Gender Socialization

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Gender Socialization
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Gender Socialization

• Gender contributes to the initial context within
  which adults respond to a child
• Research would suggest that gender role
  socialization begins at the time of an infant's
  birth

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Gender stereotypes

• Stereotypes are representative of a societys
  collective knowledge of customs, myths, ideas,
  religions, and sciences
• The socialization of gender within our schools
  assures that girls are made aware that they are
  unequal to boys

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Gender stereotypes

• Every time students are seated or lined up by
  gender, teachers are affirming that girls and
  boys should be treated differently

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Gender stereotypes

• When different behaviors are tolerated for boys
  than for girls because 'boys will be boys',
  schools are perpetuating the oppression of females

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Gender stereotypes

• There is some evidence that girls are becoming
  more academically successful than boys, however
  examination of the classroom shows that girls and
  boys continue to be socialized in ways that work
  against gender equity

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Gender stereotypes for males andfemales

• Teachers socialize girls towards a feminine ideal
• Girls are praised for being neat, quiet, and
  calm, whereas boys are encouraged to think
  independently, be active and speak up
• Girls are socialized in schools to recognize
  popularity as being important, and learn that
  educational performance and ability are not as
  important
• "Girls in grades six and seven rate being popular
  and well-liked as more important than being
  perceived as competent or independent (Bailey,
  1992)
• Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to rank
  independence and competence as more important."
  (Bailey, 1992)

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Socialization of femininity

• At very early ages, girls begin defining their
  femininities in relation to boys
• One study of a third grade classroom examined
  four self-sorted groups of girls within the
  classroom
• the nice girls
• the girlies
• the spice girls
• the tomboys

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Socialization of femininity

• The nice girls was considered a derogatory term
  indicating an absence of toughness and attitude
• The girlies were a group of girls who focused
  their time on flirting with and writing love
  letters to boys
• The tomboys were girls who played sports with the
  boys
• The spice girls espoused girl-power and played
  'rate-the-boy' on the playground
• Reay's research shows that each of the groups of
  girls defined their own femininities in relation
  to boys (2001)

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Socialization of femininity

• The Reay study further demonstrates how the
  school tolerates different behaviors from boys
  than from girls
• Assertive behavior from girls is often seen as
  disruptive and may be viewed more negatively by
  adults
• The spice girls asserted themselves in ways
  contrary to traditional femininity caused them to
  be labeled by teachers as "real bitches".

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Gender Bias

• Gender bias is also taught implicitly through the
  resources chosen for classroom use
• Using texts that omit contributions of women,
  that tokenize the experiences of women, or that
  stereotype gender roles, further compounds gender
  bias in schools' curriculum

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• While research shows that the use of
  gender-equitable materials allows students to
  have more gender-balanced knowledge, to develop
  more flexible attitudes towards gender roles, and
  to imitate role behaviors contained in the
  materials schools continue to use gender-biased
  texts

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Early gender socialization

• Most parents are extremely interested in learning
  whether their newborn infant is a boy or a girl,
  and intentionally or not, this knowledge elicits
  in them a set of expectations consistent with
  beliefs about gender-role-appropriate traits

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Early gender socialization

• The category-based beliefs about
  gender-appropriate traits are called gender-role
  stereotypes
• Adults' stereotypes of young children include
  personality traits as well as interests, and few
  characteristics are not gender-typed

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Lego for boys
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Lego for girls
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Early gender socialization

• Parents generally prefer that their children
  adhere to traditional gender-roles, and are
  concerned when they do not (Martin, 1990)
• The extent to which cross-gender behavior in
  children is discouraged has been found to be
  dependent upon the sex of the child
• Studies have shown that boys who engage in
  traditionally feminine activities are viewed more
  negatively than girls who engage in masculine
  activities (Feinman, 1974, 1981 Martin, 1990)
• Women have been found to be more accepting of
  children's cross-gender behavior than men
  (Martin, 1990).

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Studies

• One way to study whether parents differing
  treatment of boys and girls depends on the
  childs gender is to present adults with children
  mislabeled as the other sex

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Results

• Knowledge of an infants gender is a consistent
  determinant of adults' reactions
• Parents tended to rate male-labeled infants to be
  bigger, stronger, noisier, faster,
  meaner and harder than female-labeled infants

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Other research questions

• How do parents respond when their children do not
  behave consistently with their gender?
• In one study preschool children were instructed
  (unbeknown to their parents) to play with
  opposite sex toys
• Their parents were brought in to watch their kids
  

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Inappropriate behavior

• Parents were please to observe their daughters
  play with girls toys, and they were tolerant
  when their daughters played with boys toys
• Mothers were not pleased to observe their sons
  play with girls toys, however, fathers
  criticized their sons when they played wit
  so-called girls toys
• One father physically moved his son away from the
  cooking toys he was happily playing with

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Gender Policing

• One study found that many preschool boys reported
  that their fathers believed that playing with
  girls toys is bad and harmful
• In short, parents engage in gender policing
  when their children engage in cross-sex
  activities
• Fathers tend to police more than mothers, and
  everyone policies boys more than girls.

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Assigning chores to children

• Finally, when discussing parents influences on
  children, it is important to know how parents
  assign chores to their children
• Research shown that parents assign their
  daughters to do household chores and to care for
  other children
• Boys are assigned to outside maintenance and
  heavy lifting

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Help with homework

• Parents offer more help to daughters than sons,
  when they work on school problems and
  intellectual tasks
• Although it seems to favor girls on the surface,
  it may train girls to be more passive and
  dependent than boys

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Gender messages

• Such behaviors send clear gender messages to
  children and set the stage for sex differences in
  the family, education, and work roles later in
  life.
• They also foster the development of different
  cognitive abilities and social skills in girls
  and boys.

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Peer influences

• Childrens play activities (especially boys) may
  be molded more by peers than adults

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Mass media

• Children learn a lot about gender from the mass
  media
• Males and females are portrayed differently
• Female characters are sexualized, even when they
  are portrayed in serious roles such police
  officers, nurses, doctors, and lawyers
• Men on TV are portrayed as heroes and problem
  solvers

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Mass Media
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Mass Media
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Quiz 4

• Using Meads theory, distinguish between I and
  Me. Discuss how play and games help in the
  development of the Me (according to Mead).