Next, Jane Smiley says that girls start to discover and develop their femininity while playing with Barbie dolls. Indeed, Smiley’s daughters were learning about femininity as they were playing with Barbie. During childhood, when girls play with Barbie, they start to shape their femininity. Then when girls reach puberty, they will try to show their femininity. For example, Smiley states, “Both my girls went through periods where they would wear only pink and purple” (376).
The child responds to the influence of other people but is actively engaged in developing its own concept of its and others genders. Kohlberg argues that there are 3 stages through which children naturally progress as they get older and their cognitive abilities develop. Stages in the construction of gender are thought to be associated with wider stages in cognitive development. Between the ages of 2 and 3 occurs stage one, which Kohlberg named ‘gender labelling’ this is where a child recognises that he or she is a girl or boy. This is purely based on appearances; if the appearance was to change then the child would happily change the label too.
The major difference between the two is that the gender consistency theory proposes that children’s understanding of gender develops with age, whilst the gender schema theory suggests that early childhood gender development is influenced heavily by the ideas and concepts about what ‘maleness’ or ‘femaleness’ means in a particular society. According to the gender consistency theory, children go through three stages in the development of full gender identity starting from the age of 2 years old. Between 2 and 3.5 years children enter the gender identity stage, where they label themselves at present as a boy or girl Recognition of this then allows a better understanding and categorisation of the world. Through this stage children sometimes use incorrect labels for people, they also fail to recognise gender staying the same in the past or future e.g. they may believe that a person can change gender.
different clothing) This explanation parallels Piaget’s cognitive development theory in which a child’s mental processes are said to become increasingly sophisticated as they age. The child obtains 2 important mental abilities; conservation which is where children realise that an object stays the same even if it looks different, and decentration which is the child’s ability to take perspectives of other people, losing their egocentricity and understanding how another child’s gender develops in the same way as their own. Children develop their ability to organize objects and ideas which help identify what is considered typical male or female behaviour for them and others. This results in the child paying more attention to same sex behaviour. After they recognise the type of behaviour they should be following, they are more likely to internalise such behaviours through self-socialisation, giving them an idea of how their sex should interact with other
In the majority of cases, the child’s biological sex matches their gender and there are no problems. However, some children are born “inter-sex”; they have ambiguous genitals and are not obviously one sex or the other. Money believed that, providing that a a child’s sex is decided before their 3rd birthday, social factors are so influential that children will accept their assigned gender identity. The third year is another critical period, and because a child’s gender identity is established by then, it cannot thereafter be changed without causing the child significant psychological problems. Early research did support this hypothesis.
They will be saying a couple of clear words – ma, papa, dada and my personal favourite ‘no’. Between the ages of 2 and 3 the child will enjoy colouring, learning names of objects, forming sentences, developing a personality, throwing tantrums, play with water sing nursery rhymes, run, put together jigsaw puzzles, put their shoes on and even dress themselves. 3 to 7 year olds will start to understand the difference between right and wrong, between 3 and 4 they develop motor skills. They can play games; start making friends in nursery and follow instructions. They attempt to write, recognise the alphabet and numbers and build on their social skills.
Babies are very reliant on other people and can only do a few things for themselves. Following the milestones, babies should be able to smile and coo, kick their legs, play with their fingers, turn their head from side to side, hold a rattle for a short period of time and bring their hands to their mouth. Social/emotional. Babies have very limited social/emotional skills at this age yet they can: start to smile, recognise familiar people, develop relationships, know their own face and hands and turn to a familiar person’s voice. 6 months Physical.
I strongly agree with the Peggy Orenstein’s article. In my opinion, we have to forget the stereotypes that had been thought for years. Is a girl predisposed to play with pretty dolls wearing pink clothes? Definitely not. By only handing a girl pink playthings for the first three years of her life, she may decide pink is her favorite color because “that’s what girls like.” In fact, researchers think that parents and other social factors lead children to prefer gender-specific toys.
Giovanny Sanchez May 5, 2012 Ms. Collins Barbie’s World In everyone’s childhood there is always that one special non-living figure in their personal lives, a figure we admired, something we looked up to be, like an idol. In “You Can Never Have Too Many,” Jane Smiley thanks Barbie for the effect she had on her daughter’s lives as they were growing up to be young adults; by teaching them the feminine side of woman at an early stage, which ultimately allowed their minds to have a lot more options when it really came down to figuring out who they wanted to be at an adult stage. Smiley however, does not effectively support this argument because she gives a lot of credit to Barbie for the way her daughters turn out to be but she’s forgetting
Gender schema theory in simple terms is concerned with children and how they learn what it is to be female and male. This is achieved through observation, processing of new information and the retrieval of information stored in cognitive structures. This process begins in early childhood and the culture in which the child inhabits will determine the behavioural and emotional roles that are considered appropriate for women and men. Gender polarisation is a concept by Sandra Bem that postulates, characteristics of femininity and masculinity are mutually exclusive for example the behaviours and attitudes of men are seen as inappropriate for women. Conversely the behaviours and attitudes of women are seen as inappropriate to men.