Why Do Parents Have Different Hopes And Standards For Their Sons Than Their Daughters?

The 20th century was the first time women were given many types of job opportunities in America. There has been rapid progress throughout the years regarding gender equality, but there is still much to be done, especially in terms of parenting. Parenting has so much to do with gender inequality because parents set limits for their daughters and sons due to outdated gender roles. Parents have set limits because they have different hopes and standards for their daughters and sons, but some parents have been changing and making sure both their children, regardless of gender, can achieve the same hopes and standards. Although equal rights in the past couple of decades has changed positively, many people still have misogynistic beliefs, especially parents, because of the way they were raised. The …show more content…

The general argument made by author Michael Gonchar in his work, “ Do Parents Have Different Hopes and Standards for their Sons than their Daughters?”, is that parents tend to expect different qualities in their sons than in their daughters. More specifically, Gonchar argues that parents focus more on the appearance of their daughters and the intelligence of their sons. He writes “ Yet a recent study of Internet search data suggests that American parents do in fact hold different expectations for their children based on sex. For one, they want their boys to be smarter and their girls skinnier.” (Gonchar, Page 1). In this passage, the author is suggesting that without even realizing it, parents do want different things for their sons than their daughters, they focus more on the intellect of their sons, and the size and beauty of their daughters. Furthermore, he argues that a