The Effects of Gender Socialization in Children:
Impact of Family and Society
One of the most important parts of a child’s development, as modern society sees it, is the process of gender socialization. Every aspect of a child’s life, from the color of their bedroom walls, to the clothes they wear, to the way they are treated by adults is in part affected by their gender and the stereotypes that are associated with it. This eventually effects achievement, learning ability, careers, and almost everything else the child will go on to do and accomplish in his or her life. There are many different ways that children are socialized into their respective gender, such as through parental behavior, material objects, and the child’s own desires. …show more content…
Boys wrote 359 letters, and girls wrote 391. Richardson and Simpson divided the children’s’ requests into 27 categories of toys, such as dolls, books, accessories, cars, animals, musical, etc. Some categories leaned heavily female, such as domestic toys, female and baby dolls, dollhouses, clothing, accessories, and others. Heavily male categories included vehicles, military toys, male dolls, including action figures, machines, and others. There were some categories that did not lean in either direction: games, animals, books, educational toys, and musical toys. Boys usually requested more items than girls did, 5.9 to the girls’ 5.0 on average. However, girls also requested items in the same categories. Boys are shown to be more confident and demanding in the range and number of items they asked Santa …show more content…
Young girls’ desire to have domestic toys and dolls shows a tendency towards domesticity and maternal instincts in the future (Richardson 435). Conversely, boys’ toys exemplify more powerful and dominant characteristics. The conclusion of the study states that toys have a symbolic meaning, and the type of toy that a child chooses indicates gender dispositions, and may directly indicate future tendencies in the child (Richardson 436). Parents also play a very dominant role in the gendering of their children (Kane 151). Through the way they are treated and the items and opportunities parents provide for their children, parents are the primary agent of gender socialization. Adults tend to stick to normative conceptions of masculinity or femininity as models for their children, because they have experience in society’s expectations of people. It is also what they are expected to
Impact of Family and Society
One of the most important parts of a child’s development, as modern society sees it, is the process of gender socialization. Every aspect of a child’s life, from the color of their bedroom walls, to the clothes they wear, to the way they are treated by adults is in part affected by their gender and the stereotypes that are associated with it. This eventually effects achievement, learning ability, careers, and almost everything else the child will go on to do and accomplish in his or her life. There are many different ways that children are socialized into their respective gender, such as through parental behavior, material objects, and the child’s own desires. …show more content…
Boys wrote 359 letters, and girls wrote 391. Richardson and Simpson divided the children’s’ requests into 27 categories of toys, such as dolls, books, accessories, cars, animals, musical, etc. Some categories leaned heavily female, such as domestic toys, female and baby dolls, dollhouses, clothing, accessories, and others. Heavily male categories included vehicles, military toys, male dolls, including action figures, machines, and others. There were some categories that did not lean in either direction: games, animals, books, educational toys, and musical toys. Boys usually requested more items than girls did, 5.9 to the girls’ 5.0 on average. However, girls also requested items in the same categories. Boys are shown to be more confident and demanding in the range and number of items they asked Santa …show more content…
Young girls’ desire to have domestic toys and dolls shows a tendency towards domesticity and maternal instincts in the future (Richardson 435). Conversely, boys’ toys exemplify more powerful and dominant characteristics. The conclusion of the study states that toys have a symbolic meaning, and the type of toy that a child chooses indicates gender dispositions, and may directly indicate future tendencies in the child (Richardson 436). Parents also play a very dominant role in the gendering of their children (Kane 151). Through the way they are treated and the items and opportunities parents provide for their children, parents are the primary agent of gender socialization. Adults tend to stick to normative conceptions of masculinity or femininity as models for their children, because they have experience in society’s expectations of people. It is also what they are expected to