Gender Socialisation in the Family

GENDER SOCIALISATION IN THE FAMILY

GENDER SOCIALISATION IN THE FAMILY

Gender socialisation is the social pressure exerted on a child to behave in a way associated with being either male or female. The parents do this by using different methods. Ann Oakley believes that gender roles are acquired through socialisation rather than it biologically determined. Ann Oakley 1981 argues that gender socialisation had four elements:

Manipulation - Parents would encourage or discourage ways of behaving in their children on the basis of what they considered to be normal or abnormal behaviour for a male or female child. For example if they had a boy and he was decided to wear make-up like his mother, he would get told off. This sort of behaviour would be seen as abnormal. However if they had seen him kicking a football around in the garden they would praise him.

Canalization - Parents direct their children’s interests towards appropriate games and toys for their gender. Drawing upon his own experience, Stephen Pfohl (1992) talks about how he asked his parents if he could have a baby brother or sister, when they refused he asked if he could have a doll instead. Reluctantly, his parents agreed. Whilst in his bedroom with the window open, Stephen heard his parents discussing the doll and their concerns about it. On hearing this, Stephen went downstairs and asked his parents to take the doll back to the shop and exchange it for a gun. His parents were pleased.

Verbal appellations – This is the use of language to label children in a way that reinforces

Appropriate gender identification.

Different activities - Girls are encouraged to participate in indoor activities which are often

‘domestic’ in nature. These include things like helping their mother around the house through cleaning. Boys are encouraged to participate in more outdoor activities. These include manly sports such as football, basketball etc. In summary, it is through this gendered socialisation...