emphasized, “This methodology can also be used to study gender preference before birth. Every year, Americans make hundreds of thousands of searches asking how to conceive a child of a particular sex. Among the subset of Americans Googling for specific gender conception strategies, there is about a 10 percent preference for boys compared with girls.” (Daviodwitz, 2014)

Gender norms today have become a big part of our society as they are present in our every day life from advertisements, clothes, to the way we are supposed to act, and even in toys. In order to appeal to a certain customer, advertisements use many gender norms that apply to customers. One of the most impactful gender norms that I find to be is in the kid’s toys because I believe that it’s teaching these kids about how to act. Kids ranging from very early ages know what types of toys they should play with and what toys they aren’t supposed to play with. For example, little boys would play with cars and action figures while on the other hand girls would play with dolls and a tea party set. Many of the toys for girls have been shaped to show them that are supposed to be more friendly and kind. These toys have made it so that there are certain way’s little girls should act and also what things they should like.

From the moment they are born, children are exposed to myriad of rigid gender stereotypes. Even as newborns, children are carried out of the hospital in a pink blanket if they are female or a blue blanket if they are male. As children grow older, gender roles are reinforced by family members, the media, and other children and adults in the child’s life. As toddlers, girls often are given dolls and books about princess and boys are often given trucks and books about heroes. If a girl tracks mud across the floor she would probably get scolded by a parent, but if her brother did the same thing he would probably get a laugh or a “boys will be boys.”

A week ago, I observed couples in the food court at the mall displaying characteristics of gender. However one, in particular, stood out. A presumed Hispanic couple with three children demonstrated a perfect example of gender norms and distinguished interactions between both partners. The couple sat directly across from each other and engaged in a conversation with their primary language being Spanish. The woman dressed in a light teal colored shirt, concealed with a black jacket on top of it and also wore faded colored jeans along with everyday white boots. The man wore a dark blue shirt and jeans alongside black boots and sunglasses resting on his head. Both partners acquired brown hair and shared a Chinese meal together while the children

As a child and even an adult now, I have constantly heard “you’re so skinny. You need some meat on your bones. Do you eat?” In today’s society, children as young a five experience negative comments and thoughts about their body image. According to an article written by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen, entitled “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful”, “in child beauty pageants, girls as young as five wear fake teeth, make-up, and hair extensions” (np). They are purposely motivated by their parents to flirt with the audience by batting their false eyelashes and walk with their hands on their hips. As stated in the same article, “the sexual, ideal body image of a woman comes from the media and marketing” (np). Shows, movies, magazines, and music videos usually portray the ideal woman as being fit, in “perfect shape”, beautiful skin, and long, healthy hair. This article suggests that “the average child views over six hours of media per day” (np). Actually, in sports, “female athletes are more likely portrayed as sexual objects than male athletes” (np). Women are considered, by men, sexual at an early age. They try to make themselves look “perfect” just to please a

I observed three different children’s television programs through watching and listening at times to see how gender roles were portrayed, specifically towards children. The first observation that I made that was consistent throughout each of the different programs where that the females were either: bossy, deceitful, or very gentle. Males that were portrayed within the programs were either: aggressive, confident, or passive. I noticed that when the girls were being bossy (or sassy) they were viewed as “just being girls” rather than mean or acting inappropriately. However, if the boys within the programs were acting assertive (or bossy) they were being portrayed as mean, and acting in an inappropriate way.

When did doing something like a girl become an insult? “Expectations result in realities. The reality is that rigid gender role expectations limit people from their potential and opportunities”(Stokes “The Expectations”). The specific purpose of this assignment is to explain the unfair gender differences and expectations given by parents to their own sons and daughters. My personal credibility with this topic comes from the witnessing of my younger brother being positively respected for dating a girl while I, on the other hand, have been put under more strict circumstances when it came to dating. In society parents have differentiating