Gender roles can have a huge impact and shape almost all of our social interactions. Gender can shape how children learn, develop, and even how they choose to express their emotions.Gender roles influence how partners share household chores, how family members communicate with one another, and how parents interact with their children. Research shows that there are similarities and differences between the ways mothers and fathers parent their children and this can impact a child’s understanding of gender roles. Parents and caregivers shape children’s understanding of gender roles through a process called gender role socialization (Gender Roles in Families, 2020, 2). Gender roles can impact families in many different ways depending on the gender structure of the family as well as their social status, culture, and age.
Research shows that how parents and caregivers teach children about gender roles can impact their learning outcomes and development: • Children are often treated differently when both girls and boys are in the household. Mothers tend to talk more with their daughters than sons, which may be related to girls scoring higher in reading and writing in schools than boys. Parents often assign chores to their children that are stereotypically for girls or boys or make a choice to equally divide chores regardless of gender(Gender Roles in Families, 2020, 2).
The ways we teach our children about gender is super important. The Tripartite Model of Socialization: The Role of Parents, is a very helpful diagram showing how to be able to better understand and talk about what gender socialization looks like in families.
Parents Interacting with their Children- Parents socialize gender roles by communicating, modeling behavior, and sharing activities with their children. Parents model similar gender roles by equally sharing child rearing responsibilities. For example, how parents divide household chores like child rearing, lawn care, or cooking dinner teaches children what being a girl or a boy looks like in a family (Gender Roles in Families, 2020, 3).
Parents Teach their Children- Parents teach their children about gender roles by instructing them about what girls and boys “should” do. By encouraging or discouraging their children’s gendered behavior (or behavior that’s expected for girls or boys), parents shape how their children will behave in the future. For example, a boy who is often told that “boys don’t cry” will learn that boys should hide their emotions (Gender Roles in Families, 2020, 3).
Parents Provide Opportunities to their Children- Parents socialize gender roles by providing similar or different opportunities to their children. Restricting some opportunities for either girls or boys causes some children to be left out and made to feel different or strange. For example, when children are taught that some opportunities are only for either girls or boys, the girls that want to play football or boys that want to be cheerleaders may be teased by their peers (Gender Roles in Families, 2020, 3)
Educating our children as well as ourselves is so important. Especially during our society today. Over the past few years it has become more crucial in being more educated on gender roles and gender roles within families. I was never super educated on gender roles until I got older. I wish that was something that I learned when I was younger so that I could better understand. Now I have a lot more catching up to do as I learn more about what gender roles really mean and the roles that they play in families.
References
Gender Roles in Families (Vol. 1). (2020). College of Public Health and Human Resources. https://orparenting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-06-16-Gender-Socialization-Newsletter-Practitioners-V2.pdf
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