From the moment parents find out the sex of their baby a child’s life is largely defined by his or her gender. From the baby’s name, to how he or she is dressed, to how his or her room is decorated, gender suffuses the newborn’s life. Not only do parents construct different environments for boys and girls from birth, they tend to treat them differently as well.
As early as age 2, modeling behavior begins to emerge, and children begin to re — modeling behavior
alize that objects and activities are appropriate to specific genders. The rules that a Gender-appropriate ь^атог tfiat really
emerges in childhood from watching others.
child develops at this point are not flexible but universal; to the child, only women can wear skirts, and only men can use electric razors. In fact, cross-gender humor is very funny to young children; a television program that shows a man dressed up in a woman’s clothes or a woman who appears on TV sporting a mustache will elicit bursts of laughter.
As the child begins to show more complex behaviors, he or she is usually rewarded for displaying gender-stereotyped behavior and discouraged or punished for nonstereotyped behaviors. A boy picks up a bat and hits a ball and hears his parents call “Good boy!” whereas no such encouragement is forthcoming when he mimics his mother sewing. A daughter watches her father fix the car and although her father might not take
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the time to teach her the specific car parts, he would teach his son. Similarly, when a daughter wanders into the kitchen, the mother who is cooking may begin instructing her on how to mix ingredients, while a son gets no such guidance.
Overall, boys are treated more harshly than girls when they adopt cross-gender characteristics (Sandnabba & Ahlberg, 1999). Children who have a strong and persistent identification with the other sex or the gender role of the other sex and are uncomfortable with their own biological sex or gender role may be diagnosed with a gender-identity disorder. Overall, the prevalence of gender-identity disorder ranges from.003 to 3% in boys and.001 to 1.5% in girls (Bartlett et al., 2000).
Early in childhood, gender segregation in play, also known as homosocial play, begins. Children tend to gravitate to same-sex friends, and as early as 21/2 to 3 years old, children play more actively and more interactively with same-sex playmates (Maccoby, 1987). This tendency is universal. Researchers have tried rewarding children for playing with the other sex, but as soon as the reward is discontinued, play reverts back to same- gender groupings. This gender segregation may be due to the different playing styles of boys and girls, the attraction of children to others like themselves, or to learned social roles; most probably, it involves a combination of all these factors.
During the school years, gender roles become the measure by which children are judged by their peers. Children who violate sex-typed play are usually rejected (and not kindly) by their peers (Blakemore, 2003). This is especially true of boys, who experience more rejection from their peers when they violate gender stereotypes than girls do.
The classroom itself can also strongly reinforce gender stereotypes. Even though teachers believe they show equal attention to boys and girls, research shows that teachers spend more time with boys, give them more attention, both praise and criticize boys more, use more follow-up questions to boys, and tolerate more bad behavior among boys than girls (Duffy et al., 2001). Girls are also steered away from math and science courses and use biased textbooks that reinforce gender stereotypes (Keller, 2002). Boys who question the teacher are considered curious, whereas girls who question are considered aggressive. Also, teachers stereotype the tasks they ask boys and girls to do; boys may be asked to help move desks, whereas girls are asked to erase the blackboard.
One of the most comprehensive studies on the well-being of male and female children found that both genders enjoy a higher quality of life than they did in 1985 and that boys and girls are fairly equally well (Meadows et al., 2005). This study reviewed