Children Development and Gender Identity

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Recommended: Gender stereotypes in little boys and girls

Gender identity is so important in the developmental stages of children. Identity development in children crosses physical, emotional, and social barriers. Most people believe that gender identity is not an issue until the children hit puberty. However, children develop gender identities I believe starting as young as infancy. Some research has shown that there are three stages to child gender identity recognition.
The first stage begins to develop in preschool ages around three and four years of age. In this stage, children can tell the difference between boys and girls and will label everyone including themselves in that manner. But in this stage I don’t think they believe that genders are permanent. They believe that genders can change, For example, a girl could think she was a boy cuts her hair short or wears clothes that may look like it can be for a boy including the color.
The second stage usually occurs around the ages of six and seven, in this stage, children begin to realize that their genders are the same and they will stay that gender throughout their childhood and on through adulthood.
In the final stage, children become aware of gender related behaviors and activities. Girls usually tend to play with stuffed animals and dolls, while also playing with either 1 or 2 friends or a small group. Boys, however, tend to play with action figures and balls, while also playing in a large group.

Although times are changing and there have been studies that boys and girls develop differently biologically, I firmly believe the treatment of the two genders plays a role. Children see the jobs and roles their parents take on in the household and I believe that this has a big influence on a child. A child may see their mother c...

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...iz. It was stated that it’s not masculine to read alot and you aren't feminine unless you know what the parts of a sewing machine are? Saxs position is coming from when his parents and he grew up, n fact a lot of what he speaks about is from those years. It seems as if Sax believes that adolescences of different genders need to remain in the positions they were built up in from his years of being an adolescence. There is no good cause of that statement, it was an opinion.
In conclusion Sax claims that gender is not a social construction, he thinks everything is natural and biological. I do believe that there are some behaviors that may be biological however I also believe that you’re upbringing and surroundings play a vital role in both genders. Gender identity is an ever changing dimension, gender roles have changed tremendously in the last fifty or sixty years.

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