When children are growing up, they undergo different transformations in regards to their gender. They start realising what is expected of them and also adapt to performing specific gender defined roles. Girls start learning how to cook and do the cleaning. Boys, on the other side, start doing jobs like taking out the garbage. They also behave differently in many ways especially regarding interaction. Boys always find themselves growing up in groups of friends that have a boy who presumes the leadership role and always makes most of the decisions. Girls do not have such a kind of senior leadership. They treat each other as equals. Any girl who tends to presume such a role is prone to dislike by the rest of the friends. This paper looks at how gender socialisation influences the lives of both boys and girls and how it contributes to their diverse being.
Most of these behaviours emanate from the way the children interact with their environment (Carter, 2014). It could come from the way they see their parents relating at home. Girls see their mothers doing a lot of cooking and cleaning whereas their fathers do the hard tasks that require a lot of manual power (Emolu, 2014). It is also obtained from interacting with one’s peers at school or home. For instance, boys tend to mock their counterparts who perform ‘soft’ jobs. They consider them not man enough. As a result, every boy always wants to associate with the jobs that are seemingly designated for man. The media also contributes a lot to the aspect of gender socialisation. They portray specific expectations and attitudes in each gender (Emolu, 2014). Women seem to have certain professions that are only for them whereas men also have theirs. People always pick this up as what is expected of them and carry it along to their adulthood.
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Gender socialisation works more efficiently because the children find their identity in those people whom they share gender (Carter, 2014). The identity theory clearly points out why there is such immense success in this aspect of gender socialisation. People relate more to what they identify with (Carter, 2014). They emulate, follow, and implement whatever it is that their sex is associated with. For instance, ladies always relate more with their mothers or any female figures that they see. Boys on the other end relate with their fathers and other male figures that they see.
It is this same aspect that has made ladies always to be subjective to men. The family set up shows them that the father is always the head. As a result, they carry this thought into their future as adults and also remain to be subjective to man. Boys assume the role of being leaders because that is what they see from their immediate lives. Further, both sexes spend most of their time with their peers, especially of the same gender.
The issue of gender socialisation has always caused an inferiority effect on women. There was a time when women were not allowed to vote. This was because their position in the society was quite belittled (Carter, 2014). However, as years passed by, the number of influential women kept increasing. Women started occupying top positions in government and corporate institutions. Such female figures have influenced many women always to strive to become more in life. A good example of such a figure that many ladies have identified with is the former first lady Mitchell Obama. Many ladies, today, feel like they can achieve anything because she did. They believe that they can be a voice in the society and contribute to greater courses. All this is because one of their gender did it.
References
Carter, Michael, J. (2014). Gender Socialisation and Identity Theory. Social Sciences, 3, 242-263. doi:10.3390/socsci3020242.
Emolu, Esra. (2014). Play, Toys, and Gender Socialisation. Journal plus Education, 11 (2), 22-30.
