Assignment 3

Student Name

Professor Name

CRN Number

Group Number The Promotion of Androgyny and Equality in the Social Development of Children

and Improving Equality in our Society

Updated Group Thesis: The promotion of androgyny and equality in the social development of

children will reduce gender inequality by eliminating preconceived gender roles as the dominating influence on gender expectations in society.

Inequalities stemming from gender expectations that are created by gender roles can be

reversed by raising children in androgynous households. The definition of androgynous states

that something contains both male and female traits. In our case, androgynous households, are

homes that contain both equal exposure to the behavioral tendencies and traits of both genders,

regardless of the sex of the children. At the base level of society, inequality is still prevalent in

today’s households between the mother and the father, and between the sons and the daughters.

Androgynous development of children in the household is the responsibility of the parents. They

are responsible for providing an environment that cultivates egalitarian attitudes by monitoring

their own behaviors, and the ideologies they expose their children to. In turn, this will lead to

growth of adults with gender equal identities. However, immediate results cannot be expected

during childhood, as children find it difficult to comprehend inequalities until they are

developmentally mature (Sedney, 1987). Only once the ability to analyze has been achieved by

the individual will the gender-neutral adult be developed.

Identifying the prevalence of inequality in the household is a necessary step by the

parents in the development of children as they become adolescents and adults. Those individuals

that fail to recognize inequality see no need for change. This is a major hurdle for gender

equality, as a vast majority of adolescents view the home as gender equal when compared to

business and politics, as shown in Figure 1. In the past, parents have encouraged their children to

participate in sex-typed activities (Witt, 1997) For females, these activities range from playing

with dolls to engaging in housekeeping activities. Males will play sports and participate in

activities that are viewed as masculine. Chores tasked to children by their parents have been

categorized to children based on perceived gender roles (Witt, 1997). For instance, daughters are

tasked with cleaning the house, helping with meal preparation, doing laundry, among other

chores that are geared to serve men. On the contrary, boys are tasked with taking out the trash,

bringing in the groceries, and lifting heavy objects. Girls complete tasks that serve others while

men complete tasks where strength and toughness are required (Basow, 1992).

Exposure to gender roles has conditioned women for generations to believe that they are inferior to men. Most of the housework and child rearing responsibilities are still accomplished

by women due in large part to the fact that we live in a patriarchal society (Barrett, 1982). In turn, as equality has increased in the workplace, and the gap has closed between successful men and

women, role conflict has increased for women in the household. They are gaining increased responsibility in the workplace with higher paying positions while concurrently being expected

to maintain many of the responsibilities around the house. Therefore, even though they may

Status in Politics Status in Business

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Late

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Status in the Home

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Figure 1. Perceptions of Status Inequality in the Spheres of Politics and Business, Sorted by

Age (Early, Middle, or Late Adolescents) and Sex. Responses Were Given on a 7-Point Scale that Ranged from –3 (Women Have a Lot More Power/Status) to 0 (equal) to 3 (Men

Have a Lot More Power/Status).

provide for the family the same as the father, they are not given recognition for providing like men of the same magnitude (Barrett, 1982).

To break gender expectations created by gender roles, parents must create an

androgynous environment during childhood to teach egalitarian attitudes. To accomplish this

goal towards an increasingly androgynous orientation, blending of both feminine and masculine

attributes within the same individual must occur (Kets de Vries, 2015). In modern times, as soon

as the sex is known and before the child is born, gender stereotyping occurs. Boys are bought

clothes that are blue, their rooms are decorated with superheroes, and are given toys that are

masculine. Girls, on the other hand, are bought clothes that are pink, their rooms decorated with

flowers, and are given toys that are feminine. A gender-neutral approach would purchase clothes

that were green or yellow in color, give toys that are feminine and masculine in nature, and

accept masculine behaviors when displayed by young girls, or feminine behaviors when

displayed by young boys (Witt, 1997). Children learn by observing the proximal environment.

The attitudes, behaviors, and actions they observe in their parents are absorbed and applied later

in development. Parents must perform equal shares of both domestic and maintenance chores

around the house, and value must not be placed on one parent as more important than the other

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(Kets de Vries, 2015). The father cannot be portrayed as the sole provider, and the mother must

not be seen as the servant. On average, children who are raised in androgynous households become happier adults and more supportive parents (Witt, 1997). Parents who espouse an

egalitarian attitude regarding gender roles are more likely to foster the same in their children (Kets de Vries, 2015).

Androgynous environments are key in producing adults with gender equal identities,

however evidence shows that children cannot comprehend inequalities until they are

developmentally mature. Children early in life tend to prefer gender stereotypes even in the

presence of androgynous environments (Sedney, 1987). However, observations have shown that

children use gender as an organizing convention early on, with little influence being attributed to

pressure from society (Huston, 1983). As shown in Figure 1, younger children are less aware of

gender inequality than older adolescents, even though gender stereotypes are prevalent in our

society (Neff, 2007). The fact that we do not become aware of these inequalities until we are

older should not detract from the issue at hand1. Immediate results of androgynous development

in the household will not develop until the children are old enough to analyze and think

critically. Once children can analyze their social development, they will understand the level of

inequality that is present in our society. Evidence shows that people that recognize inequality are

more likely to develop egalitarian attitudes than those that see no inequality (Neff, 2007). By

promoting the standards of equality in gender neutral households, inequality observed in society

between men and women will become more obvious to detect, and easier to rectify. The greater

the number of androgynous adults in a society, the less prevalent inequality becomes.

1 Look at Figure 1 to see how the study was conducted.

Bibliography

Barrett, N. S. (1982). Obstacles to Economic Parity for Women. American Economic Review, 72(2), 160-165.

Basow, S. A. (1992). Gender Stereotypes and Roles, 3rd Ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Huston, A. C. (1983). Sex Typing In PH Mussen (Ed). Handbook of Child Psychology, 4th(4),

387-467.

Kets de Vries, M. F. R. (2015). The Sexual "Cloud" in the Executive Suite. INSEAD Working Papers Collection(38), 1-19.

Neff, K. D., Cooper Carey E.,Woodruff Althea L. (2007). Children's and Adolescents'

Developing Perceptions of Gender Inequality. Social Development, 16(4), 682-699.

Sedney, M. A. (1987). Development of androgyny; parental influences. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 311-326.

Witt, S. D. (1997). Parental influence on children's socialization to gender roles. Adolescence, 32(126), 253.

Student Biography

Jack Allen is a transfer student in his first

semester at Old Dominion University. He is

finishing his sophomore year this semester. He

recently finished his obligated service in the

United States Navy as an Aircraft Handler. He is

Double Majoring in Criminal Justice and

Sociology. Recently, he was hired at the Student

Recreation and Wellness Center as a military

wellness trainer. He is interested in this topic

because he wants to end gender inequality, and is

curious whether or not differences in how men

and women communicate have led to the problem. He wants to see if the solution is to show that

gender roles created by society are the source of inequality, and if raising children gender neutral

will increase equality in the workplace. He is responsible for researching the effects of raising

children in gender neutral households and the correlation to adults with gender neutral ideals.