Parental Influence on Children's Socialization to Gender Roles

Adolescence
Abstract
In a society which is life with gender stereotypes and biases, children regularly learn to adopt
gender roles which are not always fair to both sexes. As children move through childhood and
into adolescence, they are exposed to many factors which influence their attitudes and
behaviors regarding gender roles. These attitudes and behaviors are generally learned first in
the home and are then reinforced by the child's peers, school experience, and television
viewing. However, the strongest influence on gender role development seems to occur within
the family setting, with parents passing on, both overtly and covertly, to their children their own
beliefs about gender. This overview of the impact of parental influence on gender role
development leads to the suggestion that an androgynous gender role orientation may be more
beneficial to children than strict adherence to traditional gender roles.
Introduction
Children learn at a very early age what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society. Through a
myriad of activities, opportunities, encouragements, discouragements, overt behaviors, covert
suggestions, and various forms of guidance, children experience the process of gender role
socialiation. It is difficult for a child to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of
gender bias or stereotyping, whether it is the expectation that boys are better than girls at math
or the idea that only females can nurture children. 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.
A child's burgeoning sense of self, or self!concept, is a result of the multitude of ideas, attitudes,
behaviors, and beliefs that he or she is exposed to. The information that surrounds the child and
which the child internalies comes to the child within the family arena through parent!child
interactions, role modeling, reinforcement for desired behaviors, and parental approval or
disapproval. As children move into the larger world of friends and school, many of their ideas
and beliefs are reinforced by those around them. A further reinforcement of acceptable and
appropriate behavior is shown to children through the media, in particular, television. Through all
these socialiation agents, children learn gender stereotyped behavior. As children develop,
these gender stereotypes become firmly entrenched beliefs and thus, are a part of the child's
self!concept.
Parental Influence
A child's earliest exposure to what it means to be male or female comes from parents. "rom the
time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughters differently, dressing infants in
gender specific colors, giving gender differentiated toys, and expecting different behavior from
boys and girls. #ne study indicates that parents have differential expectations of sons and
daughters as early as $% hours after birth.
Children internalie parental messages regarding gender at an early age, with awareness of
adult sex role differences being found in two!year!old children. #ne study found that children at
two and a half years of age use gender stereotypes in negotiating their world and are li&ely to
generalie gender stereotypes to a variety of activities, ob'ects, and occupations. Children even
deny the reality of what they are seeing when it doesn't conform to their gender expectations
(i.e., a child whose mother is a doctor stating that only men are doctors).
*ons have a definite edge as far as parental preference for children is concerned. +ost parents
prefer male children to female children throughout the world. Also, people who prefer sons are
more li&ely to use technology for selecting the sex of their child. This preference for male
children is further emphasied by the finding that parents are more li&ely to continue having
children if they have only girls than if they have only boys.
,easons given by women for their preference for sons are to please their husbands, to carry on
the family name, and to be a companion to the husband. ,easons for wanting daughters include
having a companion for themselves and to have fun dressing a girl and doing her hair.
-arents encourage their sons and daughters to participate in sex!typed activities, including doll
playing and engaging in house&eeping activities for girls and playing with truc&s and engaging in
sports activities for boys. Children's toy preferences have been found to be significantly related
to parental sex!typing, with parents providing gender!differentiated toys and rewarding play
behavior that is gender stereotyped. .hile both mothers and fathers contribute to the gender
stereotyping of their children, fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more
often than mothers.
A study of children's rooms has shown that girls' rooms have more pin&, dolls, and manipulative
toys/ boys' rooms have more blue, sports e0uipment, tools and vehicles. 1oys are more li&ely
than girls to have maintenance chores around the house, such as painting and mowing the
lawn, while girls are li&ely to have domestic chores such as coo&ing and doing the laundry. This
assignment of household tas&s by gender leads children to lin& certain types of wor& with
gender.
*ome studies have suggested that parent shaping as a socialiing factor has little impact on a
child's sex role development. #ther research, however, suggests that parents are the primary
influence on gender role development during the early years of life. 1ecause socialiation is a
two!way interaction, each person in the interaction influences the other/ thus, parents and
children engage in reciprocal interaction, with children both responding to behaviors and eliciting
behaviors. Also, development is influenced by many social factors and children may best be
understood in terms of their environment.
+any studies have shown that parents treat sons and daughters differently. The parent!child
relationship has effects on development that last well into adulthood. 1ecause of these long!
lasting effects, the parent!child relationship is one of the most important developmental factors
for the child.
-arental attitudes towards their children have a strong impact on the child's developing sense of
self and self!esteem, with parental warmth and support being &ey factors for the child. #ften,
parents give subtle messages regarding gender and what is acceptable for each gender !
messages that are internalied by the developing child. *ex role stereotypes are well
established in early childhood. +essages about what is appropriate based on gender are so
strong that even when children are exposed to different attitudes and experiences, they will
revert to stereotyped choices.
Benefits of Androgynous Gender Role Orientation
.hile there may be some benefit to adhering to strict gender role stereotypes (i.e., providing a
sense of security, facilitating decision ma&ing), there are also costs involved in the maintenance
of gender role stereotypes. These costs include limiting opportunities for both boys and girls,
ignoring talent, and perpetuating unfairness in our society. -arents who espouse an egalitarian
attitude regarding gender roles are more li&ely to foster this attitude in their children.
Androgynous individuals have been found to have higher self!esteem, higher levels of identity
achievement, and more flexibility in dating and love relationships.
Children who have parents with strong egalitarian values tend to be more &nowledgeable about
nonsex!typed ob'ects and occupations than other children. Children whose mothers wor&
outside the home are not as traditional in sex role orientation as children whose mothers stay
home. In fact, preschool children whose mothers wor& outside the home experience the world
with a sense that everyone in the family gets to become a member of the outside world, and
their sense of self includes the &nowledge that they have the ability to ma&e choices which are
not hindered by gender.
"amilies with one or more androgynous parent (i.e., a mom who repairs the family car or a dad
who ba&es coo&ies for the -TA meeting) have been found to be highest on scores of parental
warmth and support. These androgynous parents are found to be highly encouraging regarding
achievement and developing a sense of self!worth in sons and daughters. 1ecause of the
strong influence of parents on gender role socialiation, those parents who wish to be gender
fair and encourage the best in both their sons and their daughters would do well to adopt an
androgynous gender role orientation and encourage the same in their children.
GENER SOCIA!I"A#ION IN $EIA
2o you ever wonder why +r. Clean and .index commercials generally show women cleaning
the bathroom and washing the windows instead of men3 #r why 1udweiser beer commercials
show men sitting around watching sports with their buddies while sipping a beer instead of
women3 The answer is simple4 women, not men, are expected to clean the house and it is more
socially acceptable for a man to lug around the house with a beer than it is for a woman. 1ut do
we blame the commercials for creating these social standards, or do we blame our social
standards for creating these commercials3 *ocial evolution does not occur spontaneously, and
as changes eventually do begin to ta&e place, there is usually some factor responsible for the
development. .hile changes in gender roles over time do affect advertisements, it is more
common for the media to instigate the changes in gender roles and affect gender socialiation.
,osie the ,iveter is 'ust one of the many examples. ,osie the ,iveter appeared during .orld
.ar II as a picture of a woman with her sleeve rolled up showing her muscle and saying 5.e
can do it67 with a red hand&erchief tied into a bow around her head. At the time, women were
stay!at!home mom8s ta&ing care of the children and the home while their husbands were away
on the front lines. As more and more soldiers left the country to serve overseas, manufacturing
'obs were left with no wor&ers. America suddenly convinced its women that they could handle a
man8s 'ob building military e0uipment and riveting aircraft cowls, and soon enough women were
not only 'oining the5,osies7 in the factories, they were 'oining their husbands in the wars also.
5.ith some ten million men at war and the rest at wor&, America needed it8s women to go to
wor& to build the planes, tan&s, and ships needed to fight Hitler9 so the government teamed up
with industry, the media, and women8s organiations in an effort to urge :women; to 'oin the
labor force by telling them it was their <patriotic duty8 to go to wor&9 slogans such as <=ictory is
in >our Hands,8 and <.omen, the .ar ?eeds >ou68 were all used to convince women that their
country8s needs were more important than their individual comfort.7 In order to respond to its
extreme need for women in the labor force, America released propaganda advertisements
which changed the female role forever. *ince the time of ,osie the ,iveter, less and less
women have been choosing the now 5old!fashioned7 female 'ob of being a housewife.
.hile ,osie the ,iveter paved the way for an increasing female labor force, today8s
advertisements see& to change women8s appearances. @very day we are attac&ed with
numerous advertisements for weight loss, especially for women. .omen on television are
portrayed as thin, long!legged super models wearing a sie six. .hat a drastic change since the
earlier female beauty 0ueen, +arilyn +onroe (sie fourteen). 2ue to this advertisement
pressure on women to be s&inny, more and more females are going to health clubs, changing
their diets, and doing literally anything they can to fight off those 5excess7 pounds. According to
?aomi .olf, 5contemporary standards of feminine beauty have devolved to a point that can only
be described as anorexic, and America8s young women are paying the price through a near!
epidemic of bulimia and anorexia.7 .olf believes that today8s standards for female beauty are
'ust a myth created by the media to control women by forcing them to be obsessed with their
bodies.
+en are faced with the same &ind of media pressure. Ai&e women, men are also striving to
shape their bodies according to the media8s standards. +en also run to the gym after wor& to
pump iron and some are even removing their chest and leg hair and visiting tanning salons in an
effort to become the California dream guy with big shiny muscles, a dar& tan, and light hair. After
the B.*. defeat in =ietnam, movies li&e Death Wish, First Blood, and The Hunt for Red October
caused many American men to feel 5unmanned7 and powerless. 5+illions of American men,7 as
Cames Dibson puts it, 5began to dream, to fantasie about the powers and features of another
&ind of man who could reta&e and reorder the world.7 ?ow men struggle to prove their manhood
through muscles and mass.
As the media continues to represent men in advertisements more than women, our society
continues to respect and represent men more than women in every aspect of our daily lives.
.omen continue to be paid less at certain 'obs, and experience more discrimination than men.
According to ,obert 1artsch, this is lin&ed to the fact that men are more present in television
commercials than women and he believes 5these trends are one measure of how society views
women and men.7 His studies show that 5male voice!overs occur approximately EFG of the
time,7 and 5the consensus of these studies is that there is une0ual gender representation in
commercials.7 Doing bac& to the household cleaning materials and beer, 1artsch also states
that 5there is a greater use of female product representatives for domestic products and9 male
product representatives for nondomestic products.7
The media definitely has a huge affect on the socialiation of gender and can affect people8s
attitudes and behaviors toward the opposite sex. I am *erbian, formerly &nown as >ugoslavian
though we never 0uite referred to ourselves as >ugoslavian in the first place. @veryone has
heard about the war in the 1al&ans since it has been an ongoing issue since the early EFHs.
Though the war has been over for 0uite some time now, *erbian men are experiencing an
intense amount of pre'udice in the Bnited *tates. *erbs are referred to as 5rapists,7 5savage,7
and 5&illers.7 Though this may be true for certain soldiers who fought in the war, it is not true for
all *erbian soldiers and it is certainly not true for all *erbian men. I predominantly blame the
American media for this impolite and ignorant behavior on the part of the Americans. *urely,
rape and murder are not one sided in a war. The +uslims raped *erbian women and they &illed
*erbian children too, but the media hasn8t addressed this issue. 2uring the war with the
Croatians, Croat soldiers cut the fingers of *erbian men and women and wore them around
their nec&s on a piece of string as a nec&lace. They too& *erbian babies and 'abbed them onto
pitchfor&s. The media hasn8t addressed these issues. 1ut C?? has exaggerated the *erbian
offenses so much that Americans are convinced all *erbs are evil. This has caused many
American women to fear dating men of *erbian descent, and American men to feel as if they
need to be on defense!mode when being approached by the big bad *erb. And if tomorrow the
news pronounced my country to be heroic and announced that *erbs are the best people in the
world, the Americans would then praise my existence and they would be more than friendly. This
is further evidence for ,obert 1artsch that the media does in fact affect people8s behavior and
attitudes. How sad it is that we, as the most intelligent being on earth, can so easily be lead by
our television sets and our radios.
I don8t watch T= too often because I8m usually busy doing other things, but I find that whenever I
flip through the channels there is always a lady on the Home *hopping ?etwor& selling 'ewelry
or clothing or some unnecessary &itchen appliance people see and thin& they can8t live without.
In the contemporary American society, shopping is the lady8s sport. .omen li&e to 5shop <til they
drop7 as many advertisements have said. 1ut there is something even deeper than this. *ince
the media distinguishes between specific male and female roles by using only males for male
roles and only females for female roles, we tend to find it disturbing when a man does
something considered to be a woman8s tas&, or a woman does something we are familiar with
seeing men do. #ften, when we see a man hosting the Home *hopping ?etwor&, for example,
we 0uestion his sexuality. I have personally witnessed this happen many times, and in fact, I
find myself ma&ing this 'udgment more and more often. ,emember ,ichard *immons and his
funny wor& out videos3 I don8t &now one person who doesn8t thin& ,ichard *immons is
homosexual. And those big, beefy, muscular women that compete in body building
championships, how do people comment about them3
As these images become increasingly prevalent in the media, men become afraid of ,ichard
*immons wor&outs and his short shorts, and women become afraid of bodybuilding and
continue to starve themselves to fit .olf8s 51eauty +yth.7 +ore than ever, people in America are
coming out while others are doing everything they can to prove they are heterosexual. *o, is the
media trying to tell us it8s o&ay to be gay and paving the way for the homosexuality boom that is
ta&ing place, or is this 'ust an attempt to finally loosen us up and help us realie that men don8t
have to be ,ambo and women don8t have to be supermodels3 .e have yet to find out through
further advertisements.
ISRA UNIVERSITY
COMPUTER AND MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
TOPIC: RESEARCH ON GENDER
SOCIALIZATION
NAME: SAMEET KUMAR MAHESHWARI
ID: 0810-BBA31
COURSE: SOCIOLOGY
ASSIGNMENT #1
SUBMITTED TO: MAAM HIRA BACHANI
DATE O SUBMISSION: O! APRIL" #01#