Gender Socialization Paper

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

In American culture in the 1950s, men were the predominant head of the household and women were expected to cook, care for their kids, and clean. This is an excellent example of gender roles, and how they control certain aspects of life. Gender roles are, according to multiple sources, the way people behave, what they do or say to express being a female or male. (“Gender Identity”; Blackstone; "Understanding Gender") They are forced upon an individual from the day they are born even in the most trivial of terms of putting baby boys in blue clothes and baby girls in pink. Throughout that person’s life from then on, they will face cultural expectations every day to act according to their sex. Gender roles can often be confusing and hurtful,many stores are moving away from assigning products to a specific gender, but not only can gender roles affect a person’s behavior, it can play a huge role in transgenderism.

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.

Growing up, many Americans ' childhood consisted of playing tag outside, having cooties, and experimenting with as many toys as possible. Hundreds of thousands of toys flood kid stores such as Toys R ' Us, Baby Depot, and KB toys. With imagination, kids are able to become doctors, presidents, and princesses during the contents of one day. Television shows such as Barney or Blues Clues encourage having such imagination, thus inspiring kids to want to become one of the many options stores can transform them into. Walking into a regular toy store, people generally do not dissect the sexism that lays within the aisles, however, when walking in specifically to compare and contrast boys and girls toys

Thinking about gender socialization involves thinking about how people began to treat you as a boy or a girl from the very moment you were born. As today, parents start looking of the baby’s room color and what name would they choose or the clothe that you going to use and what kind of toys would relative and friends give to such a baby all this thing is going to identify found for the rest of your life in the society. when I went to the playful store they have a very specific location of all they toys like for gender or each, because is very easy for them to find toys for girls and boys and for their specific each. The toys that they have on the girls are Barbie’s, tea set and almost all the color that they have are pink, purple ,white and

Growing up in strict home with strict morals I would definitely say that I learned what the course text recognizes as gender roles throughout my childhood. I grew up in a family with a mom and dad who loved each other. I have always watched how my parents would interact and treat each other. They were male and female who would kiss each other and love each other. This is definitely what has lead to what I identify as my gender socialization. I have learned what is normal from witnessing a heterosexual couple. Also, growing up my dad would work and my mom would stay home and maintain the house. Watching this as a child I would not have expected anything less than for the male to work and the female be caregiver. I relate this back to gender

In modern day America there is an ongoing disagreement between people of all ages about the topic of gender roles in children. According to Barrie Thorne and Zella Luria, the word gender is used to refer to “cultural and social phenomena- divisions of labor, activity, and identity which are associated with but not fully determined by biological sex” (Sexuality and Gender in Children’s Daily Worlds). Whether or not young males should be able to play with stereotypical female toys such as dolls, and should girls be able to play with stereotypical male toys such as cars/trucks is a big issue that many people disagree on. Should it be acceptable in this modern time that children are almost forced to play and behavior the way that society believes is the social norm for that gender? All of these things happen everyday in the lives of children, and these things can be damaging to their personality, identity, and the way the view others.

Gender is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex (2017). Gender and the way we carry out gender have been linked to many different terms to try to create a better understanding of why we have or do gender accordingly to what was assigned at birth. Through the process of gender socialization, a plethora of social norms and expectations are bestowed upon all individuals as early as when an embryo’s sex is determined. To further describe and understand the prevalence of gender and its socialization I spent a night and a day with my little cousins Leah age 5 (Female) and Landon age 4 (Male). They are a part of a biracial four-family member household in which their dad works full time and is the sole earner of resources and their mom is in school and works a part time job. I believe the structure of their family is modeled as the typical “American Family” and as far as their family’s classification in an economic class, they would be considered Upper- Middle class. After taking their economic class into consideration I have realized that these children are and will be able to gain access to more resources associated with gender than their lower classed counter parts. Not meaning that they will be more aware of how their gender is supposed to act but they will have access more access to resources like being able to obtain psychological help and education.

To be masculine is to have those personality traits. In contrast, femininity are traits such as, nurturing, empathetic, and expressive of emotions. In turn, one can express traits that of masculine and feminine, being androgynous. For example, I being a female, am not expressive of my emotions and tend to be assertive at times. That being the social construct of masculine and feminine does not pertain to each sex anymore. Androgyny is the fact that one can express both traits on the spectrum and not just being on one side. Overall, sex roles are reinforced by the socialization theory, that explains children are reinforced to be masculine or feminine. For example, when a boy does an action of out his role, plays with dolls, he is reinforced by parents or older adult figures that what he is doing does not make him masculine and take away the doll. In contrast, for girls playing with trucks is seen as not feminine. Research to support the social role theory found that individuals assigned a supervisor role were more dominant versus being the supervisee and being submissive. As well as the social learning theory which states children model behavior of the gender they are associated with. Boys watch their dad watch sports and fix cars, where as, girls watch their mom cook and clean. More than often, the parents teach them and want them to model after

This image provides not only the dignity of mother’s love and sacrifice to her kid, but also gender ideology. Common ideas about gender are articulated in the way that women are weaker and more passive than men. Specifically, while her child is staring at the camera, her sight is to the ground with a tired face. Loss of focus in her eyes and her exhausted face show her weakness. The gender ideology is also expressed through the contrast to a shadowy man. The man with black jacket in the image keeps standing and handles tasks, while the mother is sitting on the stonewall with her kid. This contrast behavior between male and female also shows the opposed primary task according to gender. The opposite behavior according to gender involves the

Socialization regarding gender impacts the way an individual: ranks themselves in society in comparison to other genders, lives their gender identity within society, and self-identifies as a gendered being. The intended goal of socialization is to prepare the individual for their role in several institutions, but roles are different depending on gender. The patriarchal American society holds many dated misconceptions about gender roles that result in differences in the socialization of men and women. Men are socialized to lead and excel in institutions, while women are socialized to play supporting roles. This has shown to be particularly true in the institutions of family and the workforce, in which men are socialized to be bread-winners and

Growing up in the United States was a blast although, I have noticed that gender role have affected in many peoples lives. Since I am only nineteen years old I don’t have much life experience. Even though I am only nineteen years old I noticed that a lot of roles have changed from early 2000s to now. I believe that equality in genders have improved a lot, not just the United States but, also a lot of countries all over the world. Reading about gender roles throughout the history is very shocking on how women didn’t have the same equal rights compare to men. Up to now their are still stereotypes and equal rights that affect both men and women.

Bryant Harland (n.d.) suggests that gender norms are what society considers male and female behaviour, leading to the formation of standards and expected gender roles that males and females are expected to take in society. A gender norm is anything society attributes a particular gender too. For example, people think the colour pink is associated with girls and the colour blue is associated with boys. This gender norm can be noticed when parents have their daughter’s bedroom walls painted pink and their son’s bedroom walls painted blue; and when “toys being promoted for girls include a rabbit family complete with a kitchen unit and a range of Barbie dolls and the boys’ toys includes car kits and Action Man figures” (Brannock, 1999, p. 32).

Children are known for absorbing information from the world around them. Therefore, what children are exposed to while they are growing is important, as they learn a lot from the world around them. In this paper, the process of gender socialization will be discussed and examined. In specific, how retail marketed for young children may have an effect on their development, especially as they distinguish gender.

They dictate one’s behavior. They manipulate one’s thoughts. They restrict one’s potential. These standards, known as gender roles, are the way society believes males and females should act (Bland). According to these stereotyped behaviors, the traditional man is physically strong, intelligent, respectable, heroic, confident, and always in control; his main roles are to protect and provide for his family (“Talking to Kids”). In contrast, women are traditionally seen as beautiful, dependent, and inferior to men; women are conventionally expected to stay at home with the children and cook the meals while the men work (“Talking to Kids”). Starting at a young age, most people are influenced by the way gender roles are depicted in the media. In