Gender Role And Childhood Socialization

Childhood socialization can be defined as the process of children learning the shared meaning of the groups in which they are reared from birth to adolescence.
Thus, early childhood socialization can be said to be greatly responsible for shaping and reinforcing traditional gender roles in the lives of children within the society.

These gender roles are depicted in our society through historical, cultural and political activities and these development starts from the period of childbirth to adolescence. For example, in a typical African society, the expectations of a boy child are different from that of a girl child and these roles have been neatly woven into the culture, history and political lives of the people.
The boys are taught to be tough, strong, masculine and courageous and if possible go to farm and hunt for wild animals with their father; while girls are expected to be tender, gentle, feminine, caring, loving and supportive, these girls are expected to spend more time with their mother in the kitchen learn to cook and keeping home in good shape.

In considering development through childhood, it will be interesting to analysis the three primary agents of socialization: family, peers, school and how they help to reinforce traditional gender roles among children within the society.

Family:
The family is the first source of contact that a child has to interact with within the society and with the help of a well-developed sensory organ, (eyes, nose, ears, mouth and skin) a child can express their feelings and emotion to others within the same environment. According to the book- social psychology, by H. Andrew Michener, John D. Delamater, Daniel J. Myers “The adult learns how to care effectively for the infant, and the infant forms a strong emotional attachment to the caregiver” (pg. 55). However, in other to provide a solid foundation of the infant’s sense of self, it is crucial that an intimate emotional relationship between infant and caregiver (mostly father and mother) be established in other to encourage a healthy personal physical and emotional development. During this developmental stage, a child learns to trust the caregiver and response to touch and emotions. For example children are drawn more to their father when they need to play horse ride or rough-and-tumble play and they rely more on their mother for food when they are hungry.

Peers:
Having developed the first sense of self with the help of the family and immediate caregiver, a child begins to rely more on his or her peers as an important socializing agent in life. This second agent (peers) is viewed from a different perspective from the first (family). According to the book, “the family consists of persons who differ in status or power, whereas the peer group is composed of status equals” (pg. 59). The peer group offers a child the first experience in express authority over personal belongings such as toys and choice over others that they relate to. For example my little 2-year-old boy (Gideon) will like to tell his peers that certain toys belong to him by emphasizing the word “My Toy” and he is willing to share it with certain people he refers as “My friend”.
Peers are very important to childhood socialization because children always want to be recognized and accepted by their peer group. Thus boys play football (soccer) together and girls play with their dolls together. In this setting it is important that you follows the rules within your group otherwise you could be ridiculed and treated as outcast.

School:
The school setting as an agent of childhood socialization is intentionally designed to socialize children. In this setting there is a shape distinction difference between the teacher and the students. According to the book, “school is the child’s first experience with formal and public evaluation of performance” (pg. 61). In this setting each child’s work and behavior is evaluated by the teacher using the same standards with the judgment made public to the other members of the class and their respective parents alike thus, helping to socialize the students. Furthermore, each child can judge his or her performance relative to others, this socialization agent confirms what is right and what is wrong behavior for a child within the society. For example, student that fail to do their home work are tagged as lazy student while those that did their home works are rewarded with good grades.