Calva 1

Calva, Gisela
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
17 September 2015
Are Parents Influencing Gender Norms?
In this era it is common for parents to subconsciously apply socially constructed gender
roles into their children. Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran express in their article From
Women, Men, and Society that from the moment in which parents find out the sex of their
baby; they begin to plan everything for their child accordingly. In the article No Way My Boys
Are Going to Be Like That: Parents Responses to Childrens Gender Nonconformity written
by Emily W. Kane, she expresses how parents seem to demonstrate negative reactions after
viewing contrary interests from their child regarding the gender norms that they admonish into
them. Sometimes we think that gender is something we are born with, but these authors claim
the contrary. Parents seem to implicate gender norms into their children from the moment they
are brought into this world; this prevents children from experiencing different factors from
either of the gender roles.
Renzetti and Curran express in their article that parents treat their babies differently merely
because of their sex. They provide examples such as, when parents are asked to describe their
babies appearance they use gender stereotypes such as He has big hands, hell be a great
football player. Parents say that the reason they implicate gender norms into their babies is to
avoid sex confusion throughout their life. This provides us with evidence that parents
subconsciously implicate gender norms as they raise their babies. Further on in this article we
see another example that supports the evidence. We see that clothing is a big aspect in helping

Calva 2

people identify the sex of a baby. For instance, clothing seems to be coded according to gender
norms; clothing for girl infants have flowers, butterflies, and light colors, while boy clothes have
dark colors, car figures, and sport figures. This way, parents are subconsciously encouraging
accustoms into their children making them select objects and clothing that theyve always been
used to. As children develop, this restrains them from having the ability to select parts of gender
roles and willingly mix them into a gender role that they wish to conform to. Other examples in
which parents implicate gender norms, is through the way in which they interact with their
children during conversations. For instance, most parents conversations differ with the type of
sex their child is, usually a mother talks to her daughter about emotions enabling her to be open
up about her feelings, which at times may encourage her to cry about matters that may affect her
negatively. On the other hand, fathers tend to speak to their sons with unemotional expressions,
where it is rarely seen that a father is encouraging his son to open up about his emotions. It is
important to recognize as a parent that you are implicating gender norms because it allows you
to be open minded about the gender characteristics that your child wishes to adopt. I believe
that Renzetti and Currans purpose of this article is to realize that when we are objective about
the gender characteristics that our children wish to follow, we demonstrate them a fair society
behavior that is becoming more and more common in the 21 century.
st

In the article written by Emily W. Kane, she claims that parents constantly have an effect
on the construction of childrens genders. Emily mentions that while there are parents in which
are in favor of gender variance, there is still a great amount in which respond negatively when
their children desire to do actions that the opposite sex does (e.g. a boy wanting to play with
dolls or a girl wanting to play with BB Guns). Emily mentions an example of the response a
parent has planned to give to his son in case he ever desires to play with a doll, If they asked

Calva 3

for a Barbie doll, I would probably say no, you dont want [that], girls play with [that], boys
play with trucks. This is one of the many ways that parents influence their childrens way of
thinking, trying to prevent them from gender nonconformity. When parents respond with
statements as the one Emily mentioned, they are limiting the childs ability to experience both
gender roles, which interferes with the freedom to choose the role in which they prefer to
pursue. I believe Emilys purpose is to bring awareness to parents about the effect that they
have in the lives of their kids when it comes to denying and influencing gender roles.
I believe the solemn purpose of Renzetti, Curran, and Kane is to enlighten humans about
how and by whom the gender norms are first being introduced. Many parents most likely
implicate gender norms subconsciously while other parents may do it to avoid seeing gender
nonconformity in their children, either way every individuals shall be given an option of which
gender role theyd prefer to choose. All my life I had never put much thought into the origin of
socially constructed gender roles and how they are implemented in our lives. Reading the
articles written by Claire Renzetti, Daniel Curran, and Emily W. Kane, allowed me to apply
further thought into the assertion that parents have a great influence in implicating gender
norms. I realized that my parents and I were implicating gender norms into my brother since the
day in which we knew his sex. Knowing the sex of a baby, triggers you to decorate everything
accordingly to their expected gender, but one thing we forget is whether or not theyd prefer to
be that gender. In life people arent born with knowing what gender they want to be. Rather, as
humans develop they are influenced by others, go through experiences, choose which gender is
more comfortable for them, and thats where they are able to make the decision of which gender
role to go by.
In the 21st century we see that society is changing and becoming commonly more

Calva 4

and more acceptable to nonconformity, while parents are not. Parents have always influenced
gender roles into their children, giving them a set of rules in which they have to follow to blend
in with the norms of society. From the first day you are brought into this world, you are also
brought into the norms of society. All around you, you observe gender stereotypes, such as the
way your parents describe you, the way your room is painted, the way your toys look, the way
in which your parents talk to you, the way youre dressed, and at times the people in whom your
parents let you play with. The important thing is for parents to realize what they are doing to
their children, the authors of these articles want parents to be open about the gender roles in
which their children choose to go by and accept them as they are.

Calva 5
Works Cited
Kane, Emily W., No Way My Boys Are Going to Be Like That: Parents Response to
Childrens Gender Nonconformity., Composing Gender (2014): 91-98 Print.
Renzetti, Claire., and Curran, Daniel. From Women, Men, and Society Composing Gender
(2014): 76-87 Print.