16). In turn, individuals are likely to go on to influence and socialize others as they have been socialized themselves.
Socialization experiences in childhood prepare people for the social roles they will be expected to assume as adults. In almost every society, gender is one of the most basic and important social categories. Gender, of course, is also a biological category. It becomes a social category when a society requires certain behaviour of women and men that is directly attributable to their biological differences. Almost every society has fashioned a division of labour around sex that goes far beyond childbirth and nursing. Socialization involves acquiring a gender role. Gender roles refer to traditional or stereotypic behaviours, attitudes and personality traits that society designates as masculine or feminine (Plotnik, 1999, p.340). Gender roles greatly influence how we think and behave.
The formation of gender roles has occurred over centuries. The expectations of what it means to be masculine and what it means to be feminine have been moulded, changed, and redefined, as men and women have dealt with new settings, new environments, and new cultures (Forisha, 1978, p.20). Although gender roles are dynamic, they have become institutionalised in each culture and are thus difficult to change.
As children grow and change, their needs, experiences, and ways of organizing their thoughts about the world change. Their understanding of the social world in general and of gender roles in particular becomes more sophisticated and complex (Romer, 1981, p.18). According to social learning theorists such as Bandura (1979), children acquire their gender identities and gender-role preferences in two ways. Firstly, through direct tuition, children are encouraged and rewarded for gender appropriate behaviours and are discouraged or otherwise punished for behaviours considered more appropriate for members of the opposite sex.
