Introduction

Even if you are unfamiliar with the term "gender socialisation", you have most certainly
been impacted by it and, as a result, have passed on your own opinions about what constitutes
gender-appropriate attitudes and behaviour to others. Gender socialisation occurs at birth and
accelerates during adolescence, contributing to gender differences in education, work,
income, empowerment, and other important well-being outcomes during adolescence and
later in life. Gender allows us to say that sex is one thing, but gender is quite
another. Everyone is born either male or female, and our sex can be established simply by
checking our genitalia. However, each culture has its own method of valuing girls and boys
and assigning them various duties, behaviours, and characteristics. Gendering refers to all of
the social and cultural "packing" done for girls and boys beginning at birth. Each culture
gradually develops a male or female into a man or a woman, with various traits, behaviour
patterns, duties, responsibilities, rights, and expectations. Unlike sex, which is biological,
women and men's gender identities are mentally and socially formed, which implies
historically and culturally established. We’ll look to answer how these roles develop, what
gender-socialization is, how it occurs in our society and who are the agents responsible for it,
all of it backed with contemporary examples.

Gender Socialization

Socialization has been characterised as a complicated process of interaction through which the
person develops the habits, beliefs, abilities, and judgement standards that are essential for
effective involvement in social groups and societies. Socialization is a process that not only
teaches the newborn about the fundamental social rules, but also aids in the steady
development of one's self. The development of 'the self' or 'the ego' occurs through role
playing, in which a kid places himself/herself in the shoes of another person and attempts to
get his/her self image through the perspective of others. Through the process of socialisation,
the child learns about the norms, expectations, and various roles to be played in the group. A
child learns about his or her gender identity by observing what others anticipate of him or her.
An individual learns about his or her gender identity by understanding what he or she is not,
or by learning about the other, which aids in the emerging of one's self.

Gender roles are social expectations of how individuals should appear and act based on
societally imposed norms for masculinity and femininity. Gender socialisation is a more
targeted kind of socialisation in which children of various sexes are socialised into their
gender roles and taught what it means to be male or female. Gender indoctrination begins at
birth, with the simple query "is it a boy or a girl?" The four major schools of thought on how
gender is socialised within families are as follows:
(i) parent effect perspective;
(ii) child effects perspective;
(iii) reciprocal socialisation perspective; and
(iv) systemic-ecological viewpoint.

The most frequently accepted viewpoint takes into account how children's parents impact
their views and behaviours about gender. The child effects viewpoint reverses this script by
focusing on how children interact with their parents, such as encouraging mothers and fathers
to take on traditionally feminine and masculine caregiving roles after the birth of a child.
Gender socialisation is inextricably related to both parents and their kids, according to
research on "reciprocal effects." The systemic-ecological perspective considers the contextual
character of family and gender socialisation, and sees families as different social systems in
which both parents and children are socialised by a variety of forces. Socialization agents
impose gender on infants in the early stages of social development through gendered emotion
display norms, involvement in gender biassed activities, and distinct academic objectives for
various genders.

Family as an agent of socialisation

The family is the first socialising agent. Mothers and dads, siblings and grandparents, as well
as extended family members, all teach their children what they need to know. Familias, of
course, come in many shapes and sizes. Whether the young kid lives with a biological parent,
is adopted by their parents, or is raised solely by a sibling or a grandparent, this unit of family
is what first socialises the young child to the world. There is a lot of evidence that parents
socialise their boys and girls differently. In general, females are allowed more freedom to act
outside of their assigned gender role. Sons, on the other hand, often enjoy higher advantages
as a result of unequal socialisation. Sons, for example, are given more autonomy and
independence at a younger age than females. They may be subjected to less constraints about
suitable clothes, dating practises, and curfew. Sons are also frequently exempt from domestic
responsibilities such as cleaning, cooking, and other traditionally feminine home activities.
Daughters are constrained by the idea that they will be quiet and caring, typically submissive,
and take on household chores. Even when parents make gender equality a priority, there may
still underlying signs of discrimination. Boys, for example, may be requested to take out the
garbage or conduct other jobs requiring strength or toughness, whereas ladies may be required
to fold clothes or undertake responsibilities requiring neatness and care. It has been
discovered that dads have higher expectations for gender conformity than mothers, and their
expectations are higher for boys than for girls. This is true for a wide range of activities,
including toy preferences, play methods, punishment, duties, and personal accomplishments.
As a result, males are especially sensitive to their father's criticism while indulging in a
potentially feminine activity, such as dancing or singing. Parental socialisation and normative
expectations differ by socioeconomic class, race, and ethnicity. When a youngster observes
these sorts of family behaviours, he or she adopts the behaviour and perpetuates the family
heredity in the same manner. He or she treats the opposite gender the same way they treat
their family members. As a result, in order to enhance the child in this area, the discriminating
roles should be switched.

For example, in India, girls are taught that "her husband's house" is the only location where
they belong. Boys are instructed that they must feed their elderly parents, build a house, and
earn money so that a "beautiful" woman will marry them. Gender socialisation in India is an
issue that cannot be ignored. Females should serve meals to men at family gatherings, while
guys should have "talks" about the economy and key household matters. Also, when a
youngster witnesses his father hitting his mother, he learns that men are meant to dominate
and women are destined to surrender.
How does socialization take place?
It is believed that socialisation takes place in four processes; manipulation, canalization,
verbal appellations and activity exposure.

The way you manage a child is referred to as manipulation. It has been observed that males
are regarded as powerful, self-sufficient individuals from the start. Mothers in certain cultures
worry over their infant girl's hair, clothe her in feminine attire, and tell her how beautiful she
is. These physical experiences of infancy are crucial in forming the self-perception of both
females and boys.

The second step, canalisation, entails directing male and female children's attention to things
or elements of objects. Giving dolls or pots and pans to females and encouraging boys to play
with guns, automobiles, and aeroplanes are two examples of this. In working-class houses in
India, girls are not allowed to play with pots and pans; instead, they are forced to begin
cleaning actual pots and pans, as well as real homes and caring for real newborns, while males
are sent to school or forced to work outside the home. Girls' and boys' interests are channelled
differently as a result of this type of differential treatment, and they acquire diverse capacities,
attitudes, goals, and desires. Their decisions are influenced by their familiarity with particular
items.

Both boys and girls have various verbal appellations. For example, we frequently say to
females, "Oh, how gorgeous you look," and to boys, "You are looking large and powerful."
According to research, such statements shape the self-identity of girls and boys, men and
women. Children learn to identify with other guys and females by thinking of themselves as
male or female. Even to very young children, family members regularly transmit components
of gender role directly through the way they speak, as well as the attention placed on each kid.

The last phase is activity exposure. From infancy, both male and female infants are exposed
to conventional masculine and feminine behaviours. Girls are expected to assist their moms
with home tasks, while boys are expected to accompany their dads outside. Girls and boys in
segregated societies live in separate locations and are exposed to quite different activities.
Children learn the meanings of masculine and feminine through these processes and
internalise them almost unconsciously.