Gender Roles and Identity in Children

Why can’t a little girl love playing football, and still be considered behaving like a girl? She’s automatically considered to be imitating some kind of male in her life, whether it be her father, brother, or even an uncle or grandfather. The only people that can instill gender role nonconformity are the parents and/or guardians. Children don’t realize the difference between genders in actuality. They merely see what either is or isn’t fun, what they do or don’t like.

There’s no biological experiment to conclude that girls wear pink and play with dolls, and boys wear blue and play with race cars. There’s no exact point of origin to the behavioral definitions for boys and girls, so why should we teach it to our children?

Sincerely,

Samm Williams
A Norwalk Community College Student