Gender Roles

Not Just Child's Play

Gender bias is a greatly debated topic in today's society. Though people often focus on the roles of men and women in the working world, these biases begin in the home. From childhood, parents, even if unintentionally, instill certain gender roles in their children. As demonstrated in the articles "Why Boys Don't Play With Dolls" by Pollitt, "Little Boy Pink" by Moore, and "The Gender Blur" by Blum, parental figures control every aspect of their children's lives from clothes to toys to entertainment. Simple decisions like the choice of clothing colors or toy sets actually set the standard of who these children will become in the future. The influence of American parents, which itself is affected by societal guidelines, is what directly influences the development of gender roles in children.

Parents influence children's activities and interests by encouraging them to play with certain toys and take part in gender specific activities. For example, a typical American father is a big football fan. These fathers often try to share this interest with their sons by bringing them to football games and playing football with them. They do not do this with their daughters. Instead, they buy them Easy Bake Ovens and Barbie dolls to encourage them to be more "feminine." This choice of children's toys plays a big role in the development of both genders. Boys are brought up with the notion that they should be tough and masculine just like the macho football players they grow up to admire. Girls, on the other hand, learn to be more soft and caring because they grow up playing house with dolls and fake oven sets. Still, not all parents conform to these typical gender roles. In one instance a girl "received a Barbie doll and a softball glove," because her parents did not want to limit her development (Blum). They instead gave her the choice of playing with dolls (a typical "girly" activity) and playing sports (a typical "boyish" activity.) Though sometimes with different outcomes, parents still indirectly, and sometimes unintentionally, control the development of gender roles.

Parents may not necessarily consciously follow set gender roles, but they often "take the path of least resistance to the dominant culture" by simply doing what they see as normal (Pollitt). These parents are not at fault; they just do not realize that their seemingly inconsequential actions are actually influencing the growth and development of their children. Pollitt cites an example in which a tired mother picks up her son's dirty sock rather than making him do it himself. Though she does this because she is tired and it takes less energy for her to pick up the sock on her own than it does to force her son to do it, she is indirectly contributing to her son's laziness and inability to do things on his own. Similarly, when parents conform to societal gender roles rather than allowing their children to think for themselves, they instill the notion that society's views are the right ones. Parents buy into the "sexist junk that the kids who have been watching commercials since birth understandably crave," because it is easy (Pollitt). They do not necessarily want their kids to be limited to a particular gender role, but they are generally not willing to fight it.

Still, parents cannot be blamed for their conformity because gender biases are impossible to escape. The entire marketing industry has created completely separate roles for