Article: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/is-this-family-gender-biased/
Recently, Target ended their use of gender based toy isle signs. They do not want specific advertisements of toys to favor boys or girls more. The article questions whether this will change anything and suggest to take action in our own homes to diminish gender bias. While this is a small step towards lessened gender bias, Harvard’s Project Implicit Research showed that people mostly associate liberal arts and women and science and men.
The psychologists in the Making Caring Common Project, discovered that teenagers, preferred women in jobs such as child care or art directors and males in political roles. I found this astounding in today's society that strives so hard to be equal. I found it even more surprising that this came from teenagers of today's society that are so much more open to equality and change as ever.
The article says that we can break down society's view on gender by not forcing our children into chores or playing with toys that are what are expected of their gender. We can rotate chores that would be more for boys and have girls take part in them and vice versa. By doing this, we can allow for them to explore every option and not just the ones that are "cut out" for boys and girls. The author discusses how she even had her sons with the power tools and not her daughter. She comes to realize that she had been contributing to the gender bias without even realizing it.
The article states that gender bias is not innate and that it is learned from our environment and upbringing. This brings up some questions: do men and women have different natural tendencies or are they learned from our environment we grew up in? Is it realistic to try to eliminate gender bias from homes? How can we help reduce gender bias in society and even in our own homes? Do stereotypical boy or girl toys limit children?
In the multiple psychology courses I have taken we have learned about the gender bias. From what I have learned people have a natural bias towards men as scientists. By taking an implicit association test, it has been proven time and time again that we as humans naturally prefer men as scientists. This isn't an outright thing that we preach, but it is something in our brain that is within the unconscious (meaning we can't consciously understand it). It's important that people understand this natural bias, because once understood it's easier to make sure you aren't using your implicit association. For example, this natural bias is also towards white people instead of African Americans. When a police station was given the implicit association test, and were taught about their natural bias, they were less likely to negatively associate blacks with random crimes. Once we understand this bias, it could change the world we live in today.
ReplyDeleteI feel that men and women do not have natural tendencies. They learn from their environment around them. There are so many stereotypes that are prevalent today and many men and women just go along with them. It is said that men should all the hard outdoor labor around the house and provide for the family, while women should do all the chores around the house. People of our generation were taught by our parents and our parents were taught by theirs. It is not a natural tendency, it is demonstrated to us a young age. We do not really have a choice. I believe that it is somewhat realistic to eliminate gender bias in society and in homes. It would have to be a slow transition because there are people who feel strongly about how man and women work in the world today. Ultimately, however, I think the gender bias can be reduced.
ReplyDeleteAs a chld is raised, whether a boy or girl, they are sterotyped the minute they are born. I have been to countless baby showers. All pink for girls, and all blue for boys. And the kid hasn't even been born yet!! Yes, as humans age they are constantly learning from their environment. As a boy grows up he looks up to his dad more than his mom. Why? I don't have the answer for that but a possible answer may be that the boy has seen what a "man does" and has a predisposition towards wanting to be a man like his father. The same goes for little girls. They look up to their mothers because they can cook. Again, another predisposition. Personally I don't think that people will be able to eliminate gender bias anytime soon only because it runs so deep in our generations and it is wired in our brains. If it were to be eliminated then parents would have to try very hard to generalize everything for their kids. So at a baby shower it should be blue for a boy and pink for a boy. They should change and just make the shower a unisex thing. Maybe not tell anyone what the sex of their baby was. Regarding the toys I think that again it goes back to the parents. Whether they want to give their kids gender specific toys. If you want to change gender bias then you need to go right to the source, the parents.
ReplyDeleteIt all comes down to what the actual "norm" of today's society is and it has to deal with traditions between generations. The whole "blue if for boys" and "pink is for girls" is just what people are accustomed to. Pink typically tends to be more girly where blue is more manly and who even knows when that color scheme first developed. Men and women learn from their environment. Those men and women are sons/daughters of parents who also have their own parents that influence their family in different ways. People are more prone to have the same beliefs as their parents just so they could be accepted by them. Even in today's society, it's normal to paint a girl's room pink and a boy's room blue. My parents for example have been painting my little brother's room different shades of blue just because they think that's a general boy color. Changing gender bias would be extremely difficult. I feel like kids now a days really play with whatever they want. My little cousin is into cars and typically cars are made for "boys". I feel like limiting kids to certain boy girl toys would make them want to go against playing with them that much more.
ReplyDeleteHumans, specially when they are just kids, learn from their surroundings and what is presented to them. As a kid, any girl or boy has no predisposition to a certain behavior, preference, or things. It is what they are exposed to by their parents and other role models they have in their life what molds their thinking. When I grow up I wanted to play soccer and my parents supported me, but when my sister showed the same inclination to soccer, my parents insisted her to take ballet classes instead. After a couple of weeks my parents gave up and now that my sister plays for the Soccer Women's National Team, they are glad she chose soccer. This is a good example of how gender bias could have affected the future of a person just because girls are not supposed to play contact sports. Aside from this, I think that these bias is also in human nature. When I was little I didn't felt the inclination to play with Barbie dolls, instead I preferred to play with cars, kick soccer balls, and often got in childish fights. I think there is something in our nature, wether you are a boy or a girl, which tends to drive each kid to demonstrate masculine or feminine qualities. Still, I don't agree with forcing a kid to play with a toy they don't like, or painting their room blue or pink just because thats what they are supposed to like.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the news a few months ago about Target getting rid of the aisles for girl's toys and boy's toys it quite honestly annoyed me. My personal opinion is that everyone is way to sensitive about this subject. If your boy wants a barbie, walk to the barbie aisle and pick one out. It shouldn't offend someone if the GI Joes are in the boy aisle and the Polly Pockets are in the girl aisle if that's the way it's always been. There is absolutely nothing wrong with opposite genders wanting the opposite toys but the controversy comes up when people try to get everything changed so people don't feel bad. In reality, the parents are the ones that are getting bothered. Kids are going to play with whatever they want regardless of what the aisle says. Chances are they can't even spell girl or boy!
ReplyDeleteI believe that men and women do not have natural tendencies to be gender biased. They are influenced by their parents and the surrounding media in which they see. I believe that if you truly want to get rid of traditional gender roles and gender bias, then what target did was perfect. Target deleted all forms of traditional gender roles inside their store. I believe that this is the only way in which the gender bias will be eliminated. However I do not believe that this task will ever get done, at least not in my life time. In order to eliminate gender bias, you need great change and that takes time. One day it probably will happen, gender bias will not exist. This can not happen anytime soon. One store can not change the mindset of millions and millions of people. Too many people believe in these biases for that to have an impact, but it starts a change. Following in Target's footsteps, I bet other stores will soon do the same, and over time the biases will start to go away. Racial equality still does not exist today, almost 300 years after the first people wanted to get rid of those biases. I am not saying that it will take that long for gender biases to go away, and I do not believe that it will. But it will take time, but this is a major step in the right direction.
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