Preview

How Important It Is for Parents to Teach Gender Roles to Their Children?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
497 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Important It Is for Parents to Teach Gender Roles to Their Children?
How important it is for parents to teach gender roles to their children? Topics such as abortion, capital punishment, and gender role have always been commonly discussed subject in society since the dawn of time. Gender role simply defined is a person's inner sense of how a male or female should feel and behave. Society and culture are very important in relation to this subject. This means different societies and cultures may produce children and later, grown men and women, who have quite distinct views of a man or a woman's place in the world around them, and it is often determined by their parents’ influence at their early age of childhood.

Dozens of researches and studies show that parent’s attitude and behaviours could affect their children both positively and negatively which makes it imperative for the parent to bear the burden of teaching the children.. Boys must learn what boys and men do, what they like, and even how they think and feel. Females do likewise as they learn the roles for girls and women. When children seem already aware of differences between what men and women wear and do, then children are deeply involved in this search for these "roles”. This action also blends in with the process of them searching for their identities.

Through myriad activities, opportunities, encouragements, discouragements, overt behaviours, covert suggestions, and various forms of guidance, children experience how they fit into their gender role among others. As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by other elements in their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood and on into adolescence.

By the time a person steps into adulthood, the influence from the parents from the childhood will result in the change of his personality and attitude towards others. If the person has been taught how to deal with gender roles properly., he would understand that rather than

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Children tend to adopt their gender identity in their early life and develop preferences on how each gender should play their role. These media messages given out to such young children play such a powerful role in shaping gender norms. Our media these days stresses on girls of today’s society on how to depend on a man and for boys to be strong tough…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article, Learning to be Gendered by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, the effects of upbringing and society on a child’s gender identification are analyzed. Throughout the child’s development, they are often guided by the world around them into gender classifications. Society decides on norms for the child to follow based on their gender, then they would grow up to better match those ideals. This is important because if society pushes us towards these labels, it limited our ability to decide on what we perceive ourselves as without outside forces acting upon us. Some studies on the development of gender identities in children seem to show evidence towards the nurture side of gender. Often parents would speak to their child differently depending on their physical gender (740) or set their playing tendencies around gender specific toys (743). This sort of mentality seems to be heavily ingrained in our societal conventions, even those who attempt to do away with these patterns fail to overcome them.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Milk The Mouse Analysis

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender socialization, or the “patterns of behavior taught to children and adults in order to help them learn to behave as acceptable females or males,” begins strikingly early in life (Disch 1). While society as a whole is responsible for carrying out such socialization, many researchers believe that the strongest influence on gender role development seems to occur within the family setting, with parents passing on, both overtly and covertly, their own beliefs about gender (Witt 1). Because parents have the strongest initial influence and control over the early gender socialization their children undergo, they also have the potential to end the cycle of oppressive gender socialization most children experience from birth onward, and eventually…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender is a basic organizing structure in an individual’s life. Depending on the gender to which one ascribes, different expectations and scripts accompany this identity. These expectations and scripts are culturally constructed into gender role values, and it is up to the individual how closely they align with particular aspects of these scripts. This variation in the level of acceptance of gender role values has implications an on a variety of aspects of an individual’s life such as: behaviors, thoughts, motivations, relationships, and affect. During adolescence, youth are engaged in a core developmental task of exploring and developing their identity, one aspect of which is gender. This period of exploration and experimentation,…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    english 1c paper

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Through the process of gender socialization children learn how to act according to their sex with different gender roles. Gender roles can be defined as certain behaviors and attitudes specifically classified as something a male or female distinctly does. If a girl suddenly burps in front of a friend, she might get a response like “ugh, that’s so manly!” This is a prime example of how gender roles have been fused into our society and daily life. Women are generally expected to be housewives that look pretty, cook, clean, and nurture their kids. On the other hand, men are understood to make the money for the family. Girls play with dolls while boys play with action figures. These gender codes are typical for the average American family, and are taught to children through several implicit tactics. In our society there are many hidden signs that secretly teach children how to behave within their distinct gender role. Specifically, gender socialization is most commonly learned through children’s toys which are colored, marketed, commercialized, and distributed by parents in ways that promote gendered behavior. When playing with toys kids learn the stereotypical gender roles categorized for each sex.…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender roles are associated with the norms, or standards that are created by society. These roles have surpassed the expectations of what our grandparents and ancestors were accustomed to. Men are viewed as strong, aggressive, and dominant; while women are viewed as nurturing, passive, and subordinate. The changes have impacted the world in great form by defying the odds in household duties, education, and work.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender-role impacts dramatically on girls in childhood. Besides, these influence lies in their subconsciousness, and also influence their rest of life. Family is the first group which girls live in. Therefore, mothers’ gender role creates girls’ gender-role by the conversation or interaction between their fathers and mothers. In the conversation, mothers always use more words of emotion to express what they feel, and speak more politely and indirectly. Girls start use words of feelings when they are two, and they imitate their mothers’ conversational style at four. Besides conversation, mothers’ interaction and behaviors make the same impact on girls. Wives should put more attention on home, decicate for their family more, and they…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender stereotypes are widespread around the world. They emphasize the male‘s power and the female’s nurturance. Gender stereotyping changes developmentally; it is present even at 2 years of age but increases considerably in early childhood .In middle and late childhood, children become more flexible in their gender attitudes but gender stereotyping may increase again in early adolescence.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Katha Pollitt

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When it comes to children, they tend to do what they see or copy those who are around them. Whether it is parents, friends, or adults around the community, they tend to do as they see not go by what they are told. Children learn by example, and if parents don’t want their children to feed into the typical gender roles then they shouldn’t be leading them by the example that they put forth with their gender…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In Society

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender roles are expectations of how a person should act, dress, and talk based on his or her sex. A majority of people conform to these roles at an early age, and will continue to carry these beliefs, often unconsciously, around with them throughout their lives, and these beliefs can affect people negatively. The message that gender roles send is that in order to be part of society, you must fit into the predisposed mold for your gender, or most importantly, what society deems as acceptable. But at the same time, try to incorporate individuality and establish a sense of self.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s culture gender stereotypes and biases are created on the daily and children learn to adopt their gender roles based on these stereotypes. As children grow up they are exposed to factors that have major influences on their behaviors regarding their gender roles. During children development, children’s surroundings shape them into who they are. School, television, advertisements, friends, parents and many others impact these children and brainwash them into following these gender stereotypes. A study found that kids at the age of two and a half use gender stereotypes in negotiating the world, therefore in a number of activities they generalize these stereotypes to apply (Witt, 1997). For instance, girls are encouraged to play with dolls and engage in feminine activities, boys are pushed to play with cars, trucks and be involved in sports. From a very young age these children are experiencing these stereotypes first hand being that they are so vulnerable and are much easier to shape. Television also plays a huge role in children developing gender roles. Disney Channel is only one of many influences on children about male and female roles in society. It has been found that preschools spend nearly 30 hours a week, on…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociology as

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ann Oakley, a feminist sociologist suggested that there are four ways in which gender socialization takes place during primary socialization. These are manipulation, canalization, verbal appellations, and different activities. Manipulation is when parents encourage behaviour that is seen as normal for the child's sex and discourage the behaviour associated with the other sex. For example, mothers may encourage girls to pay more attention to their appearance than boys. Canalisation is when children are 'channelled' by their parents towards toys and activities seen as appropriate for their sex. For example, girls may be given toys such as dolls and miniature kitchen that encourage an interest in being a mother and doing housework. Of course, boys may get these toys as well, but they are more likely to have 'boys toys' like trains and cars and so on. Verbal appellations are the ways parents talk to children, this tells them how important at an early age how important gender is. for example; 'good girl', 'naughty boy' and so on. Also, boys and girls are encouraged to get involved in different activities. Girls are expected to help their mother indoors while boys get greater freedom to roam outdoors. As they get older, girls are still expected to help out at home, whereas the men goes out, and are the breadwinners of the family. This shows how gender shapes social identity.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender roles are an incredibly important factor when it comes to our identity. Gender is multidimensional, meaning that there are psychological, social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions to gender (Strong & Cohen, pg 110). On some of these dimensions, gender can be highly personal, and on others it is considered political. If I were the opposite gender, I believe that I would be an incredibly different person. I believe this because of the significant stress that is put on gender roles.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender roles embedded at a young age define the way children view the world, it emphasises beauty for girls and independence for boys (Loeto). As innocent as it may seem, applying gender roles on…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender Inequality

    • 2417 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Socialization creates gender stereotyping. In a family, parents treat male and female children differently from birth. They teach male child to be strong, aggressive and smart. And they should have an ability to support their own family in the future. On the other hand, parents handle female that they should live in a world of passivity and emotion and being a good wife or mother in the future ( Macionis, John. J. 2006: 256). Macionis (2006), Peterson and Runyan (1993) and Maguire (1995) note that men are actually defined as masculine while women are feminine. In peer groups, Male peer group reinforces masculine traits of aggression and control in school when playing games. Female peer groups promote interpersonal skills of communication and cooperation.( Macionis, John. J. 2006: 257)In school, school always has different demand on costume and speech and deportment of boys and girls. For example, male need to wear shirt and trousers. Female need to wear dresses. Male should be smart and have a definite view. But female should be cultured. Moreover, texts and curriculum in schools further reinforce a culture’s gender role. For example, the text is showing that male should wear suit and work outside. Female should stay at home to do housework. ( Macionis, John. J. 2006: 257) In mass media, it also reinforces the gender role. Male plays the capable roles in the TV or…

    • 2417 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays