Gender Role Socialization in Families, Schools, and the Media
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Gender Role Socialization in Families, Schools, and the Media
Introduction
Socialization refers to the process of inheriting the societal ideologies, norms and customs. This process play a significant role in the society since it gives the individual members of the society the habits and skills that are necessary for them to participate effectively in their own society. However, socialization is not normative since it describes only the influence of the society on an individual since through socialization it is not automatic that an individual will realize a desirable moral outcome. Moreover, most sociologist have often argued that socialization only gives a partial understanding of the behaviors and beliefs as they are determined in prior by the environment.
Family is one of the most influential agents of socialization as well as the first agent of socialization. The family grabs the child at a very tender age and let the child remain in the family for almost half his or her life. The family therefore plays a very important role in socialization process. Through the family, a child acquires the first behaviors that would determine his or her moral conduct in future. This kind of socialization is important because it gives the first civilized behavior, it is where all the gender roles; the feminine and masculine behavior begins in which the social world is normally divided into women and men. Families also affect an individual personality, emotional health and identity and hence structure an individual in respect to those categories. However, socialization in the family may not be a good thing since it is the origin of racism and ethnocentricism, which is not desirable for the society since it may be the beginning of discrimination.
The media form the second agent of socialization, which also come at an early age of about 2 to 3 years. The first encounter of media as an agent of socialization may include the radios, televisions, music and movies. This is through the various televisions, radio show, and other programs, which are often commercialized. Most of the shows are very good and affect positively on the children in helping them develop the right norms and morals in the society. They teach the roles of the females and the males in the society. This defines the participation of men and women in the society depending on what the media is putting on air. However, the process of socialization through the media my not be desirable if the contents of the media is not well screened according to the audience. Certain programs such as sop operas and advertisement by celebrities have a great impact on gender in the society since they influence the lifestyle of the society that may not be desirable.
The school also plays an important role in socialization of both boys and girls in the society. In the past, children used to start schooling at the age of seven or above, these days’ things have changed. At the age of five or four, most children have left their parents and spend much of their times in school. School therefore plays a very important role in nurturing the already acquired behavior within the family. Even though the family and media still play important roles in socialization, the schools serves a lot. In schools, socialization takes place through social curriculum, official curriculum or through the hidden curriculum. Both the social and official curriculum involves those behaviors acquired by the children from their teachers that also affect their moral. The pupils learn good behavior and their role in the society depending on their gender. Hidden curriculum is the process of learning the behaviors and rules needed to function well in organized groups and include the maxims.
Conclusion
The process of inheriting the norms and the ideologies in the society is very important. Family, media and the schools play important role in the process of acquiring these norms and ideologies. These norms determine and describe the moral behavior of the individuals in the society and are therefore very significant. However, the problem that always arises is that the process of socialization may result into acquisition of undesirable behavior. In this context therefore, the process of gender role socialization in families, schools, and the media may not be a good thing. However, when it results into the development of positive moral behavior in the society, it is a good thing for the society.