Science, Gender, and Childhood

Thinking back

When I really think about my childhood and experiences growing up, in terms of education and other socialization settings, I was never presented with the option to possess the characteristics of neither boy nor girl, only the concepts of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ existed through labels such as ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly-girl’, both labels being under the umbrella of being a girl. I wasn’t even aware of the fact that identifying as non-binary was a concept until I got to high school, not because I was educated on it, but because I discovered it myself through the use of social media. That is a huge red flag that lets us know how ridiculously socially constrained to binary constructs education systems have been in the past. It’s great that school systems are making progress by implementing gender-inclusive bathrooms, Gay-Straight Alliances, and safe spaces for students, but there is still a long way to go. In different areas throughout the world, women (if they are even permitted to pursue education) are continuously pushed towards pursuing the arts while men are pressured to stick with STEM.  “Women face an additional burden in having to follow the rules to be seen seriously as a scientist. In their personal lives outside scientific culture, women face the pressure of conforming to our culture’s notions of ‘femininity.’ But once they come to work, within scientific culture, they have to leave that identity behind, to assume another, namely, a form of ‘masculinity.’ Often, this takes the form of dissembling behaviors” (BANU SUBRAMANIAM, 194). Because of the biological differences between men and women, sexist gender roles are established socially on the basis of how the binary sexes perform emotionally and mentally. Even though it is proven that biologically men and women’s brains work differently, but gender roles blow this concept out of proportion to an unnecessary extent by applying it to abilities in career fields.

This article by Saul McLeod focuses on the aspects of the Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura. The author looks at the binary constructs and theories surrounding gender/sex in childhood development. Moreover, McLeod emphasizes how behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning, hinting at the fact that children grow up learning the social construct of the binary gender roles assigned to men and women. He also states how children pay attention to people and learn their behavior, and it is very likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for its gender. They first imitate the models that they perceive similar to themselves, then the people around the child will respond to the gendered behavior they imitate with reinforcement or punishment. The Social Learning Theory can be applied to the kinds of gendered medium children consume. Below, I’ve listed some first-hand artifacts and personal experiences of types of media that children of different age groups consume and engage with. 

Bonus Content (captions in video):

@mommademagic

let’s talk about why we don’t like our boys looking up to and admiring women, shall we? genderbend #genderroles #gendernorms #toxicmasculinity

♬ original sound – mommademagic

And that’s the tea on that! Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

– Chelsea