Many Extra Familial Influences Affect Gender-Role Typing

Many extrafamilial influences affect gender-role typing. Male and female roles are portrayed in gender-stereotypic ways in television and many children books. Males are more likely than females to be portrayed as aggressive, rational and powerful in the workforce. Females are more often portrayed as involved primarily in housework or caring for children. Mass media can further strengthen gender stereotyping. It is more significant in constructing gender stereotypes.

According to a professor, he said our gender roles are not created naturally. It becomes a part of the social process in which we grow up. In this process, the media create “stories” for us. These stories become models for what we consider as “normal behavior.”

For example, females are less likely to be leading characters on TV. Children who are heavy TV viewers hold more stereotyped views. A few attempts to use television to change gender stereotypes have been successful, but the effects typically have been modest and short-lived.

Schools and Teachers
*The school site is a stage on which gender roles are developed in our society. In our daily school, there are differences in curriculum. When we approach some books and stories, they almost present the lives of males and females in stereotypical ways. In book, it label which gender has what kinds of behaviors, colors, jobs, haircuts. Male characters are over represented in children's books-although some change toward more equal treatment has occurred in recent years.

Also, there are different level of expectations and attentions to boys and girls. Teachers always treat girls and boys differently. Children are expected to sit, read, and be quiet in school. Such expectations may have been part of the gender role. Due to the emphasis in school on typically feminine characteristics such as quietness, obedience, and passivity, girls tend to like school better and perform better than boys in the early grades. But for a boy who has been encouraged to be loud and boisterous prior to starting school, these expectations can lead to trouble. Boys will receive more criticism from teachers.

The implication of young boys' perceptions of school as gender-inappropriate may be lowered motivation and interest in school activities, leading to the higher rate of learning problems found in boys during the early grades. The kinds of conforming and dependent behaviors encouraged in girls may be detrimental for their later academic success.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11151143