We are shapable beings, and therefore our society holds great power and significance over us. As it is society that teaches us our norms and values that enable us to function accordingly within our society. One of these norms I am particularly interested in is gender. Gender is not to be confused with sex, as it does not have total focus on biology. Throughout our society we can see obvious gender patterns, as the graph below explains that socialisation has created different interests for the sexes focus on. With this information being focused around the Twitter organisation, it demonstrates that gender differences still exist today in our modern, ‘equal’ society. By looking at this statistic, I can see no real change from the 1950’s, where a man’s interest focused on technology and women’s on the home.
Within this blog post I will be focusing on the role in which the family plays in the socialisation process. As family is one of the main agencies in Western society. The main reason being, this is where we spend the majority of our time as we learn about the world we live in. The family construct our belief in gender roles and conformity in many ways. The most obvious being the type of toys that are given to a child. We see them being specifically gender orientated, by the specific colour schemes and tones used in advertising and their aim to appeal to a specific gender. For girls the toy choice consists of domestic equipment, like sweeping and hair brushes, and certainly not forgetting the necessity; a baby doll. This seemingly is to educate girls into what society expects of them. Becky Francis, the professor of education at Roehampton University, believe that these early toy choices can effect a child’s education performance, as “Girls tend to not enjoy traditionally masculine subjects, particularly science” (which I will be paying more attention too in my next blog post). She goes on in adding that she “might suggest that if boys are inculcated into construction and technology via their play, as a form of entertainment, they may be inclined to feel these curriculum areas more familiar and less challenging”.From this, it is evident that giving a baby girl a doll to play with, does not just make them appear more feminine, but consequently excludes them from apart of our world.
A feminist nightmare in my opinion, how can equality be achieved amongst the sexes if we make such an effort in creating a divide. As we compare a boy’s Christmas list, we can see a clear behavioural construction. Boys are taught to be adventurous and boisterous, with the desire for action figures and plastic guns. We criticise boys for being outgoing and disruptive, as using the next graph below, it is evident that this type of socialisation could have prepared boys for a life of crime.
Families also have different attitudes when it comes to children. As males within the family are given more freedom throughout adolescence, in the sense of what activity they can complete and at what age. This could be taken from the attitudes demonstrated by their parents, as the Mother is less likely to have a social life than the man. This could be due to the fears that exist within our society to control women, rape being a prime example of this. As Susan Griffin explains, Fathers are more likely to stop their daughters from staying out past dark than their sons, due to the threat of rape. (Rape, The All American Crime, 1971)
Children as young as three are said to understand their gender and know what is expected of them. This is taken and taught from their parents, as people who belong to our society will already hold gender stereotypes in order to continue this type of socialisation. Nancy Chodorow (The reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender, 1978) believes that “Girls and boy develop different sense of self within a family.” and as a result “prepare women and men to assume the adult gender role which situate women primarily within the sphere of reproduction”, as I understand ignoring gender roles is difficult, as that is how we are taught to perceive each sex. A study that provides evidence for our embedded knowledge we hold over the sexes, found that the sex of a baby will change how the baby is percieved. As this studied gave female and male babies to a group of women and found that the women would hold the females delicately and softly expressing a calming tone, wheereas they would bounce the males on their knees, and create excitment. Oakley (1974) refers to this difference in treatment as ‘manipulation’. This manipulation is said by many sociologist to be the main reason for the differences in behaviour of the sexes.
We have become obsessed with gender and our involvement with it. Sandra Bem, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, believes we unconsciously divide people in society into groups, it is done by a cognitive process. This division is inevitable and almost impossible to supress. We start with gender, and divide the population into two groups. However, how would society define us if we kept our gender a secret? This is what baby Storm’s parents did. When he.. or she was born on New Years Day, Toronto, they emailed friends and family to alert them that the gender will not be known. This orignalliy sounded interesting to me, but then I started to realise the implications for the child. The confusion he/ she would face, as this gender experient will effect Storm for the future.
Within the gender debate the word ‘approipate’ regularly crops up. As those not conforming to their specific gender role are attacked and branded ‘not right’. This is exercised when a young boy would choose to play with a baby doll or a kitchen appliance at playtime , they are disciplined and then their parents/ teachers would reinforce the ‘appropiate’ gender role. This sense of parenting is confusing to me, are we as a society branding stay at home Fathers and male chefs as ‘inappropriate’?.
In order to find this picture, it was not sufficient enough to search for ‘Boy with Toy’, no, I had to search ‘Boy with Girl Toy’.
After researching how we’ve become gendered the statement ‘you can be anything you want’, is to me an utter lie. As society from the minute we are born and the question ‘Is it a boy or girl?!” is said, we are thrown into a world of gender conformity. This sets us in a world of limitations, and to what some feminists would describe as a ‘glass ceiling’ for woman. Our future goals and ambitions are those we are allowed by society and this statement is not based on my opinion alone. Gender limitations created by our socialisation into gender roles are evident when looking at the worlds leaders. Men dominate, is leadership an attribute created for men? I hope not.
Pippa Dean 