The everyday construction of gender has made on a structural, interactional, and cultural level. In children, the gender salience usually varies across various social contexts.
Some of the most active agents in the creation of how the children perceive gender are the children themselves, parents, and the immediate social environment. The parents and teachers instill values or roles that are related to sex, thus socializing the children. According to
Messner (2000), previous socialization tended to ignore the role of the children as active agents in the creation of their socialization of gender. The developmental theories also managed to ignore the group and contexts of gender while emphasizing the unfolding of individuals as boys or girls.
Therefore, the traditional social construct of gender may not apply to children.
Parents have different roles in the socialization of children with gender. According to
Messner (2000), thefunctionofparents usually allows the children to performancethe difference in gender between boys and girls. The parents interpret the children performance of gender as an unfolding of a natural difference that occurs between sexes. They do not see gender as a creation of daily interactions of the children. The parents construct children
The situation worsened because instills what they perceive as ‘gender appropriate’ upbringing.
Children have rights to speak in the construction of their perception of gender.
Previous immersion of boys and girls into different gendered cultural experiences usually shape the meaning these children obtain about gender. For example, invoking boundaries
3 between two teams of boys against girls introduces a new aspect of gender. The boys or girls will not view themselves as boys against girls or girls against boys. They will view themselves as a team against a team, despite the social construct of gender (Messner, 2000).
The children have the ability to break away from the gender dichotomy. This concept is in line with communication of gender to children by telling them what they can do and not what they should do. It alienates the traditional dichotomy of using symbols to the social construction of gender in these children.
It is not important to ask why boys and girls are different, but it is important to ask what conditions make the boys and girls perceive themselves as separate groups. It is important to discuss the essence of availability of gender in particular situations.
The root of gender based inequalities seen within sports, most specifically softball, are preconceived notions, which often stem from highly influential individuals (i.e. parent/coach/mentor) during the developmental stage of adolescents. The common perceptions exist because individuals of high authority have confined the boundaries to which gender exists. For example, the Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters story illuminates that sex segregation and common perceptions begin to form even as little as four and five years old (Messner, 2015). Messner proposes that society should not look at these gender inequalities separate as boys and girls, but rather comprehend the environments of the children and how the children declare themselves into divided paradoxical categories (Messner, 2015). The foundation of his ideology derives from the “social organization of gender difference” being “so clearly tied to gender
A dominant debate in current psychological research is one on gender development. Psychologists try to understand relative importance of social and cognitive factors. Various theories are brought up in this field and in this essay two of the most standard theory in this field are going to be explained. The theories covered in this essay relate to aspects of children’s thinking that are central to their gender development. This will include, Kohlberg‘s theory of gender development (1966) and Bandura‘s theory of social cognitive development (1986). Theories like these help psychologists understand how and in which way children understand behaviour and which leads them to do so.
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
It is not an easy task for a child to understand the obligations that accompany their assigned gender, yet while they encounter difficulties processing these thoughts they are also achieving a greater sense of identity. Different stages of life consist of social rules that encode how one is to behave, however, it is not clearly defined when the transition should occur from young girl to young woman. It is not surprising that learning about gender roles and their associated responsibilities is not an easy part of a young child’s maturation and is often the result of a very emotionally charged collection of experiences.
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...
In fact, gender socialization appears very early in childhood, and it is generally regarded as one of the most related issues in early childhood. (Early Childhood, 2007) Children learn the differences between boys and girls by the environment they are exposed to, and the ideas are reinforced mainly by family, education, peer groups, and the mass media.
A girl’s role is to be contained through marriage and children, while a boy’s role is to expand his horizon through sex and education.
Wallace, Robert. “Should Girls Play on Boys’ teams?” Creators.com A Syndicate Of Talent. N.P. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
From a young age , many individuals worldwide are socialized according to their gender and what is appropriate for males and females. Socializing according to ones gender starts from the moment you are born when the nurses give you either a blue or pink blanket to wrap the child in. This allows society to known whether the child is a male or female. The double standard for gender occurs within many areas of development for instance the clothes one wears, the toys that are placed with, the jobs and careers one chooses in their later life. Attachment given by a child's parent reinforces an individual to be socialized and children can also contribute how their parents treat and see them , these are social constructs within parenting (Ambert,2012). All of these things can be gender separated and still are in today's society. Another area where males and females are socialized differently is in the area of sexuality and what is acceptable for males is not always for the female gender. Gender specific norms govern the appropriate amount of partners , when it is acceptable to engage in sexual activity and what motivates ones behavior (Kreager &Staff, 2009). This shows society individuals are socialized according to their gender because males are socialized into behaving a different way than girls but it still be accepted as a norm. Women are taught that it is okay to have sexual relationships but they need a reason, example being in a committed relationship, where as men just need a place. This is a common perception based on ones gender , formed from a western conservative view point ( Fugere et.al, 2008). Gender socialization is a process where boys are seen to be given wings and girls are to be given roots (Myers, Spencer, Jordan...
A major limitation of the gender schema theory is the issue regarding individual differences, the theory is unable to explain why different children with common environmental influences respond differently in assimilating gender appropriate behavior. According to Ryle (2013) a strength of this theory is that it addresses the lack of explanation of the cognitive development as to “why sex in particular
Part of a child’s upbringing involves what I call “social programming” which adheres to Piaget’s stages of development chart. This social programming happens when the parents pass on their behaviors to their children during the intuitive phase. For example, something as simple as religion can be a product of social programming. By taking a child to a specific church consistently, he or she will come to identify themselves as a part of that particular religion. Within that religion, they will learn what their parents have learned and that is how they are to behave in accordance with their gender.
Gender-neutral parenting is a method for raising children, used by parents who have a passion to teach non-sexism and social justice to their children (Dumas 2014). It is rooted in a desire to maintain a child’s individuality and offer more outlets for self-exploration. For example, parents do not restrict their child, regardless of a boy or girl, to wear pink or blue, play with Barbie dolls or fire engines. Parents allow their child to freely explore what they are passionate about without attaching any labels. The concept of raising children with gender-neutral identities is considered feminist and extremely radical. Butler (1990) argues that gender is performative, arguing that the naturalness of gender is something that we do rather than something we are. Parents have the most influence on the gendering of children during infancy, foremost in handling expectations for behavior. They are also responsible for their own behavior as it related to the treatment of
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.
Parents play a vital role in what children will view as far as gender and gender roles. Parents should be sure make sure that their children are aware of the difference between gender and sex. By instilling the knowledge that there is a difference in these two words, parents could then teach their children to view each person that they encounter as different individuals who may not conform to the accepted norms of each gender. Parent could also be cautious in involving stereotyping in teaching, disciplining, or parenting their children.