Laura Kramer Three Agents Of Socialization

As stated in the textbook, gender socialization is the outcome of countless interactions, starting with those between parents and children. At the youngest ages, of course, parents have the dominant influence over this process. But as children age, their socialization continues under a variety of influences, including their own personalities and their interactions with siblings, peers, schools, and the wider culture. In adult life, socialization more often occurs in the other institutional arenas (page 167-168).

In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United

The stated prerogative is to introduce slow yet lasting change and to integrate more women and people of color within the STEM field; however, the plan for change, and the reason for its perceived need to be slow is nowhere addressed; , suggesting that it is rather the reluctance of men to relinquish control and allow feminization of the field (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). Reports of these initiatives claim to be struggling struggle in attracting and keeping women within the STEM field. Yet by shifting the blame on women, the inaction taken by scientific institutions to reform the patriarchal ideals dominating the scientific realm is justified (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). In addition, the economic paradigm that western society is built around is one that necessitates inequality to function. The Neoliberal welfare is instrumental in constructing gender

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

All though women in STEM face many challenges as a whole, a question being posed in this study is whether or not women in math and physics intensive studies face unique obstacles. Underrepresentation in STEM seems a stubborn fact of the matter, however, it is not even across the board. The number of women present in the life sciences (sciences such as biology, environmental studies, health care, etc.), both at the academic and professional level, is much higher than the number of women present in fields that focus heavily on math, physics, and engineering. More and more women are choosing to pursue post-secondary education and enter the specialized workforce; in 2010 the AAUW found “Women currently earn over half of all doctoral degrees

Our gender has an effect on every aspect of our lives, varying from how we view ourselves and other people to how we interact in social and civic life. It also impacts the way we set our goals in opportunity areas such as education, work, and recreation. Gender socialization starts at birth then manifests through family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Gender norms are automatically placed on us, where women should learn how to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, passive, and always hold a man’s position higher than hers. On the other hand men should be overly confident, aggressive, dominant, and view women beneath them. This paper uses various readings to show how these gender norms are supported and challenged in today’s society.

While this bill undoubtedly aligned with the mission and purpose of women’s colleges, there remains an unbalanced amount of representation of women in STEM programs and careers. “Globally, women remain particularly behind in participation at elite institutions and in traditional ‘male’ fields of study including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM” (Renn, 2014, p. 3). While the very existence of women’s colleges asserts their right to belong within realms of higher education, the work towards equity and inclusion must take place in all facets of life. “Even where women outnumber men in undergraduate enrollments and enjoy full access to higher education, women’s institutions act symbolically to remind society that in many other domains of public and private life, gender equality remains elusive” (Renn, 2014, p. 125).

Science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, the field of hope for those who were working hard to accomplish something more than a high school diploma. Women and minorities with the same degrees, same aspirations, same responsibilities only earn a percentage of what men earn according to the Institute for Women’s policy Research, the U.S. Department of Commerce and many other organizations. How would you feel if your hard work wasn't recognized? What if you turned in the same exact job that a white man did and he was rewarded more just for his gender and/or race? Today, many women and minorities still seem to feel intimidated by STEM fields simply because they have been dominated by white men of wealthy backgrounds. This is causing a huge

Flores also points out that “men’s earnings at the six-year mark are approximately $4,000 higher per year than women’s at 10 years.” Mark Perry of AEIdeas says, “for the eighth year in a row, women earned a majority of doctoral degrees awarded at US universities in 2016.” Women earning a Master’s degree outnumbered the men in 7 out of 11 “fields of graduate study and in some of those fields the gender disparity was huge” (Perry). Further, women are choosing fields of study that were previously dominated by men. Payscale reports that when women begin to move careers into previously male dominated fields, the average pay drops. Again, confirming that women’s work is

Process of socialisation: The social order is maintained largely by socialisation. Except if the individuals behave accorded with the norms of the groups it is going to crumble. Process of socialisation begins to work long before the child is born. Socialisation is important in the process of personality. Early stage of a child’s life is the period of the most powerful and most crucial socialisation. Children will have experiences that teach us lessons and from these lessons we will learn from our mistakes and lead us to change our expectations, beliefs and personality. We see that there is all different cultures use all different techniques to socialise their children.

After entering STEM fields, women are continuing to face societal pressures and negative stereotypes about their abilities in college. Higher Education Research Institute survey showed that “29 percent of male freshmen planned to enter STEM majors while only 15 female freshmen planned to enter similar majors.” Women get tied into gender role that makes them stuck to certain fields even within STEM. In post-secondary level, women are less likely to earn a degree in STEM fields than men because of the exception to this gender imbalance is in the life sciences. Usually biological sciences were tied with medical fields that were seen as ‘nurturing’ acts, tied with women’s place in society. This ties back in with women’s childhoods in which they were encouraged to believe that they didn’t have the mental capacity to analyze mathematical concepts as sufficiently as boys. This has nothing to do with their ability because “on average, high school girls take more math and science credits and earn higher grades in these subjects than boys”. Women have higher GPAs on average than men do in all majors that include STEM fields. The fact that it disturbs everyone that there is no

The most important agent of socialization is family, which helps mold an individual. The family values, beliefs, and religious inclinations shape

There are four main agents of socialization family, school, peer groups (friends and collogues), and mass media.

Socialization is an ongoing process in which individuals obtains a personal identity, learns norms, values and behaviour appropriate to his/her position. People constantly require approval of the things they do, they continually seek to be socially competent and to be accepted by those around them. It is human nature to want to be similar from others in order to be accepted in a certain social spheres but at the same time wanting to be different and unique. There are primary and secondary agents of socialization. The primary agents are those that are basic and fundamental to social beings, these include family and friends from which we learn behaviour at young age; they transmit norms and values to us. The secondary agents are those that are more external to us than family such as social institutions/organisations, these include schools,

The role of socialization is to acquaint individuals with the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideology. It provides an individual with the skills and habits needed to perform well in his or her society.To ensure that a society's cultural features will be carried on through generations, socialization is there for individuals to have the necessary development to participate and function within their society. A dysfunctional socialization would be anomie and social changes. Gender roles prove to be functional or dysfunctional in society like in mass media, family, and LGTBQ communities.