Gender socialization can be described as the learning of the social expectations and norms associated with a person’s sex (Carter, 2014). Sociologists argue that gender socialization is the main reason why men and women behave in a different way. Through gender socialization males and females conform to learning specific roles associated with their sex, for instance, it is common for females and males to engage in varied household activities (Carter, 2014). Females learn how to cook while men do work such as lawn mowing. The gender socialization process occurs during childhood and is enhanced by parents and other adults. Adults tend to instruct the children how to behave for them to comply with the social standards. Gender is seen as a process in which people should be taught how to live and act according to the rules made for that particular gender. Therefore, gender socialization is the process of instructing males and females to act as to the norms, values, and beliefs of the society.
Parents and guardians influence gender socialization in the society. The process of socialization begins even before a child is born. When a mother is expectant, the most sought out thing is the gender of the child. As such the beginning of the social categorization begins and continues throughout the life of that child. In the preparations for the birth of the baby, various activities that show gender socialization begin, for instance, a boy is associated with blue while a girl is associated with pink. Therefore, a boy’s room may be painted blue while a girl’s room pink (Mullins, 2015). In the recent activities of gender revealing, the same colors are used to differentiate a girl from a boy. These colors continue to define males and females all their life. If a man wears pink, the society is bound to complain. Additionally, things such as toys are also selected according to gender (Mullins, 2015). Sometimes the parents may unintentionally socialize their children through the toys they select for their children, for instance, a girl is most likely to receive a doll as a toy while a by will maybe get a toy car or a comic character.
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The media influence the strength of gender socialization. The mass media plays a huge role in gender socialization through bombarding the people with ideas and images of what a man and woman should do through television shows, movies, and advertisements (Carter, 2014). For instance, magazines that target women are marketed differently from magazines that target men. Most women magazines will focus on being pretty, having the perfect figure, finding better ways to connect with men and relationship advice. On the other and, men’s magazines will have issues such as sports, fitness, business, cars, and ambition. Advertisement often depicts women in the kitchen and men in business or doing muscular and skilled handiwork. With such notions, women and men will have a certain perspective of what the society expects of them.
Gender socialization results to gender stereotypes. As discussed, males and females are expected to behave in distinct ways. Therefore, such notions can lead to stereotypes associated with a particular gender, for instance, females are considered weaker than their male counterparts (Carter, 2014). Additionally, girls are expected to be clean and meek while the boys can be messy and noisy. As children grow into adulthood, such gender stereotypes become more visible in the dressing styles and choice of daily activities. The conformation to gender socialization can be devastating for boys and girls who refuse to follow the rules. The males and females who break the norms of the society are treated as outcasts, which may lead to negative effects such as low self-confidence.
Notably, in the Western society gender socialization is often a binary affair with the concept being two parts. The society has socialized that the issue of gender is to be between male and female. Therefore, identities in the society have been normalized and constructed as either male or female (Lawson et.al. 2015). However, today this gender socialization norm has been challenged by the rise of the LGBTQ community. Today, males can be gay and females can be lesbians, thus challenging the normal construction of how males and females should behave. On the other hand, the transgender people feel that their identity is not represented in the society as they neither fall under female or male construct. As such the issue of gender socialization norms is learned and accepted or rejected by the people in the society.
Gender socialization affects how people think. People will act and think according to how they have been taught from an early age (Lawson et.al. 2015). At an early age, children already know the appropriate behavior for males and females. Children also learn gender socialization just by observing the adults behave. Moreover, the media and parents just reinforce the idea until it becomes a norm. Notably, these social norms result in different thinking behavior between men and women. Women are more often found to think of less risky behavior than men, for instance, men will engage in dangerous fights that may result in harm while women will only engage in verbal fights (Lawson et.al. 2015). Women grow knowing that they are weaker than men, thus they are bound to think that men can provide more security than they can. Even in sports, women and men participate in different games. While men are involved in aggressive games such as football and rugby, women are likely to be involved in non-aggressive games such as tennis.
Nevertheless, some people argue that gender socialization is innate. Experts disagree on whether the issue of gender is innate or not. Biologically, males and females are different. However, the behavior is learned, but it is unclear whether the biological differences contribute to the behavioral differences between males and females. For instance, the brain in females and males is different in some aspects such as the language center. For females, the language center can be found in both hemispheres of the brain while in males it is predominately on the left. Therefore, this may explain why females are better in communication than males. However, it also fails to explain why the differences have to be taught at such as early age.
In conclusion, gender socialization is the process of instructing males and females to act as to the norms, values, and beliefs of the society. Gender socialization can be described as the learning of the social expectations and norms associated with a person’s sex. Gender socialization in the society begins at an early age even before a child is born. The society has made it a norm to have boys and girls behave and act in different manners. The issue of gender socialization affects how people think and act as they grow into adulthood. For instance, women are taught to think that they are weak and men are strong. As such, it is common to find males being more aggressive than females. Additionally, the mass media plays a huge role in gender socialization through bombarding the people with ideas and images of what a man and woman should do through television shows, movies, and advertisements. Consequently, the differences in males and females’ activities become a norm. people who break that norm are viewed as outcasts and treated negatively in the society.
References
Carter, M. J. (2014). Gender socialization and identity theory. Social Sciences , 3 (2), 242-263.
Lawson, K. M., Crouter, A. C., & McHale, S. M. (2015). Links between family gender socialization experiences in childhood and gendered occupational attainment in young adulthood. Journal of vocational behavior , 90 , 26-35.
Mullins, N. M. (2015). Insidious influence of gender socialization on females' physical activity: rethink pink. Physical Educator , 72 (1), 20.
