Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers
Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers |
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From: Edward Rivera
Email:
Course: Psyc100G: Diversity in Development
College: U.C. Santa Cruz
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych100G
ChildrenObservations:
Date: 13 Dec 1996
Time: 19:58:52
Remote Name: ss1mac-14.ucsc.edu
I would first like to thank the rest of the group that participated is this project, Barbara, Dave, Elizabeth, Deborah, Lorraine, and Mary. The purpose of this brief research was to look at how gender differences are generated by parents, and how children maintain them through interaction between their parents and peers. Some of the topics that will be discussed will include: choice of clothes, toys, room decor, school and peer influence. Although this research may not cover all the aspects of gender acquisition, it will provide some of the main topics that are discussed in other studies in order to discover some of the issues in gender acquisition among the first couple of years of a child's life.
Do parents inadvertently expose their children to their preconceived notions of gender-stereotypical expectations and roles? Gender roles and boundaries can be comforting and provide guidelines for people; however, these roles are both limiting and constraining in today's rapidly changing society. Infants begin with many similarities; they are born incompetent-- needing comfort, food, and warmth from a capable adult. (Barbara Rogoff lecture, 11/19/96, UCSC) While some studies and theories have found that gender differences are based in biology and evolution, (http://fnord.dur.ac.uk/teaching/1childdev/h7ac_details.html) socialization, both parental and societal, creates gender differences that become thoroughly entrenched in our children. This paper will focus specifically on how steretypes prevalent in socialization, clothing, room decor, toys, and how school influence children perception of gender.
Gender stereotypes in infants are perpetuated by society's expectations and perceptions. Societal influences, preconceived notions and expectations enforce already existing gender stereotypes. Society's gender stereotypes increase during the preschool and childhood years, reach a plateau, and decrease in adolescence (Vogel, Lake, Evans, & Hildebrandt Karraker, 1991). In the study of forty-eight children, their mothers, and 16 college students, gender based stereotypes influenced interaction with infants which in turn socialized the infants to conform to their respective gender role. Ratings of the female infants centered on their small size and beauty. Male infants are judged usually according to their ability and intelligence. While evidence of gender stereotyping in infant ratings are becoming less dominant after adolescence, sex stereotyping in adults' behavior towards infants has changed little. Obviously, society shapes the gender stereotypes that both children and adults hold.
Parental expectations put pressure on offspring to perform in like ways to gender specific behaviors. The formations of gender boundaries were found in the verbal descriptions for newborn infants. In an early study, evidence was found to support the theory that parents respond to their children in different ways according to the child's sex, from gender stereotyped birth activities, clothing, to toys and bedroom decor (Rubin, Provenzano, & Zella, 1974). This study also found that daughters were described significantly different than sons, with adjectives of "little", "beautiful", "pretty", "cute" and "resembling their mothers". The fathers were more extreme in stereotyping their offspring than were the mothers. Twenty years later, in another study, white, middle-class parents were asked to describe their newborn children using Rubin's nine-point adjective scale and their perceptions and expectations of the new infant (Hildebrandt, Karraker, Vogel, Lake, 1995). The parents in this study showed no gender stereotyping in verbal descriptions of the newborns, although some limited stereotyping in ratings was observed. Specifically, parents described their daughters as finer featured, less strong and more delicate than male babies. The mothers used fewer terms than did the fathers.
Clothing is an additional way in which parents cause gender boundaries to become more salient. The color and style of the infant's clothing and their personal accessories make a public announcement as to their baby's sex. In one study done with infants aged five to twenty-five months, it was found that colors were commonly coordinated with gender (Pomerleau, Bloduc, Malcuit, Cossette, 1990). Boys wore more blue, red, and gray colored clothing while girls wore more pink. Additionally, personal accessories helped to establish gender. Girls are commonly given pink pacifiers to use while boys receive blue ones (Pomerleau et al., 1990). In another example that illustrates how personal accessories label a child's sex, Sandra Bem describes the day her young son, Jeremy, decided to wear barrettes to nursery school. A classmate determined and insisted that Jeremy must be a girl becauseonly girls wore barrettes. Finally, exasperated, Jeremy pulled down his pants to offer proof of his sex. The other boy replied, "Everybody has a penis, only girls wear barrettes". (Cole & Cole, 1993)
Parents establish gender salience by use of decorations in their child's rooms. In one study done with families in well-to-do residential areas of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, researchers indexed the contents of each child's room (Rheingold & Cook, 1975) It was thought that the contents of the room would give a clue as to the parental behavior and the formation of gender roles. In terms of decorations, boys' rooms were significantly more likely to be decorated in animal motifs while girls' rooms were most likely to be decorated with floral motifs, lace, fringe, and ruffles. In a more up-to-date study, the researchers found that girls' rooms had more yellow bedding as opposed to boys' rooms which were much more likely to have blue bedding and curtains (Pomerleau et al., 1990). Overall, room decoration has not changed much for gender differences and gender stereotyping are still evident.
While in the home, parents allow their children to watch between 3-Television has the potential to have an enormous impact on children, particularly toy commercials. Studies have shown that commercials intensify gender boundaries, making gender categories more salient, between boys and girls by producing toys made exclusively for each gender (Ruble et al, 1981). It is not the toys themselves that reinforce these boundaries, it is the way in which they are presented. Toys for girls are usually presented in an indoor setting with soft music playing in the background, usually with an adult present. Most often, the types of toys that are featured include baby dolls, playhouses, princess and bride dolls, cooking sets, and beauty items. Toys for boys are predominantly presented in an outdoor setting without adult supervision, and with fast-paced music in the background. Toys featured include fast cars, weapons, sports equipment, and construction sets. The emphasis in commercials for girls' toys is on being--being a girlfriend, wife, mother, homemaker, always being a source of comfort, and being a communication expert. The boys commercials focus on doing--building, running,shooting, tackling, and exploring. Ruble et al state that children want to play only with those playing with those toys that are labeled as appropriate for their own gender. They further discussed that by playing with gender appropriate toys, "... the type of toy or activity children spend time with ... affect personality characteristics, such as compliance, cognitive development, and spatial and verbal skills" (Servin and Connor, 1979) It is clear that the type of toy a child plays with, and the types of commercials watched regarding gender appropriate toys, reinforce gender boundaries between boys and girls.
When parents play with their children there are definite patterns that serve to reinforce gender roles. According to the evidence gathered by Huston and O'Brien (1989), both parents and children select the same sex-typed toys when they have the choice to do so. The findings in this study suggest the following:
1. Parents showed subtle tendencies to respond more positively to and be more involved with single-sex targeted toys rather than cross-sexed toys.
2. Stereotyped toys affect the nature of the parent-child interaction. With masculine toys (e.g. trucks), parents would make animated sounds rather than offer verbal information. With feminine toys, parents selected close proximity and more verbal interaction.
3. Neutral toys, puzzles and shape sorters, produced more positive and informative verbal behavior from the parents when compared to other toys.
4. The effects observed in the experiment were generated from the types of toys and by the parents' beliefs about play with each toy.
Parents are the first to teach their children about the gender norms that exists in our society through play, parent-child interaction, and other previous mentioned topics, but they are not the sole providers of such stereotypical information. The type of play that children perform in their school years continues to demonstrate gender bias. "Research has shown that girls in groups learn to blend in, be sensitive to others feelings, avoid boasting, and are punished by exclusion when they are bossy. Boy groups are concerned with dominance and reward those that are bossy." (http://www.babyschool.com/bmcgende.htm). Take for example a local elementary school in Santa Cruz County. While volunteering, I noticed that there are more groups of girls than boys that sit on the tables to talk, while the boys play football.
When observing children in certain play setting, one can distinguish certain differences among the type of play between boys and girls. Lyons et al (1988) demonstrated that boys play more aggressively. Such is the case when they play cops and robbers, but the opposite was seen with girls play. Their play is more talkative (Rubin et al, 1976) and reinforces how girls should behave. Some girls play with kitchen sets that teach them how to work in the kitchen. Take for example the Easy Cook Oven that is offered for children. The commercial has girls handling certain kitchen utensils and taking out their baked goods out of their easy cook oven. Some of the toys that are directed at boys are aggressive, as is the case with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. These toys, among others, have profound influence on a child's behavior, but toys are not the only source for gender information. Schools provide our youth with knowledge of various topics, one of those being gender. In some Jewish schools, teachers treat the children differently according to their gender. The boy's knowledge is reinforced when they address the class or teacher, but girls are complimented on their neatness and not their knowledge. (http://www.brandeis.edu/news/reporter8/gender.html) This sort of behavior is not restricted to Jewish schools, they are also seen in classrooms through out the United States, and possibly the world. Teachers need to recognize how they influence their students in order for changes to be implemented .
Gender roles are acuired at an early age through parents and the environment. They are a part of our society and many others. This leaves us with the question to whether such boundaries are beneficial. This is an entire different topic from the one discussed in this paper, but the information provided might supply enough information to see were one stands.
Bibliography
Calders, Y., Houston, A. & O'Brien, M. (1989). Social Interaction and Plat Patterns of Parents and Toddlers with Feminine, Masculine and Neutral Toys. Child Development, 60, 70-76.
Cole, M. & Cole, S. (1993) The Development of Children 2nd ed., 367.
Hildebrandt Karraker, K., Vogel, D.A. & Lake, M.A. (1995) Parents gender stereotyped perceptions of newborns: the eye of the beholder revisited, Sex Roles 33, 687-701.
Miller, K. (1996). Gender bias starts at an early age. Gender role conference 2/13/96. (http://www.brandeis.edu/news/reporter8/gender.html)
Pomerleau, A., Bolduc, D., Malcuit, G., & Cossette, L. Pink or Blue: Environmental gender stereotypes in the first two years of life. Sex Roles, 1990, 22 (n5/6) 359-367
Rubin, J.Z., Provenzano, F.J. & Zella, L. (1976) The eye of the beholder: parents' view on sex of newborns. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 44, 512-519.
Stern, M. & Hildebrandt, K.H. (1989) Sex stereotyping of infants: a review of gender labeling studies. Sex Roles, 20, (n9-10).
Vogel, D.A., Lake, S.E., & Hildebrandt Karraker, K. (1991) Children's and Adults' Sex-Stereotyped Perceptions of Infants, Sex Roles 24 (n9/10), 605-615.
Lyons, J., Serbin, L., & Maerchessault, K. (1988). The social behavior of behavior of peer identified aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive/withdrawn children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 16, 539-552.
Rubin, K., Maioni, T., & Hornung, M. (1976). Freeplay behavior in middle and lower class preschoolers: Parten & Piaget revisited. Child Development, 47, 414-419
Pomerleau, A., Bolduc, D., Malcuit, G., & Cossette, L. Pink or Blue: Environmental gender stereotypes in the first two years of life. Sex Roles, 1990, 22 (n5/6) 359-367
Rubin, J.Z., Provenzano, F.J. & Zella, L. (1974) The eye of the beholder: parents' view on sex of newborns. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 44, 512-519.
Stern, M. & Hildebrandt, K.H. (1989) Sex stereotyping of infants: a review of gender labeling studies. Sex Roles, 20, (n9-10).
Vogel, D.A., Lake, S.E., & Hildebrandt Karraker, K. (1991). Children's and Adults' Sex-Stereotyped Perceptions of Infants, Sex Roles 24 (n9/10), 605-615.
http://fnord.dur.ac.uk/teaching/1childdev/h7ac_details.html
http://www.babyschool.com/bmcgende.htm
