The parenthood aspect of socialization is quite complex. For this exploration, we will consider all of the adults that assist a person in becoming a gendered adult to fall under the category of "Parenthood." Socialization is a multifaceted thing, and not everything a child learns is taught by their biological parents, or even by their direct guardians.
Doctors
When a pregnant woman goes to her doctor for an ultrasound to determine the sex of the child, it is pronounced a boy or a girl, and not male or female. The doctor may go on to point out the penis or lack thereof as evidence, but already, this fetus has received some gender baggage. Not even exposed yet to the light of day, the fetus has been ascribed to a specific social group. They will be expected to display traits that have been assigned to their gender. In cases when the sex of an infant does not align exactly with the binary gender system in place in the United States, a doctor will often pressure the parents or the mother to have their child undergo genital reconstructive surgery. The doctors will map chromosomes and record hormone levels to determine what the "intended" sex of the infant is. Also, they observe responsiveness to applied sex hormones in order to see if the infant could successfully be surgically manipulated into conforming to genital configuration of the chosen sex. This process is generally decided by observing and judging whether the infant could form a viable penis. To doctors, the equation often reads penis=boy, no penis=girl, even when chromosomes suggest that the sex of the infant is "supposed" to be female. The reason doctors provide for why parents are pressured into getting genital reconstructive surgery for their infants is that people do not know how to treat a person without an assigned gender, and gender cannot be assigned without a definite sex. This is the most interesting part of this practice: the doctors straight out admit that this is surgery done on infants for purely social reasons. Also, they are operating on the assumption that sex is always directly linked with gender, and that there are only two possible genders. This disregards transgender and gender queer people, or at the very least, considers those to be undesirable outcomes for the child. For these reasons and practices, we will consider doctors a crucial link in the cycle of socialization.
Parents/Guardians
Now that the parents have discovered/surgically constructed the sex of their child, they now must go out and find a name for their child, and equip the baby's room, send out announcements, and buy clothing and toys. None of these necessarily have to be gendered tasks, of course, but they often are. For example, take baby names; there are a few overlapping names, like Morgan, Hayden, and Riley. However, there are dozens of sites that list baby names by gender. This is often an important consideration parents take when they name their child. In the United States, parents most often pick names based off of these highly gendered pools of names.
http://www.the-parenting-magazine.com/
In itself, this practice is not inherently bad necessarily. However, these names are associated with gender, and genders are associated with certain sets of characteristics. This system of naming serves to brand children with a gendered label. Upon reading just these names on a list, certain loose assumptions can be formed. William might like playing with firetrucks, and Lilly might have long hair. One name is associated with pants and power, the other with dresses and flowers. The system of naming is so gendered that bathroom signs could easily be replaced with signs reading "John" and "Jane" with little to no confusion. Also, the range of products for babies that parents purchase and use are highly gendered. Baby clothes sections are a sea of pink for girls and blue for boys, and there are not many alternative options. It is hard to place responsibility on just the parents for this, as it is a wider social system that is to blame for this dichotomy. However, look at these two rooms: Nothing about these rooms explicitly states whether they are intended for a boy or a girl. They are not specifically labeled "Boy" or "Girl," but it is easily understood which is which. For this aspect of socialization into gender, parents are more responsible. There are many stores that offer paint in nearly every color imaginable, or nameable. Some will even mix paint to a specific shade that you specify, even if it is not among the listed colors. If a person were to only get their knowledge of paint hues from a nursery design magazine article. "Boy" colors are considered to be blue, green, and brown, while "girl" colors are pink and purple. Yellow is the only non-white color that often shows up in both boy's and girl's products. The thing is, the parents could decorate these rooms in pretty much any way they could imagine. Baby blankets and bedding are often handmade anyway, so bedding could be just as varied as the paint on the wall. These rooms aren't though. The images and expectations of baby's rooms are so ubiquitous, it is as if there is a specific code for what boys want, and for what girls want. This systematic coding of what is boy's territory and what is girl's that these areas are well understood by children, even in grade school. For example, when I was in kindergarten, everyone was assigned to color a square that was filled in with our favorite color. Nearly all of the girls chose pink or purple, and almost all of the boys picked red, blue, or green. One boy's name was written on a pink square, and later, he was ridiculed, for being "like a girl."
This boy stood no chance on the playground.
The implications should be clear. Through the action of parents, children learn what areas belong to boys, and which belong to girls. There is little permitted overlap between these two areas, like the world's narrowest Venn Diagram. This gender dichotomy is learned at such an early age, and it is expressed even before children enter elementary school. This learning is through the teachings and examples of parents and guardians.
Community
This third group that will be considered on the teaching side of this cycle is the community. This group is the largest, and they teach almost entirely by example. They have less direct influence than parents, but they are an important component nonetheless. Many children find their role models in their community, or their families. These are people that children admire, and that children wish to emulate in some way. This can be both a good and a bad thing, because children will usually pick to emulate people that have lives that the child admires, but to this day, people still fill very gendered roles in society. Even though great strides have been taken to change gender typing in the workplace, it is still a pervasive problem. Most of the change has been from women filling previously male dominated positions. Here is a chart illustrating some tendencies in career choices of people organized by gender.
Top 10 Most Common Positions of Women
Top 10 Most Common Positions of Men
Women's Occupations
Percent Women
Men's Occupations
Percent Women
Secretaries
98
Managers and administrators
30
Cashiers
78
Truck Drivers
5
Managers and administrators
30
Sales Supervisors and Proprietors
40
Registered Nurses
93
Construction Laborers
16
Nursing aids, orderlies, and attendants
89
Freight, stock, and material handlers
24
Elementary school teachers
84
Janitors and cleaners
35
Bookkeepers, accounting clerks
93
Fabricators and assemblers
33
Waiters and waitresses
78
Carpenters
1
Sales workers, other commodities
68
Cooks
41
Average labor-force occupation
46
Sales representatives, commodities, wholesale
26
Courtesy of U.S. Census from 4/10/00As you can see, these occupations are largely populated by a people of the same gender. This means that when children see people in this position, it is generally someone of a specific gender. This can lead to the assumption that some things are "girl jobs" and some things are "boy jobs." Children are very impressionable, and so they often choose to set goals within this gender standard of occupations. This concept is expressed in this video.
These children almost all chose to aspire to careers within their given gender role. The girls picked careers based on service and nurture, like: veterinarian, hairdresser, and teacher. The boys selected careers based on power and excitement, like: astronaut, police officer, soldier, and fireman. These children are in kindergarten, and they have already been indoctrinated into desiring careers that fit within their gender role. This understanding could be given to children through perpetuated images like these:
These images are ubiquitous. In fact, if you image search for "firefighter" or "nurse," it is necessary to scroll quite a while before a "cross gendered" person can be found. Now, I don't want to sound like this is a horrible, unchangeable problem. I mostly want to illuminate how systemic the process of gender socialization is. Everyone should be aware that their actions, dress, and even their careers can influence how children learn how to live their lives, so please be responsible and open-minded. To see more about how this process affects children, click here Sources:
Bose, Christine E. and Rachel Bridges Whaley. “Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force.” Feminist Frontiers. Ed Leila J. Rupp, Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier. New York City. McGaw-Hill, 2012. 197-207. Print.
Kessler, Suzanne. “The Medical Construction of Gender.” Feminist Frontiers. Ed Leila J. Rupp, Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier. New York City. McGraw-Hill, 2012. 49-62. Print.
Doctors
When a pregnant woman goes to her doctor for an ultrasound to determine the sex of the child, it is pronounced a boy or a girl, and not male or female. The doctor may go on to point out the penis or lack thereof as evidence, but already, this fetus has received
Parents/Guardians
Now that the parents have discovered/surgically constructed the sex of their child, they now must go out and find a name for their child, and equip the baby's room, send out announcements, and buy clothing and toys. None of these necessarily have to be gendered tasks, of course, but they often are. For example, take baby names; there are a few overlapping names, like Morgan, Hayden, and Riley. However, there are dozens of sites that list baby names by gender. This is often an important consideration parents take when they name their child. In the United States, parents most often pick names based off of these highly gendered pools of names.
In itself, this practice is not inherently bad necessarily. However, these names are associated with gender, and genders are associated with certain sets of characteristics. This system of naming serves to brand children with a gendered label. Upon reading just these names on a list, certain loose assumptions can be formed. William might like playing with firetrucks, and Lilly might have long hair. One name is associated with pants and power, the other with dresses and flowers. The system of naming is so gendered that bathroom signs could easily be replaced with signs reading "John" and "Jane" with little to no confusion. Also, the range of products for babies that parents purchase and use are highly gendered. Baby clothes sections are a sea of pink for girls and blue for boys, and there are not many alternative options. It is hard to place responsibility on just the parents for this, as it is a wider social system that is to blame for this dichotomy. However, look at these two rooms:
Nothing about these rooms explicitly states whether they are intended for a boy or a girl. They are not specifically labeled "Boy" or "Girl," but it is easily understood which is which. For this aspect of socialization into gender, parents are more responsible. There are many stores that offer paint in nearly every color imaginable, or nameable. Some will even mix paint to a specific shade that you specify, even if it is not among the listed colors. If a person were to only get their knowledge of paint hues from a nursery design magazine article. "Boy" colors are considered to be blue, green, and brown, while "girl" colors are pink and purple. Yellow is the only non-white color that often shows up in both boy's and girl's products. The thing is, the parents could decorate these rooms in pretty much any way they could imagine. Baby blankets and bedding are often handmade anyway, so bedding could be just as varied as the paint on the wall. These rooms aren't though. The images and expectations of baby's rooms are so ubiquitous, it is as if there is a specific code for what boys want, and for what girls want. This systematic coding of what is boy's territory and what is girl's that these areas are well understood by children, even in grade school. For example, when I was in kindergarten, everyone was assigned to color a square that was filled in with our favorite color. Nearly all of the girls chose pink or purple, and almost all of the boys picked red, blue, or green. One boy's name was written on a pink square, and later, he was ridiculed, for being "like a girl."
Community
This third group that will be considered on the teaching side of this cycle is the community. This group is the largest, and they teach almost entirely by example. They have less direct influence than parents, but they are an important component nonetheless. Many children find their role models in their community, or their families. These are people that children admire, and that children wish to emulate in some way. This can be both a good and a bad thing, because children will usually pick to emulate people that have lives that the child admires, but to this day, people still fill very gendered roles in society. Even though great strides have been taken to change gender typing in the workplace, it is still a pervasive problem. Most of the change has been from women filling previously male dominated positions. Here is a chart illustrating some tendencies in career choices of people organized by gender.
These children almost all chose to aspire to careers within their given gender role. The girls picked careers based on service and nurture, like: veterinarian, hairdresser, and teacher. The boys selected careers based on power and excitement, like: astronaut, police officer, soldier, and fireman. These children are in kindergarten, and they have already been indoctrinated into desiring careers that fit within their gender role. This understanding could be given to children through perpetuated images like these:
These images are ubiquitous. In fact, if you image search for "firefighter" or "nurse," it is necessary to scroll quite a while before a "cross gendered" person can be found. Now, I don't want to sound like this is a horrible, unchangeable problem. I mostly want to illuminate how systemic the process of gender socialization is. Everyone should be aware that their actions, dress, and even their careers can influence how children learn how to live their lives, so please be responsible and open-minded.
To see more about how this process affects children, click here
Sources:
Bose, Christine E. and Rachel Bridges Whaley. “Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force.” Feminist Frontiers. Ed Leila J. Rupp, Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier. New York City. McGaw-Hill, 2012. 197-207. Print.
Kessler, Suzanne. “The Medical Construction of Gender.” Feminist Frontiers. Ed Leila J. Rupp, Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier. New York City. McGraw-Hill, 2012. 49-62. Print.