Gender Equality And Gender

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.

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

Sociologist Dalton Conley wrote his book, You May Ask Yourself, addressing how “gender is a social construction” that is so normal for society to think how a man or woman should act towards the public. Society often categorizes roles that females and males are suppose to play in, but not only are they categorized they are also being taught what their gender role is suppose to do. The beginning of gender socialization can start with a child who is not born yet by simply having the parents purchase items that are all pink if its expected to be a girl, but if its expected to be a boy then everything they purchase will be blue. Conley states that gender roles are “sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany ones’ status as male or female” (Conley [2008] 2013:134). So even when a child is growing into their infant years, toys are made specifically for their gender. By examining how social construction places gender in categories it becomes apparent that males and females get differentiated a lot which emphasizes inequality between them.

Within the American culture, our youth are taught that the masculine roles of the male has traditionally been associated with their role of being strong and dominant and the feminine role of a female has traditionally been associated with their role of being the follower and the nurturer. Children learn the gender roles beginning at birth through the socialization process. Historically our society has always identified male infants with blue and female infants with pink, however, with the turning of the 20th century more neutral colors are being thrown into the mix. More expecting parents are adventuring away from traditional blue and pink and choosing the neutral colors such as green and yellow. Children learn gender socialization through family members, education, other children and social media. Each reinforces the gender role by displaying and maintaining the normal expectation for each genders behavior. Our youth are taught at an early age of the separate expectations of each gender. Parents often teach the role not knowingly but through association. Boys are associated with trucks, toy guns and superheroes that teach them motor skills and independence, whereas the girls are associated with baby dolls, dress costumes, and toy kitchens which teaches them nurturing and social

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.”

The first thing people want to know about your future offspring is what color footy pajamas to purchase: baby boy blue or baby girl pink. The gender binary is enforced early on from the words used to describe an infant to the clothes and toys purchased for them. Whether intentional or simply because of the hard-coded gender norms in society, children are treated differently based on their perceived gender. From infancy through adulthood, these gender roles will be enforced repeatedly. Encouraging young girls to play with dolls and toy kitchen sets will enforce the idea that they need to be nurturing and take on household duties, while doctor and firefighter costumes for boys enforce the idea that they need a career and be the breadwinner of their future family. Gendering from an early age means girls will continue to choose “female professions” such as teaching, and boys will continue to choose “male professions” such as engineering; this then creates and perpetuates occupational segregation under the guise of

This course has given me plentiful information about how men and women live their lives differently due to societal expectations, gender norms, inequalities and above all the pressures of fitting into the gender binary. As a class, we discussed how children are often born into a family that has this ingrained concept that their child will either be a masculine boy or a feminine female. This is known as the gender binary, which is the idea that there are only those two categories a person can fit into, and they have opposing qualities and traits. An example of how this is placed into a child’s life even before it’s born is a gender announcement party. If the child is a girl, the color pink will be uncovered, and if the child is a boy, the color blue will. One may not see this as a negative thing, however from that point on the parents are often expecting their child to stay within the gender norms, to try and raise a normal child in a normal family. What exactly determines if your child is normal? Society, society decides what is expected of a person and polices anything and anyone that veers into a different path. What is typically overlooked or turned a blind eye to, is the fact that these early implanted gender expectations can turn into inequality, and more specifically justifying inequality. Since we have this idea in our minds that men and women have opposing traits, then we begin to think that for specific tasks and jobs, there

Gender roles have influenced our society our whole lives, without us realizing it. They determine the way in which we, as members of society, behave among others and what is deemed socially acceptable and what is not, all based on our gender. From the moment children take their first breaths, they are exposed to the gender roles society has set. This is all part of a social construction to categorize the two genders into believing that they should act in a particular matter, using toys as an advertising method. If the baby is a female, parents will opt to dress her in pink or purple, classifying the child as “girly”. However, if the child is male, parents will often opt for blue and green, avoiding pink in order to confirm the masculine gender by society’s standards. Even as kids, a girl will automatically head to the pink side of the toy store, just as a boy would head to the blue section due to their pre-exposed view of society.

At the time we are born we fall prey to our gender, with little choice in the matter, we are expected to fulfill a role to that gender, to develop into an individual with characteristics focused around that particular gender (Stern & Karraker, 1989). Conclusions are drawn to what colors we will be dressed in "beginning with the pink and blue blankets used with babies"(Wood, 2011), what kind of toys we will play with, and what kinds of jobs we will possibly hold later on in life. But as we develop our perception of that gender 's role shifts and change according to

From infancy, our culture teaches what it means to be a boy or a girl. From the colour of clothes to the toys we play with, the messages begin at a very early age. Young people are influenced by a barrage of messages to conform to a variety of expectations, to buy this widget, and to preserve a rigid set of values that stress the differences between genders (Learning Gender Stereotypes, n.d.)

Throughout the past few decades, the gender inequality discourse have became a dominant feature of international, national and local policy debate on the subject of economic development. This policy concern has emerged as an area of scholarly research which seeks to show that improving gender equity leads to economic growth.

In module 3, I would like to focus on three main readings that thought me a lot about how people are affected by different situations depending on their race, gender or sexuality. The first reading is “The Problem That has No Name”, it was very surprising to me to read about how women decided to give up everything to become good wives. The next reading is called “Why Gender Equality Stalled”, this article made by The New York Times magazine demonstrate how the people in the United States changed their opinion about the roles of women and men inside the household, but can not do much because of the limited options jobs offer. The last reading is “Dangerous intersections”, in this reading I learned that when gender is linked to race it become harder for that person to get the support it needs. These readings are very interesting to me because even though they are not addressing the same problem, they all are interconnected by the same reason: women’s struggle to reach equality within society.

During the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, women were not allowed to vote; instead, they were forced to become housewives and obey their loved ones (“Women’s Suffrage Movement”). On August 20th, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, women finally gained equal rights in American society, after countless struggles to obtain it. In today's society, people question if women should assist in military combat or not. Gender equality remains an issue that the world is still having. Women can handle themselves on their own and be independent. Women should also have the right to serve in combat if she meets all criteria and should not be held back from her decision. Regardless what others may believe, women should be allowed and have the right to serve in combat and protect her country.

Do you know how it feels to have a strong determination to pursue your life goal, but you also have to deal with the laborious consequences such as gender equality? According to Zig Ziglar, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals”. A girl named Hope Jahren lived in a poor place where women and men were not treated equally. Many people argued on how women couldn't be things like men such as a doctor, engineer, or scientist, for instance eSTEM school has more men than women because it's an engineering school, traditionally girls are not encouraged to work as an engineer they mostly focus on language arts and performance. No woman should be underestimated of what they can do. The book Lab Girl shows that Hope Jahren story is based on equality. Hope wants to show people that men and women should be treated equally and disproves stereotypes by succeeding without money, overcoming bias hardships and completing labs that are usually done by men. She is like any ordinary teen with big hopes, Will she succeed in proving people by having her dream come true?

Malala Yousafzai once said, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” Imagine being told that you can not get the new iPhone but your friend can. This is like the same for women who want to go to school but are not allowed to. In many situations, women are restricted to certain opportunities. Whether it may be through political aspects or job opportunities. In many countries women are not allowed to go to school. This being said, gender equality is an issue that our world has been facing for many years. Women need to have the same equal rights of going to school because education is the foundation of human lives. If women do not get the proper education, more than half our world would be in poverty, have more child marriages, and have poor health care .