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Gender identity and stereotyping begin the moment a child is born. The first question asked by relatives and friends is, “Is it a “boy” or a “girl”? Society has already formed a classification based on the two genders. The two genders have identifiable features, mainly contributing to gender identification and stereotype. They include body shape, hairstyles, walking styles, clothing types, voice, etcetera. These can be said to be some of the main identification attributes that society forms to identify the two genders. We can define gender identity as “the ability for one to label their sex accurately” (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). Various complex concepts play an integral part in the gender identity in children.
One of the concepts is the distinctive qualities and features that define us in our gender and how comfortable we feel. The other is how we define ourselves and are proud to identify with our gender. The conformity and content in our gender is also a critical concept. These concepts play a critical role in how people live their lives from childhood to their adult life. Starting at infancy and in toddlers, in my opinion, it is arguably to state that infants can create categories, and one of them is gender. At a very early age, they can distinguish between males and females using some of the features earlier discussed. They progress to differentiating between a boy and a girl as they start to label people like girls and boys as early as two years of age. It is also critical to note that their gender labelling ability is mainly influenced by appearances (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). Therefore, if one gender disguises as the other, they may not tell the difference in this early stage of development.
They also become curious about distinctive features that differentiate girls from boys early. Gender stereotyping kicks in when they can tell the difference between the toys that are supposed to be for girls and boys. Parents also play a critical role in children’s gender typing; for example, a father may involve his young son in physical activities while the mother may encourage her daughter to play with dolls (Halim, Walsh, Tamis-LeMonda, Zosuls, & Ruble, 2018). Gender nonconformity may tend to show in some children as they grow. In middle childhood, one can argue that gender is apparent to the young ones. They can understand that gender is constant. At this point, they know that one cannot change their gender even if their behaviours and mode of dressing reflect the other gender. In my opinion, their gender stereotyping is solid at this point, and they tend to become sexist.
Middle childhood is argued to be the stage that children tend to bully or punish others who step out of their gender boundaries. However, boys show more aggression in their gender boundaries than girls. Children tend to lessen their sex and gender rigidity regarding stereotypes at the end of elementary school (Halim et al., 2018). They begin to understand the bigger worldview in gender stereotyping and how it will affect their adult life between about 7 to 15 years. As they enter adolescence, children become more content with their gender and feel more typical (Bergin & Bergin, 2019). This phase of their lives plays a critical role in better understanding their gender, values, and characteristics that define them.
Moreover, I believe children’s “gender crisis” ends in adolescence as they understand themselves and become content with their gender. However, for others, this is the start of their internal gender conflict when forced overtime to conform to their gender-type values. Youngsters also drop activity stereotyping in adolescence as they become comfortable getting involved in activities deemed to be associated with the opposite gender.
References
Bergin, C. C., & Bergin, D. A. (2019). Child and Adolescent Development in your Classroom, 6, Pp. 545-547.
Halim, M. L. D., Walsh, A. S., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Zosuls, K. M., & Ruble, D. N. (2018). The roles of self-socialization and parent socialization in toddlers’ gender-typed appearance. Archives of sexual behavior, 47(8), 2277-2285.
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