Gender and Childhood: Exploring Theories and Societal Impact Essay

This essay provides an overview of gender and childhood, examining key concepts and development theories. It begins by defining childhood and exploring Piaget's cognitive development theory and Bowlby's attachment theory. The essay then shifts to gender, defining gender identity, gender inequality, and gender equity, while also exploring the impact of these concepts in real-world scenarios, including the workplace. The essay highlights the importance of gender equality and its positive effects on the workplace and the overall economy. It also touches upon government legislations addressing gender inequality. The conclusion summarizes the importance of childhood development and gender roles, emphasizing the need for equal opportunities and the negative impact of gender inequality on economic growth.

Gender and Childhood
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Childhood....................................................................................................................................3
Gender.........................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
The following report includes essay on gender and childhood by using different theories.
Childhood is a stage of life when a child is born. A child goes through various stages before
Gender is described as the characteristic which differentiate between men, women, boy or girl.
There are different perceptions about different genders and their role within the society (England,
2017). As per the viewpoint of C Wright Mills, social imagination can be defined as the
awareness about relationship between personal experience of an individual and the wider society.
It is important because it enables the processor to understand the the historical scene in larger
terms. The report is based on two topics, Childhood and Gender. It describes the different key
concepts and real world experiences for both the topics. Besides this, legislation and the impact
of these topics is also included in the report.
MAIN BODY
Childhood
The childhood development theories focuses upon how a children change and grow over
the course of childhood. These are associated with social, emotional and cognitive growth of an
individual. There is explanation for one of the theories of childhood. This is associated with
Piaget cognitive development theory (Fry and et. al., 2018). This is related to the thought process
of an individual. According to views of Jean Piaget, it is concluded that children have different
thought process than adults. This theory explained development of thought process and mental
states. This theory focus upon the how thoughts of children impacts the way of interacting with
people. There are following stages of children intellectual development.
Sensorimotor stage – There is a period within childhood between birth to two years. At
this stage, knowledge of infant is limited to sensory perceptions. His behaviours are only
associated with motor responses which are caused by sensory stimuli.
Pre-Operational stage – This is a period between age of two to six and in this, a learner
starts to use language. At this stage, children do not understand logic. They are not involved in
mentally manipulating information. It is difficult to understand viewpoint of others.
Concrete operational stage – This is the period of age 7 to 11 and at this time, children
have a better understanding of mental operations. They used to think logically and they have
difficulty in understanding hypothetical concepts.
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Formal operational stage – This is known as the period of age 12 to adulthood and this
is related to the stage where people develop ability to think regarding abstract concepts. There
are various skills like logical thoughts, systematic planning and deductive reasoning that evolve
within this stage. This is the final stage in the theory and it lasts up to adulthood.
Another theory of childhood is Bowlby's attachment theory. It explains social
development of children. This was proposed by John Bowbly and it explains that early
relationships with caregivers play a major role in child development and it continues to influence
social relationships throughout life (Garlen, 2019). This theory suggests that children are born
with a need to form attachments and relationships. These are developed in order to ensure that
child receives protection and care. These are regulated by behavioural and motivational areas and
patters. Caregivers and children are involved in designing ways to ensure proximity. Children are
involved to stay connected to the caregivers. In return, children are protected from any harm.
There are various attachment styles within this theory and it is seen that these are developed for
an avoidant and ambivalent style.
There are different theories of childhood that have been developed by various theorists,
for instance Erikson's Psychological Development Theory is one of the theories on psychological
development during the childhood. The theory comprises of eight stages that describe growth as
well as changes throughout the life of an individual. It focuses on social interaction as well as
conflicts that arise during the different developmental stages. As per the viewpoint of Erickson,
experience as well as social interaction play deciding roles in the life of a person. As children
grow, their productivity tend to go down (Jackson, 2017). He also believed that a person's
personality develops in an order that is pre determined from infancy top adulthood. A child goes
through various stages of development during their life.
It is concluded from the above theories that childhood is a developing stage and it
requires more protection care. An individual can learn a lot during this stage and grow his career
gender importance effectively.
Gender
Gender identity can be defined as the perception of an individual as male or female. The
gender of a person denotes the cultural as well as social role within the society. The World
Health Organization or WHO refers gender to as the different socially constructed characteristics
of both men as well as women. This includes their norms, relationships, roles and the gender
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roles in some societies are rigid in comparison to others. Also, the gender roles have been
completely redefined from what they were earlier. There are various gender theoretical concepts
that are interlinked with each other (Kwok and Gu, 2019). These include gender inequality,
gender equity, intersectionality etc. Gender inequality can be defined as the perception that men
and women are not equal and that the gender of an individual affects their living experience.
There can be various causes that can lead to gender inequality.
Gender studies can be defined as a field that deals with the history and study of genders
and the changes that have occurred. People who study gender study the changes that place in the
norms and interpret the same at a larger scale. The gender history majorly describes the
outgrowth of the history of women. In the 1970s, gender was adopted as a term to distinguish
between the various aspects of male and female differences that were socially constructed.
Besides gender inequality, another concept is of gender equity which means being fair to both
men as well as women.
There are various sociological theories that help sociologists in explaining the complex
behaviour of the humans as well as various social structures. Due to gender inequalities, there are
many issues that can come up and can have an impact on the society. These can include violence
against women, gap in the wages of men and women at the workplace, work-life balance, racial
gaps in the education etc. In real world, women still have to face gender inequality at the
workplace, although the nature and amount of work done by them as well as their male
colleagues is the same (Mansueto and Faravelli, 2017). Due to this, there is a decrease in their
level of productivity as well as motivation. Besides this, there is also an impact on the social
world as they can affect the children's sense of themselves from a very young age. As a result,
they start specifying different activities as well as jobs specific to men and women later in their
lives.
Gender equality should be encouraged in workplaces, which means that both male as well
as female employees should be treated equally. Promoting gender equality within the workplace
helps in creating a positive environment (Momsen, 2019). As a result, both female and male
employees of the company are motivated to perform better thereby helping the company to
achieve its goals and objectives effectively. Thus, these are some key concepts of gender and
their impact in a wider sense.
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Another issue is that gender inequality can impact the overall growth of the economy in a
negative manner. This is mainly sue to inequalities in the education of boys and girls during
young age. There are certain communities wherein the gender roles are pre defined. This can
prove to be a threat for the economic development of a nation (Rossi, 2018). The governments of
different countries have taken the issue of gender inequality and have established certain
legislations. These govern that there are no inequalities between the two genders and that they
receive equal opportunists.
To summarize, gender consideration is an important aspect for the overall development
of a nation. Although there are various theoretical concepts of gender, inequalities between the
two genders is an issue that is still prevailing in the society. This has a negative impact on the
overall growth of an economy.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that childhood is one of the most important
stages of an individual. This is because the early years of an individual are those that form the
primary basis of social behaviour, intelligence, personality as well as the capacity to learn as an
adult. A child should be given various opportunities of growth so that they grow up to be learned
adults. On the other hand, the different genders have their own roles and responsibility. This
helps them in growth and learning new things and develop their own perspectives. Gender
inequality is a concept that can have a negative impact on the development of an economy. There
are different gender theories that provide a better understanding of the complex behaviours of
humans. And any kind of inequality between boys and girls during their childhood can have a
negative impact on their overall perceptions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
England, P., 2017. Households, employment, and gender: A social, economic, and demographic
view. Routledge.
Fry, D. and et. al., 2018. The relationships between violence in childhood and educational
outcomes: A global systematic review and meta-analysis. Child Abuse & Neglect. 75.
pp.6-28.
Garlen, J. C., 2019. Interrogating innocence:“Childhood” as exclusionary social practice.
Childhood. 26(1). pp.54-67.
Jackson, L. A., 2017. Women police: Gender, welfare and surveillance in the twentieth century.
Manchester University Press.
Kwok, S. Y. and Gu, M., 2019. Childhood neglect and adolescent suicidal ideation: A moderated
mediation model of hope and depression. Prevention science. 20(5). pp.632-642.
Mansueto, G. and Faravelli, C., 2017. Recent life events and psychosis: The role of childhood
adversities. Psychiatry research. 256. pp.111-117.
Momsen, J., 2019. Gender and development. Routledge.
Rossi, A., 2018. Gender and the life course. Routledge.
Online
Frequently asked questions about gender equality. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.unfpa.org/resources/frequently-asked-questions-about-gender-
equality>.
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