Gender Reflection

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.

Those who agree that gender is a social construct would also argue that gendered behaviour is not innate, and that it is learnt throughout development. Gender identity is defined as “the way in which being feminine or masculine, woman or man, becomes an internalized part of the way we think about ourselves” (Ryle, 2014). The idea of masculinity and femininity and the strong distinction between the two are taught to us throughout our lives. An individual’s earliest exposure to the concept of gender comes from parental influence. Many studies show that parents socialize their children from birth by creating distinct environments for boys and girls and treating son’s and daughter’s differently. For instance, parents are more likely to assign domestic chores such as cooking, mending clothes and doing laundry to daughters, whereas sons are more likely to be assigned maintenance chores such as mowing lawn, small household repairs and carrying out garbage (Lackey, 1989). Parents may also use more emotive language when talking to their daughter’s and might encourage certain interests such as math and science in son’s, by purchasing more math and science toys and committing to other promotive activities (Jacobs & Bleeker, 2004; Leaper, 1998; Tenenbaum &

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

This article will immensely add to my paragraph on childhood gender roles. "Children 's Gender Identity Development: The Dynamic Negotiation Process Between Conformity and Authenticity” provides evidence that child are indeed aware of the stereotypes that come with gender, and allow that knowledge to effect their everyday lives.

These gendered actions are taught in an early age as children actively participate in performing masculinity and femininity. There is gender policing that is expressed by others when an individual does not perform accordingly. Males and females must consistently “do gender” by interacting with

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.

Ideas of gender develops through socialization at a young age for many. First, to understand gender among toddlers within an educational setting, I need to address how socialization is implemented. I am going to work on Lawerence Balter's ideas of social context which states that “the social context of child care, peer interactions... and peer social networks” provides first-hand experience and knowledge of what is gender (Balter 144). Balter's social context is related to Stanley Greenspan's work articulating the child's mind is a vulnerable piece of work that constantly molds and tends to developing patterns (Greenspan 26). Moreover, pattern recognition within the toddler's mind composes a baseline for knowledge of gender (Greenspan 27). The relationships the child forms from their peers and teachers are the foundation to a child's intelligence constituting the comprehension of gender.

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

One being Social Role Theory, this theory argues the contrasting roles men and women play in today’s society. Introduced by Alice Eagly, to understand the causes of sex similarities and differences in social behavior. According to social role theory, the differences in behavior of women and men that are observed in psychological studies of social behavior and personality originate in the contrasting distributions of men and women into social roles (Eagly, 1987, 1997b). The second theory, social cognitive theory of gender, our book states that this is the theory of a child’s gender development is resulted from observational learning. This theory was introduced by Albert Bandura, he believed that boys and girls learned by observing others and imitating them to learn gender roles. According to an article by Developmental Standards on Google, “This theory is relevant to healthy adolescent development because it helps children figure out the way society wants them to act. Without gender reinforcement, children might stray too far from the social norms. As a result, they may be ostracized and possibly bullied for being different.”

The influence of cognitive development on a modern comprehension of gender identity was examined. Cognitive theories in the context of human development were assessed and examples presented to provide empirical support. These theories surrounded early gender development with aspects concentrated specifically during middle childhood to illustrate how gender identity development was perceived in children ages 5 -11 years. The process of normal and abnormal gender identity development in middle childhood and implications for future research were examined.

As discussed throughout the course, the construction of gender starts with an individual based on their sex at the time of birth. Babies are dressed in ways that display their gender and are treated accordingly. Throughout childhood, children learn gender behaviors and feelings through school, parents, friends, family, and the media. According to Lorber (1994), “Children learn to walk, talk, and

Throughout this class I have been interested to speak to someone about topics in this class that was not exposed to the material to see how much held true in day to day life especially in our youth. During this interview I realized how deeply seated the natural differences schema, gender policing, and gender roles are in our young children of our country. For this interview I talked to my cousin Clint. He is an 8 year old second grader who attends a Catholic private school in my hometown Cedar Rapids. During the interview it was very interesting to hear the things that he already had perceived about gender.

By appreciating how sex differences emerge - rather than assuming them to be fixed biological facts - we can help all children reach their fullest potential. “In the past decade, people have heard a lot about the innate differences between males and females. People have come to accept that ‘ Boys can’t focus in a classroom and girls are obsessed with relationships.’ That’s just the way that they were built.”(Eliot 1). Boys and girls, while having much in common, are also very different in their thoughts and mental aspects. Psychological gender differences could provide explanations for gender stereotypes, help to understand communicative and expressive skills,

1. Gender identity is one's personal experience of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex at birth, or can differ from it completely. Usually, People get their identity depending on the society that they are surrounded by. Most of the times, sexual orientation comes from society influences and learned behaviors. In my personal opinion, I got my gender identity from my parents, since there has no other believe in my household other than, if you are a male you are treaded as a male. In the Dominican Republic there are many Taboos when it comes to homosexuality. This means that people try to cover and make their kids think that it does not exist. It is difficult there to see two men holding hands walking on the street or to hear about someone that is homosexual. Also religion plays the biggest role in this topic. In my culture it is believed that God will punish people with sexual desire toward someone of the same sex. My father used to tell me male chauvinist things like, men don’t cry or men don’t feel any pain, and that is not true. The problem with these is that, imagine a child in school crying for some reason, the other kids are going to call him name because they learned that crying is not a characteristic of a man. This is a conduct learned through several generations, and it is not changing any time soon.