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argument essay gender equality
Gender equality argumentative essay
Gender equality argumentative essay
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‘Boys will be boys’, a phrase coined to exonerate the entire male sex of loathsome acts past, present, and potential. But what about the female sex, if females act out of turn they are deemed ‘unladylike’ or something of the sort and scolded. This double standard for men and women dates back as far as the first civilizations and exists only because it is allowed to, because it is taught. Gender roles and cues are instilled in children far prior to any knowledge of the anatomy of the sexes. This knowledge is learned socially, culturally, it is not innate. And these characteristics can vary when the environment one is raised in differs from the norm. Child rearing and cultural factors play a large role in how individuals act and see themselves. When expecting parents want to identify the sex of their child, occasionally the doctor will inform them to paint the nursery blue or pink rather than tell them the actual sex. More often than not they know which to expect, a boy or a girl, dependent on the color, and how to stock the nursery, with trucks or dolls, why is it that children are separated according to gender, and so early in life too? Sex is a reflection of biological organs, while gender is a state of mind. The concept of gender is so deeply rooted in society it becomes difficult to pinpoint its effects as learned rather than natural occurrences (Devor 383). It seems just natural for women to be the care givers and men the providers. Behaviors people become comfortable with are exhibited openly towards their children. Susan D. Witt states: From the time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughters differently, dressing infants in gender-specific colors, giving gender-differentiated toys, and expecting differe... ... middle of paper ... ...ghton Mifflin Company, 2008. Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” Rereading America: 7th edition. Ed. Colombo, Cullen, and Lisle. New York: Bedford. 2007. Schmidt, Johanna. “Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa.” 7 March 2008: 1. Intersections. Web. 10 January 2010. < http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/schmidt.html.> Silsby, Gilien. “Sociology: Study examines gender roles of children with gay parents.” 30 May 2001: 1-2. USC News. Web. 4 January 2010. < http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/6908.html> Vázquez, Carmen. “Appearances.” Rereading America: 7th edition. Ed. Colombo, Cullen, and Lisle. New York: Bedford. 2007. Witt, Susan D. “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles.” 1997: 1-2. BNET. Web. 6 January 2010. < http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n126_v32/ai_19619406/.>
Nontraditional gender socialisation can help the child develop a more complete understanding of their personality, that takes both their feminine traits and masculine traits into consideration. This can be illustrated by Jeremy telling his mother that he got to be “a complete person” (Bem, 1998, p. 190), when asked how his upbringing enhanced his life. Further this type of parenting allows the child to be more analytical of traditional gender roles and how they might be present and potentially affect their lives. This can make them more aware of them, and could help them avoid or fight against negative effects that might arise from their presents. This can often be advantageous. Bem educated her children about traditional gender roles and their negative aspects, like sexism, and through this allowed them to have the tools to identify them early on, like Emily did in nursery school (Bem, 1998, p. 119-120). When children are being educated about traditional gender roles and their disadvantages they have an easier time identifying them later on and possibly fighting
Let’s travel back in time to about the 1700s and the 1800s, back when women had absolutely no rights as an individual and men were considered superior to women. A time where women couldn’t be anything but a housewife and do anything beside house chores, reproduce, and take care of the kids. Meanwhile, men would go out to the world and work. However, throughout the centuries, women fought for their equal rights until they finally succeeded. Back to the present day, women today outnumber men in graduating college, and in professional programs. Gender roles today took a complete twist compared to how it was back then.
The distinguishing of gender in children is a continuing debate, in regards to, determining what in fact causes children to differentiate their own gender. Nature versus nurture comes into play as people ask themselves, if parents are the cause of boys acknowledging themselves as boys and girls as girls. By only participating in stereotypical boy or girl activities, nature’s course is undermined. In Katha Pollitt’s essay “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls” she explains why she believes that it is society’s influence that truly teaches a child to act like his or her own gender. Pollitt briefly discusses patriarchy and how parents unknowingly begin building the basis of a child’s identity since early childhood. Similarly in Deborah Blum’s “The Gender Blur: Where does Biology End and Society Take Over?” shares personal experiences of her own children and questions whether it was them who influenced their children. Blum analyzes why nurture
Within western culture, gender is assigned through sex assessment which dictates everything individuals should and should not do. Gendered interaction is enforced from birth. Messages of gender and its expectations guide children as they grow, drawing influences from the media, religion, and community. Failure to follow the expectations of an assigned designation can result in children being forced to play with toys and engage in occupations that they do not enjoy to avoid social ridicule and neglect. Some believe that gender is innate while others encourage reformation of gender in hope of a more accepting society. Despite the insistence of the necessity of gender roles for an efficiently run society, traditional gender roles are dangerous
“It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!” is typically the first thing parents hear after the birth of a child. This simple statement of fact sets the groundwork for every interaction they will have with their daughter or son, and for every experience that child will have throughout her or his life. Gender identity—the private experience of being female or male—forms a core part of one’s sense of self (Welker). The nature of this private experience is enormously influenced by what we are taught it means to be a girl or a boy, and these lessons are typically fraught with instances of gender bias—what Beverly Stitt, author of Building Gender Fairness in Schools, defines as “a set of beliefs or attitudes that indicates a primary view or set of expectations about peoples’ abilities and interests according to their sex” (Stitt 3). We are educated in this way first by our family members and then, beginning at a very tender age, by the mass media.
Without knowing it, parents teach their kids about gender simply picking colors out for them. Even at birth society greets a newborn boy or girl with either blue or pink respectively, and as children grow up the gendered colors become gendered toys. As Jennifer Goodwin explains in her article “Even Nine-Month-olds Choose Gender-Specific Toys,” that when as young as a nine month old is given a bunch of toys they would choose the toy that was considered gender correct for them, such as a boy and a toy truck and a girl and a doll. The test brought up a concerning question, “So does this mean that boys and girls have an innate preference for certain types of objects?”(88). Meaning are we hardwired to know “gender?” The question suggests doubts on what mankind has believed in forever. Yet the theory has flaws as she states, “Babies…are amazing sponges and learn an awful lot in nine months” (88). Meaning that babies are blank slates, capturing everything their parents do. Without knowing it parents are teaching our youth about gender, such as a mother going to her baby when it’s crying, to even the notice of one parent leaving to go to work. Even when children get older, when they get hurt, they go to their mother, and when they need serious advice they go to their father. When I was younger, around the age of six my father left, making my mother a
When separating men and women according to gender, most people would do it based on physical appearance. Would you have ever thought that you can tell whether someone is man or woman according to psyche? Psychological gender differences have had a long history dating back for more than a century. The use psychological research on women began in 1879 which also marks the beginning of formal psychology. Any research done during these years was mostly used to the notion that the white male was supreme over everyone else. This belief is a gender stereotype and children develop their gender based beliefs on such things. I believe children should develop their gender based beliefs from studies that are unbiased and doesn’t favor one gender over another.
“Turns out you gals are useful after all!” “You mean a woman can open it?” The messages portrayed in the classic fifties housewife ads are no new phenomenon. But while society today views them and scoffs, the way traditional gender roles are perceived hasn’t improved much. Traditional gender roles can be perceived in many different ways, though always reveal the same underlying qualities. Men are thought of as the breadwinner, while women are seen as the caretakers and homemakers. While this seems like an outdated view of gender roles, it is still extremely prevalent in our society and they are stopping development. According to Planned Parenthood these “Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a person’s gender”(Planned
Family is the first influence to the children’s gender socialization. The interaction of children with their parents is the first exposure of the gender differences idea to them. Since the babies is born, parents start to treat sons and daughters differently with their gender stereotype by dressing infants with different colors’ clothes, giving them gender differentiated toys. One study indicates that parents have differential exp...
Sex role stereotyping and gender bias permeate everyday life. Children learn about sex roles very early in their lives, probably before they are 18 months old, certainly long before they enter school.(Howe, 1). The behaviors that form these sex roles often go unnoticed but their effect is immeasurable. Simple behaviors like: the color coding of infants (blue & pink), the toys children are given, the adjectives used to describe infants (boys: handsome, big, strong; girls: sweet, pretty, precious), and the way we speak to and hold them are but a few of the ways the sex roles are introduced. These behaviors provide the basis for the sex roles and future encouragement from parents and teachers only reinforce the sex roles.
Gender tends to be one of the major ways that human beings organize their lives” (Lorber 2). Throughout the article Judith Lorber talked about how gender construction starts right at birth and we decide how the infant should dress based on their genitalia. The authors ideas relates to my life because my friend is about to have a baby girl in a couple of weeks from now and when she is born we are buying her all girly stuff so that everyone else knows she is a girl. My family has already bought her bows for her hair, dresses, and everything was pink and girly. Since society tells us that infants should wear pink and boys should wear blue we went with it. I never thought about this until reading this article and I noticed that gender construction does in fact start right at birth.
Over the decades, a significant mark of the evolution of gender is the increasing social phenomenon in how society conceptualizes gender. Gender is a system of social practices for characterizing people as two different categories, femininity and masculinity and arranging social relations of inequality on the basis of that difference (Ridgeway & Correll 2004). Gender-neutral parenting (GNP) refers to raising children outside of the traditional stereotypes of girls and boys. It involves allowing children to explore their innate personalities and abilities rather than confining them into rigid gender roles that society has shaped. It can be argued that it is through socialization children discover how to operate in gendered structures, learn
There are many ways in which society can influence an individual. An individual can be influenced by the news, family, and friends. However an individual does not think much about how their gender has influenced their life. Gender socialization can be defined as the “process by which individuals are taught how to socially behave in accordance with their assigned gender, which is assigned at birth based on their biological sex” (Boundless, 2015). This is a process that begins from the moment that an individual’s life starts. As a child, each gender is treated differently. Girls are given dolls and are expected to stay clean when playing outside. Boys are given toy cars and are allowed to get dirty when playing outside (Sanderson, 2008). Gender
From the moment babies are born, their gender plays a huge role in their lives, the first question people always ask is whether it’s a boy or a girl. Based on the answer to this question babies are either wrapped in a pink blanket or a blue one. We live in a world where we are very gender specific, we divide physical features, behaviors, toys, careers, names, and even colors into two categories: feminine and masculine. These gender stereotypes influence our lives so much that even children as old as 10 months can understand gender-related information. According to Gary Levy, Ph.D., director of the Infant Development Center at the University of Wyoming, babies were shown “videos of certain objects paired with either a male or a female face… children became accustomed to seeing certain objects with a man's face and
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our