My teacher's friend has two children; one boy and one girl. Her friend realized one day that every time she was giving her children positive reinforcement she caught herself saying to her daughter that she was being such a "good little girl." She questioned herself, and said, what about her behavior right now makes her such a good little "girl?" She now tries to give her children positive reinforcement by saying that they are being good people!!!!
I thought this was very interesting to think about; thinking about how parents reinforce gender roles for their children growing up.
It's interesting that you bring this up because my finance just did a big project about this for one of his science classes. His project was about women's roles in science and how it is being hindered because women are deciding to have children, but because our society does not have set rules on maternity leave many women either lose their jobs or quit to stay with their children. He also learned that a lot of the belief of woman not getting their jobs back after they have children stems from gender roles gained from childhood that a woman should stay home and be a mother..either that or don't have children. Which is a terrible thing to choose from.
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