Gender bias is everywhere. Are you teaching and mentoring with gender bias? How you were raised and how you raise your children matters.
Gender bias thinking
Gender bias doesn’t help anyone, and it can actually do a lot of damage.
Assumptions and stereotypes are wrong and dangerous.
With gender bias thinking, you tend to buy into and teach:
More traditional male and female roles; for example, women raise girls to cook and clean
Gender socialization based on established cultural norms; for example, boys like blue and girls like pink
Different toys and play items for boys and girls; for example, girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks
Girls and women as primary caregivers; for example, expecting the responsibilities of caring for children and aging parents to be embraced by women and avoided by men, despite availability or skill set
Antiquated notions of masculinity and femininity that can be toxic; for example, boys and men don’t cry (“man up!”) and girls and women are weak and require male protection (“HELP ME!”)
Lack of gender fluidity
With gender bias, there is a rigid belief about the existence of a male body and a male brain, a female body, and a female brain with little room for distinctions, exceptions, or neutrality.
With gender fluidity, there is a belief that people who are born male can, in fact, be females born in a male body and vice versa. As they mature, they recognize this and choose to make changes to their biology.
There is also a belief that people can be gender-neutral in spirit, physical appearance, and in behavior.
Gender neutrality makes us question the very nature of gender as a biological and social construct.
Gender experiment in the U.K.
An older social experiment and documentary in the United Kingdom (Boys and Girls Alone, 2002) has garnered more recent attention on social media due to the questions it raises about gender bias. Of course, culture also plays an important role.
Ten boys and ten girls aged 11-12 were separated into two different homes without adult supervision (but with access to adult help, if needed) for five days.
What happened? The good, the bad, and the ugly:
Boys:
On day one, the boys painted the walls, threw food on the floor, and played with water guns
Even though all of them took a cooking class earlier, none of them cooked, choosing cereal and sugar snacks instead
The boys divided into two groups, one loud and noisy and the other one more subdued
The boys exhibited bullying behavior toward one boy, in particular
By the fifth day, the house was trashed
Girls:
On day one, one girl cooked dinner for the group and they all ate together around the kitchen table. Afterward, they organized a fashion show and dessert
After the first day, the girls cooked, ate, cleaned, and planned activities together
The girls created lists and delegation of responsibilities for household chores
Two girls ended up leaving the group and they organized the home before they left
Girls and boys sometimes behave differently. Is this biology or socialization?
Let’s break the cycle.
Girls and boys raised with gender bias become biased adults. As a society, we CAN raise our children without gender bias. Then, we can see what happens.
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