Gender Socialization

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Term Paper Title	Gender Socialization
# of Words	787
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.15

Gender Socialization

A baby is born and the doctor looks at the parents and says three simple words: It's a boy or It's a girl!  Before a newborn child even takes his or her first breath of life outside the mother's womb, he or she is characterized by gender.  The baby is brought home and dressed in clothes that help friends, family and even strangers identify the sex of the child.  Baby boys are dressed in blue and baby girls are dressed in pink.  The baby boy may be dressed in a blue jumpsuit with a football or a baseball glove on it.  The baby girl may wear a bow in their hair and flowered pajamas. As the boy begins to grow, he is given a miniature basketball and a hoop to play with.  The girl is given dolls and doll clothes to dress them up in. Sounds pretty normal right? Why? As illustrated in the scenario above, gender socialization begins very early in life.  Society has accepted such stereotype.

We seem to accept that blue is for boys and pink is for girls.  Boys generally play with balls, toy trucks and building blocks whereas girls spend their time with dolls, tea sets and stuffed animals. But these are the stereotypes that are influenced by the parents.  A baby child isn't concerned with his or her gender identity.  As the child gets older though, he or she will begin to develop an identity for his or herself and establish a personality that reflects their masculinity or femininity.

During early stages of a child's life the mother is the dominant figure in the child's life.  The father plays a limited role until the child reaches later part of his childhood.  It is at this stage that children begin to try to separate themselves from the clutches of their mother and establish their own identity. I remember when I was in secondary school, I found out that my brother received much higher allowance as compared to me when I am at his age. I think it is unfair to me because I help my mother to do housework while my brother never contribute anything and yet he is receiving a higher allowance. Why are the girls expected to do four times as much work around the house than the boys are? I did ask my mother that question. She says that it is a women's duty...

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