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Enforcing Gender Roles

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Introduction Gender isn’t black and white -- it isn’t even just pink and blue. Many people believe that there are just boys and girls and one’s gender is dependent on their biologically assigned sex, but this is not the case. From these assumptions also arise a bigger problem: gender roles. Enforcing gender roles on children affects the way they grow up to see themselves and their gender. Sociologists believe this is happening as children “learn gender” from societal expectations, which causes them to grow up with anxiety from trying to live their life within gender norms, and the solution may be as easy as educating people, specifically parents, on the matter.
Description of Problem Children learn gender between 0-4. By the time they turn …show more content…
As humans settled into one place, roles for the civilians fell into place, with women working on home duties and men working on hunting and physical duties. The societal structure “represented a division of labor, or a social system in which a particular segment of the population performs one type of labor and another segment performs another type”. This division of duties is found in most all ancient civilizations and was carried through societies until today.
Today, though some things about gender stereotypes are being dismantled, people are averse to change and cling to gender roles as what they know. There is shame associated with not following the rigid gender roles we have. People find that “traditional roles can provide some structure -- a sense of safety and expectations”. And while this is true, they can be stifling or limiting to people of all ages and …show more content…
This could be for the child, parent, or general public. In Pereira’s study she found that when she addressed what the children were feeling as they were together as a group that slowly their behaviors began to change. With the education they were able to act how they wanted instead of how they were “expected to”.
With education on the subject, children would be able to explore gender as many mental health professionals believe is necessary. HealthyChildren.org believes that “All children need the opportunity to explore different gender roles and different styles of play”. With giving them options on how they can act and present themselves, they will be able to find what best suits their individual identity. Lisa Esposito points out that your daughter might still be inclined to pink and traditionally girly things, but the most important detail is that it is her choice to

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