In my previous post, I discussed how cultural gender roles created barriers toward women trying to become and stay successful in professional fields. I brought up how this was shown through people’s opinions on abuse, women in stem fields, and women in the workforce.
Culture and gender roles are ingrained into us starting from birth. Boys tend to be put in blue hospital clothing while girls tend to be put in pink. Boys tend to get action figures while girls tend to get dolls. As we get older, the differences may become more distinct, and possibly more damaging. Girls tend to be taught that it’s ok to tell others how they are feeling while girls are not. Boys tend to be taught that it’s impressive to have many girlfriends, and may be shamed for not doings so, while girls tend to be taught that they should be more modest and may be shamed for not doing so. While society is trying to push for equal pay and equal gender representation in government and professional fields, there may not be enough attention being paid to actually raising children in an equal fashion. This may be an important factor in why certain gender disparities exist. For example, it is noted in multiple studies and publications that women tend to spend more time and resources taking care of family than men. The main cause of this is most likely because of how children are raised. Men tend to be raised thinking they must provide financial support by getting a job, while women tend to be raised thinking they must provide support by literally caring for others. Cases such as this aren’t caused by workplace biases that need to be corrected. They are caused by raising children to be different based on gender. As a result, it isn’t just biases that create gender disparities; it is also how people have been raised to respond to situations differently based on their gender.
Therefore, my solution is to educate parents on how to raise their children without gender bias. This means emphasizing the importance of taking care of family, as well as the importance of being successful without emphasizing one or the other based on gender. It means instilling the same amount of confidence in children regardless of gender so that neither males nor females feel that they aren’t smart enough to pursue a career or that a certain activity is too “girl” or “boyish” for them. In this way, children can make decisions based solely on what they enjoy and not one pressures that they might feel to fit into certain gender roles. Not only would this decrease the gender disparities in various fields, it would also most likely remove certain pre-existing biases among both genders and make people more likely to see each other as equals. This is because for the first time, people, regardless of gender, would feel like they were raised and treated equally by their families and others. This form of training could be given in pre-natal classes as well as through pamphlets available at health facilities.
Sources:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/educators/resources/pamphlets
