What Society Expects From Children

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

In the book, Kane acknowledges that there are other factors that construct the children 's gender. She, however, states that her aim is to clarify the motivations and beliefs that shape the parents ' actions and, therefore, reveal the gendered traps and opportunities for social change (Kane 2-5). From this perspective, one can understand that the five types of gendered constructions are the gendered traps. Kane shows this is a well-organized manner. There is an introduction with detailed information about gendered traps and how she came to this approach of analysis. The introduction also states the aim of the book that is to describe the role of parents in constructing their children 's gender. The author established this by exploring their thoughts, interests, attributes, and behaviors they discourage or accept for their sons and daughters. Within the introduction, there is the

The impact of social and cultural norms on the way an adolescent shapes and perceives identity has come under greater scrutiny in recent years. Although societies differ in the specific nature of the attributes associated with maleness and femaleness, each society attempts to communicate the gender norms to children and adolescents through various mechanisms.

We are taught Gender by our family members from a very young age. For example, girls receive pink gifts and boys receive blue gifts. Shaw & Lee said, “Gender is embedded in culture and the various forms of knowledge associated with a given community.” (Shaw&Lee, p.116.) For example, in one community it might be acceptable for a girl to play football, and in another community the members believe, girl

Gender roles and gender identity are topics that are prevalent in today’s society, and cause many debates in classrooms and in everyday life. There are varied opinions on the subject. Most people have very strong beliefs on how children develop their gender roles and identity and can backup those beliefs with personal experiences behind their reasoning

There have been many theories and studies on the development of gender identity and roles. At age 3, it was said that children begin to learn their gender and start to understand genders of others. However, “young children still believe that gender can change and is not permanent. Children of this age are still not aware that males and females have different body shapes (Oswalt, 2008).” Children at age 7-8 began to understand that gender is permanent and start to behave in gender appropriating ways. Behaviors are then mimic by members of their own sex. Another theorist, Piaget, expressed that by examining the child’s daily activity and interaction is when development of gender identity begins. Our genes play an important factor in development,

Gender Identity refers to how we feel and express our gender. From the time we are born, we are identified as being a male or a female. We learn gender identity from others and interaction helps produce it. A baby by the age of 1 knows if they are a boy or girl and by the age of 2 to 3 they form an opinion about the way they feel about their gender. Children take cues from their environment and the people around them to form gender identity. Anthony Schullo states that parents use gender to construct their children’s reality. They decorate children’s rooms gender specific or place them in clothes that identify them with a specific gender. For example, girls are placed in a princesses dress and boys are placed in patterns that represent cars or trucks. This shows to the child the things they should like and play with. From parents and family members girls are taught to obey and boys are taught to be strong and to be leaders. This expresses to children how they should behave and feel about their own gender identity. By the age of 3 to 4 (pre school age), children test their theories on gender through observation and imitation. They see their parents or other family members on the phone and they to will pick up a block, place it to their ear and talk in it or they will see their mum putting make up on in front of a mirror and pretend with their finger to put makeup on their face. From this early age, children observe and pick up on gender

The phenomenon of gender identity dates back as early as the 1950’s when Psychologists began examining gender development in children. In 1958, the UCLA Medical Center created the Gender Identity Research Project to study intersex and its effects on gender development and identity. John Hopkins Medical School’s Gender Identity Clinic was created in 1965 for elaborative gender research, suggesting that gender identity is “relatively fluid” up to a certain age and subject to continuous negotiation (Haraway, 1991). With countless research and studies conducted on this unique topic in human development, various cognitive theories have emerged to justify the evolution of gender identity. In order to further examine gender identity, it is critical to distinguish gender identity from societal terms that do not properly define its true semantic.

This paper examines how cultural diversity impacted a child’s gender identification based on research from different studies. Gender is one of the first social categories children become aware of because concept of gender identity is sometimes placed on children even before their birth. In general, stereotypes exist in any society and the children after becoming gender aware begins to develop stereotypes, which they apply to themselves and others, in order to give meaning to and gain understanding about their own identity and their feelings and attitudes towards own-gender and other-gender. Specifically, they provide additional evidence concerning the developmental pattern in which knowledge of stereotypes and preferences for stereotyped activities

In the past, one gender was always considered inferior in many ways. Throughout civilization, women have been considered the weaker sex, whether it is intelligence, physical strength, or emotional stability. The installation of these ideals is evident in the fact that children are labeled before they have a chance to live (Lehoczky). Gloria Steinem once eloquently said “A gender-equal society would be one where the word 'gender' does not exist: where everyone can be themselves.” This statement suggests that there should not be categorical genders, but a society of people who embrace differences between individuals instead of groups. Studies show that there is no scientific reason behind a child’s preference of color. This proves that nurture, not nature, influences a child’s preference. According to this experiment, by age one, children can distinguish faces by gender. By age two, children can label other genders and sort objects into gender categories. By age three, children can identify their own gender and believe sex is determined by external attributes. Between ages three and six, children can develop gender constancy and rigid gender stereotypes. By ages eight and nine, children begin to be more flexible in gender stereotypes

Girls are meant to dress in pink and wear dresses. Boys are meant to dress in blue and wear pants. These are simply a few of the many different gender stereotypes that children grow up hearing. For several years, society has created several different gender stereotypes, most of which are false. These gender stereotypes are adopted at a very young age. Before a baby is even born, that child is already expected to be a certain way and is expected to like certain things. Gender stereotypes that are taught during preschool years become deeply lodged into the mind of a child. Gender stereotypes are like tattoos given to a child, except these “tattoos” are not on their skin, but instead on their brain. The child will eventually grow up, and will still have gender stereotypes ingrained into their brain. Once a gender stereotype is ingrained into a child’s mind, it is hard to forget about it. In society, stereotypes regarding gender is something that is constantly spoken about, and it would be difficult to ignore them. A child most often assimilates society's gender stereotypes and roles from what is heard and seen inside of their homes. Even children’s toys are tied with gender stereotypes as they are usually limited to one gender. What is seen and heard on television also plays an important role in a child’s life. Gender stereotypes given to children by society negatively impact how a child might act and how they will see themselves both mentally and physically in the future.

From the moment we are born until we die people continually tell us what we should and shouldn’t do based on our sex. Even though our sex doesn’t equate to a specific gender, people assume that a person’s gender, referring to the social and cultural traits that are associated with either males or females is the same as their sex, the biological differences in anatomy between males and females (Lindsey, 4). Through the influence of my family, peers and religion, I have learned what it means to be a girl with many intersecting identities in the world today.

During my placement one of the child developmental topics I observed is gender development. Gender is defined as the “social assignment or self-categorization as female or male (or possibly neither or a different category)” (Siegler, 2017 ). Gender has a major impact on many aspects of an individual’s life from the clothes they wear to the career path they choose. Consequently, gender development researchers look at the influence of biological, cognitive-motivational and cultural factors among children that create differences between men and women. When looking at the topic of gender development I wanted to observe how conscious the children were of their own gender and the different ways each child performed their ascribed gender role.

Gender roles and norms are defined as the “society’s evaluation of behavior as either masculine or feminine” (Basow, 1986 as cited by McKay, 2013). These gender roles are developed through two processes namely: cognitive approach and learning approach (Sinnott & Shiffren, 2001). The cognitive approach asserts that “gender roles develop because a child’s perception of identification precedes role-appropriate behavior”. In this approach, a child discovers his or her gender, and continuously repeats socially reinforced behavior in accordance with expected gender roles. Thereafter, the roles are kept consistent over the person’s lifespan. The learning approach on the other hand states that “the individual comes to understand, and to accept, behaviors that lead to survival and success in society”.

Psychologists and everyday people alike have always known that suppressing a kid from doing something just because of their sex or “gender” can have a lasting and very deep psychological impact on them. However Alice Dreger, a leading historian of science and medicine, stated in a 2010 TED Talk “We now know that sex is complicated enough that we have to admit nature doesn’t draw the line for us between male and female… we actually draw that line on nature”. With this statement Dreger attempts to guide society to grasp a better understanding of the concept of gender. The existing heteronormative gender norms that are embedded among all societies are outdated because in the modern world “traditional roles/households” do not exist. Traditional gender stereotypes are too binding on a socially as well as emotionally for many. For children, the pressure of feeling succumbing to these gender roles/pressures can have a lasting psychological impact.