Reinforcement of Gender Differences

Though people believe equality has been achieved in American society, gender influences the way a person is educated in America leading to differences in equality later on in life.  After noticing that the males and females in the classroom were being handled differently for the same misbehavior I asked the instructor what her thoughts were on the issue. She told me that it is hard to treat them equally because the boys and girls in the classroom act so differently.  She said that one of her biggest challenges is finding ways to deal with the children all the same way. An example of this would be the talking in the classroom; the girls seemed to get away with it more because they are expected to misbehave like this. The girls were warned verbally rather than having to move down on their behavior chart whereas the boys were moved down right away.  Though this may seem insignificant, treating males and females differently when they are as young as five and six reinforces that are different expectations for separate genders, leading to gender inequality down the road in their adult lives.  In America’s beginning, girls were not expected to get an education, instead they were taught to stay at home and take care of the family. The American Frugal Housewife teaches women how to successfully play out their role in the house while the men are at work, displaying a clear separation of genders back in the 1800’s.  America still has not overcome its need to separate the expectations of people in society based on gender alone and the behavior will continue as long as these separations are reinforced while children are young and impressionable.