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Gender is used as a means of describing the distinction between the biological sex and socialized aspects of femininity and masculinity. [9] According to West and Zimmerman, gender is not a personal trait; it is "an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements, and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions ...
Gender roles are influenced by the media, family, the environment, and society. [6] In addition to biological maturation, children develop within a set of gender-specific social and behavioral norms embedded in family structure, natural play patterns, close friendships, and the teeming social jungle of school life. [6]
Another theory of gender socialization, discussed by Susan McHale, is that the gender roles and attitudes of older siblings can impact the gender roles adopted by younger children. Throughout the findings of McHale's study, it is maintained that parents still have the most familial influence on childhood socialization.
The relationship between feminine socialization and heterosexual relationships has been studied by scholars, as femininity is related to women's and girls' sexual appeal to men and boys. [8] Femininity is sometimes linked with sexual objectification .
From birth, in the course of gender socialization, children learn gender stereotypes and roles from their parents and environment. Traditionally, boys learn to manipulate their physical and social environment through physical strength or dexterity, while girls learn to present themselves as objects to be viewed. [ 22 ]
gender identity: the child recognizes that they are either a boy or a girl and possesses the ability to label others. gender stability: the identity in which they recognizes themselves as does not change; gender consistency: the acceptance that gender does not change regardless of changes in gender-typed appearance, activities, and traits.
The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly does, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform the debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of ...
Henslin contends that "an important part of socialization is the learning of culturally defined gender roles". [41] Gender socialization refers to the learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex: boys learn to be boys and girls learn to be girls. This "learning" happens by way of many different agents of socialization.