The Gender Impacts Of Traditional Gender Roles In Childhood

There were a few television shows that reinforce the traditional gender roles assigned to both men and woman. “I Love Lucy”, “The Jeffersons”, “Goodtimes”, “All in the Family”, “My Wife and Kids”, and “Fresh Prince of Bell Air” were all traditional gender role television shows. All of these shows had the men working and the women were taking care of everything at home. “The Jeffersons” were a little different than the rest because they had Florence there to do all of the housework and Mrs. Jefferson didn’t do much at all around the house unless she wanted to of course. Another show was “The Brady Bunch” this show was also different from the rest because although they had Alice there to help Ms. Brady because she had a lot of children,

Childhood, in the 21st century, has become the center of attention because of the highly influential book “Centuries of Childhood” published in the year 1960. In the book, Aries (1960) argued that the concept has been created by the modern history and further indicated that children were considered as mini-adults before the 17th century. According to Dr. Montgomery (2013), the childhood in 1970s and 80s have enormously transformed in terms of their treatment and their lives. Moreover, Dr. Montgomery revealed the contemporary and historical differences in the terms childhood. For instance, children in the 21st century have fewer responsibilities and their lives are characterized by school, play, consumption and family instead of paid labor, work, production and public life. This implies that the standards of childhood differ on the basis of economic setting and traditions of the societies.

Over time the concept of the nuclear family has started to deteriorate and the idea of a male dominated home is now rare. Since the nineteenth century and the growth of Women’s Rights Movement, women have been given more rights. The idea of the stereotypical woman being a housewife and raising the children has changed; women have started to help support the family financially by going out to work. This has meant that children over the years have had to adjust to the idea that the role of their mum has changed. This can give the era of childhood for children a sense of restlessness. Add why

Children have changed from the 1950s to the twentieth century because of how the world around them as been to impact their growth. During the Civil War era, many children were forced to work because of poverty levels. In the early part of the twentieth century, street children and working children in factories and mines did not receive a protected childhood. They were forced to grow up, lose the innocence of being a child, and become a primary or secondary provider for their families. This changed when high schools began to give most teenagers the status of a protected childhood during the time of the Great Depression. The 1950s were a prime time for many American children because the impact of divorces, a low number of women in the work force, high birth rates, increased family incomes, and the development of child-centered suburbs changed outlooks and living conditions for many young individuals. Social conditions back then, “created the image of a child- centered society with stay at home mothers forcing their attention on child rearing” (Spring 352). The ideals of gender roles are heavily influence as Spring talks about how boys must be masculine and how, “the stress on gender differences in the 1950s gave way to an emphasis on gender equality” (Spring 353).

Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence and its non-specific for it can imply a varying range of years in human development reference. The age ranges anywhere from 12 years to 15years with 18years being most common. Previous research done by sociologists focused on children primarily in terms of socialization and within the context of the family. The ‘new sociology of childhood’ argues that children inhabit more than one world, worlds that may well conflict those of adults, those of children 's own making, and those that children

In a society filled with gender stereotypes, children often adopt gender roles as they move from childhood to adolescence because of the many factors that influence their views to the point they will deny certain roles because it does not fit the gender bias. During the early years, boys and girls will usually be drawn towards gender specific activities. Playing house for example, they little boy will imitate going to work, while the little girl will imitate cooking in the kitchen and playing with the baby doll. Gender stereotypes are embedded in our culture as a social identity giving “norms” to how gender is defined. This paper is going to discuss the child’s earliest exposure to gender roles in the home from clothing, toys and expectations to society’s role in gender bias on early childhood development.

Historically, early childhood education field has been a female dominated field for a long time. In the 19th century, there were major advances in educational opportunities for female, such as common school movement and multiple opportunities in higher education. Women started to play central roles in education, both as teachers and as learners (ref 7). There was also a feminist activism in the 20th century, which populated the idea that men are not safe to work with children. This was another factor that accelerated female dominance in the education field (ref 1 - p. 4). What is more critical about this issue is that there is the changing role of men in modern society, yet the early childhood workforce seems to ignore this change and stuck in the past family model (ref 1 - p. 3). Gender equity is one of the major issues of people in now days, but female dominance in the early childhood education field is accepted by the public and making people's wrong perception that women are naturally better than men for caring of young children (ref 2). Furthermore, it is a wrong assumption that female dominance in early childhood education has been just a gender equity issue. The gender dominance in early childhood education negatively influences the learning and development of children. For example, research indicates that early childhood educators' preference of particular play constraint the children's diversity of play choices (ref 2). For these reasons, gender

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Society has expectations for the way women and men, girls and boys, should dress, behave, and look. Children learn gender roles from an early age, from their parents and family, their religion, and their culture, as well as the outside world, including television, magazines, and other media. A popular TV show called The Middle, tells the story of a working-class family in the U.S, following the daily life of a mother named Frankie who, alongside her husband, Hank, raise their three kids, Axl, Sue, and Brick. While The Middle is a modern family show, the gender norms and family dynamics are slightly stereotyped because the male and female characters are often given stereotypical behavior, occupation, and appearance.

Gender Role and Identity correspond because they both focus on what we can and cannot do or what is expected to do or not to do. Identity involves multiple concepts such as genetics, social, and psychological that will continuous changes. Gender role is the roles in our culture that characterize what we can and cannot or what’s expected based on whether we are male or female. Both relate to culture and social aspects such as Erikson’s Eight Ages of Man and Kohlberg (gender identity) cognitive development.

Because mealtimes are perceived as socializing events, family interactions are more likely to include a wide range of control acts that aim at controlling children behaviors. In a cross-cultural study of families dinnertime discourse, Blum-Kulka (1997a) indicated the use of “social control acts” or directives as an important aspect of family dinners across cultures (p. 142). Similarly, in a study of 20 Swedish family dinner talk, Brumark (2006) stated that regulatory utterances constitute about %7 of family dinnertime conversations. In this regard, behavior regulation during mealtime is not limited to the habits of eating dinner but also is concerned with socializing children appropriate behaviors and politeness.

has begun to form. When we meet a new person, we are instantly judging whether they are male

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

is described as common stage of developmental for all children in terms of basic physical and