Question

Provide a description of the process of gender role learning at all stages of development from childhood through adolescence. What do you think are the major socialization influences throughout the process, and the changes, if any, in contemporary roles and encoded sexual scripts of gender and gender theory? Explain how gender role learning applies here, if it does. Provide an explanation of the perspectives that influence sexual orientation with regard to the assigned gender, gender identity, and gender roles. For example, what did you learn as a child as it relates to "what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society"? Where you influenced by gender role socialization?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Gender role learning is a concept that is entirely taught to a child as opposed to a child having inherently sensing these assigned roles. For instance, a child learns that “pink” is associated with females and “blue” is associated with males because the child will learn about it from the society. A child isn’t born knowing these colour assignments to gender like a child knows inherently how to breathe or eat.

The “early childhood” stage of development involves a child understanding whether they are girls or boys. The “middle childhood” stage is when the child understands the different cultures that surround a particular gender. At the “adolescent” stage, the child begins to understand the existential connotations of their gender. This is when they might properly assign parts of their personality to their gender.

The major socialisation influences could be attributed to the biological model. Bronfenbrenner explained that everything in a child’s environment is likely to affect how they grow and develop. He went on to explain that a child’s inherent qualities affect the social environment and vice-versa.

Bronfenbrenner’s biological model is in the form of concentric circles or levels that influence a child.

The first level – The Microsystem which is the child itself.

The second level – The Mesosystem which comprise of the family, school, playground, peers, religious institutions and healthcare systems.

The third level – The Ecosystem which contains the extended family, neighbours, friends of the family, legal services, social welfare services and the mass media.

The fourth level – The Macrosystem is formed by the attitudes and ideologies of the society.

The fifth level – The Chronosystem is formed by all of the events and transitions that occur within a child’s life.

The gender roles completely apply to this concept of socialisation because; a child is using observation as a tool to hone their comprehension of the society and their role in it. For instance, if a girl sees that her mother likes flowers, she is likely to believe that women do like flowers. Eventually, the little girl may also grow up to like flowers. The same association could be made about boys and cars. As a growing child, one major gender influence has always been the toy section at supermarkets. It was always that company marketed toys with blue boxes containing cars and soldiers for boys and pink boxes with dolls and tea sets for girls. Such sections at supermarkets catered to stereotypes and eventually led to early and unfair gender assignments.