Gender Influence Essay

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Social Influences on Gender There are many social influences that effect gender. According to Adolescence 15th edition, “ Social role theory states that gender differences mainly results from the contrasting roles of females and males, with females having less power and status and controlling fewer resources than males” (pg. 170). Parental, siblings, school, peers, and mass media influences all have an extraordinary influence on gender. Parental influences is the foundation of a child’s gender. This is where a child begins to learn the true definition of the difference between being a male or female. In infancy and early childhood, parent’s influence on how they treat their sons and daughters are extremely different between the two. Even …show more content…

A school environment helps mold children’s friendships and they learn from their instructor’s actions and behavior. Textbooks and certain material also plays a role in influencing gender. Most of the time in school, history is based on the accomplishments of men, and women usually do not play a major role. The schools are usually in approval of this certain stigma of men and women gender roles. There are many ways that teachers reinforce a child’s gender development. Communication, games, and activities are various tactics teachers use to inforce gender development. Even school systems, seem to be organized to where men are in higher power than women. Even though the child’s home is the major foundation for gender development, the school would be the next major place. Even though most would think school would be a place where students would be comfortable with finding their own gender identity, this is not always true. School environments are commonly known for having a bigger effect on what men and women gender roles should be. Since men seem to be more superior than women, they are usually given more attention from the teachers. According to The Influence of School and Reading, “A meta analysis of 81 studies of classroom interaction showed that boys received 56% of classroom interaction with the teacher and girls received 44% (Kelly, 1988). This same meta analysis also found that although girls raise …show more content…

This is where children find great representation of what men and women should be. Certain messages can be sent through media to children to define their gender development. Age appropriate television shows for adolescence greatly influence the stigma of how boys and girls should be. One thing that many television shows portray to young girls is the misconception of brains and beauty. Usually is the girl is attractive she is not that intelligent, and if she is unattractive she is intelligent. Primarily, teenage girls’ main focus on these television shows are with boys, shopping, and their looks. School rarely seemed to be important to them through these shows. Music videos are also a way media influences gender. Usually television networks such as MTV and Vh1 targets mainly a male audience. Sometimes these networks can portrays women as only sexual beings, and women being inferior to men. Without parental control, children view many things on television that they may not understand, but still in some ways effects their gender development. For example, this can be seen when an adolescence watches a heterosexual relationship engage in a gender-appropriate manner. The media presents things in a certain way that children would want to imitate. The media makes children feel as if they can identify with what is being presented to them. The glamorous lifestyle, money, and being young is what appeals children the most when it

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