Draft part of essay.
At the age of three years old a child can
distinguish between themselves and the other sex (Wasserman & Stern, 1978)
and by the age of five a child has formed rigid stereotypes towards both sex
(Schlossberg & Goodman, 1972). In fact young children believe that gender
stereotypes are as innate as the behaviors of different species of animals for
example the difference between a cat and a dog (Pacific Lutheran
University and the University of Michigan, 2009) and are unable to establish
gender past surface appearances. At age six children will spend three quarters
of their time with the same sex, and will shun the opposite sex fearing it
might taint their own gender identity. A crucial part to a child learning about
their own identity is realizing that their gender will never change. Children
have an extreme way of thinking about gender, and their way to categorize
people by believing stereotypes such as; men wear trousers and have short hair
where as women wear dresses and have long hair. Around the age of ten they
begin to relax their way of thinking, and the division between male and female
roles can be dissolved, and the approach of adolescents begins to bring the two
genders together.
Research from:
Child of our time
A Child's World
and
http://beyondassumptions.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/gender-stereotypes-in-childrens-literature/
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