Differential socialization: what is it, how is it produced, and what effects does it have?

It is no secret that men and women are educated differently. Even having gone to the same school, being in the same family or watching the same media, people learn that we should behave in one way or another based on the gender that we were assigned to born.

Through different socializing agents we are attributing different characteristics and roles to men and women, phenomenon known as differential socialization, which is the main promoter of gender inequality, even in a subtle and invisible way.

Next we are going to talk more in depth about this phenomenon, not only to learn what it is but also to understand that to combat the injustices, we must first be aware of the differential treatment that we show depending on whether the person in front of us is a man or a woman.

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What is differential socialization?

People are internalizing attitudes, values, expectations and behaviors characteristic of the society in which we have lived. Thanks to this process of acquiring important patterns for society, we are becoming individuals who learn to function. Depending on whether or not he follows socially accepted guidelines, the individual will be rewarded or penalized according to his behavior.

One of the phenomena that shape our society is differential socialization, which makes that people acquire different identities based on the idea of ​​gender in their culture. Differential socialization implies cognitive, behavioral and attitudinal styles, as well as different moral codes depending on the gender of the individual. This process leads to the creation of stereotypical norms assigned to each person's behavior in reference to their gender.

It is a long learning process, started at birth and extended throughout life through interaction with other people. The individual assimilates visions based on how he should behave based on the gender assigned to him at birth.

This differential socialization is what teaches men that the idea of ​​masculinity is public life, aggressiveness, activity and reasoning, while for women the idea of ​​femininity is private life, tranquility, passivity and sentimentality.

Differential socialization drinks a lot from sexual typification. This typification would be the process by which the individual acquires sexually typified patterns of behavior, it constitutes a broad system of customs that begins from the beginning. birth such as orienting through pink and blue colors, language, body adornments such as earrings, storybooks, games, songs...

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Promoting agents of differential socialization

Although practically any social agent contributes to the differential socialization between men and women, we can highlight the following three as the main ones:

1. Family

The family is, naturally, the first socializing agent and the one that exerts the most influence on the individual.. Through it, cultural guidelines, feelings, attitudes and values ​​are acquired. Since family influences occur first, it makes them the most persistent.

Although family models have been changing and evolving throughout history, the idea of ​​the traditional or nuclear family continues to constitute a model of production and reproduction. This type of family fulfills a biological function, the reproductive one, a social function, socialization, and an emotional function, emotional support. The father is conceived as the one who brings the money home and the mother who exercises the emotional support.

Parents are mainly responsible for directly and differentially reinforcing the sexually typified behaviors of their sons or daughters. Imitating the behaviors of other people within the family constitutes a powerful vehicle for the acquisition of gender roles in the family (p. eg, grandparents, uncles, older brothers, family friends ...).

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2. Education and recreational leisure

The traditional educational system was designed initially with male students in mind. In fact, in its beginnings, education in the West was a privilege reserved for men, something that still happens in countries that are lagging behind in terms of gender equality. Although women have been allowed access to education, the educational system at practically all levels continues to drink from an androcentric vision, even in mixed environments.

In education today, man is still taken as the measure of all things. Added to this, there is what has been called "the hidden curriculum", formed by preconceived opinions or prejudices and stereotypes that contain a series of beliefs about how social relations between the sexes are or should be and what is understood by a model of femininity and a model of masculinity.

The representation of female figures and male figures is not equal in education. Girls have been educated mostly with content, texts and images in which they are rarely present women, so they do not have female models or references in which to see reflected.

The games that girls are taught intimidate them from taking positions of leadership, influence, and competitiveness. Female games are oriented towards caring and taking on a role associated with the home, such as kitchen games, dolls or rope. Instead, children's games reward competitiveness, strength and aggressiveness, aimed at achieving excellence and climbing positions in the hierarchy.

The schoolyards themselves promote differential socialization in a subtle way. Male games, such as soccer or basketball, have a privileged space in the courtyard with wide courts located in the middle of it, occupying a significant percentage of the total surface of the playtime.

Instead, the more feminine games have to be played on the periphery or more secluded places. In many cases the girls spend their recess sitting on benches talking, unable to occupy more spaces in the yard.

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3. Media

It is inevitable to speak of differential socialization without mentioning the media, which have become one of the most important socializing agents. Television and, more recently, social networks are media that transmit values, ideals and role models for men and women. They can include sexist content or stereotypes linked to hierarchy and social distinction.

Although the media have tried to expose the news from a gender perspective, there is still a long way to go to be done and there are few times that the public figure of men is exalted while leaving anonymity at women.

A classic of this are the headlines of many news in which, if the protagonist is a man, it is mentioned the name and surname of him, while if it is a woman, the holder usually takes the formula of "A girl / woman from".

Users of social networks, sensitive to the invisibility of women, tend to ironic this type of news answering in the comments with the formula “name: girl; surname: de ”. The names of women, when they are a source of news, appear less than those of men.

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What are the consequences of differential socialization?

Differential socialization is a phenomenon that, as might be expected, makes societies unequal and just. If you want to combat gender inequality, along with racial, sexual, ethnic and other forms of discrimination, what needs to be changed is the culture and being aware that there are prejudices, stereotypes and subtle ways of treating people differently is a good step to it.

Differential socialization has been observed to be a highly variable phenomenon depending on various parameters, even within the same society. The lower the educational level, the more stereotyped are gender roles. Women are pushed to do household chores, while men are encouraged to be the ones to bring the money home. Naturally, the assignments of tasks and roles between men and women is very different according to gender.

While it is true that it has been found that a higher level of education leads to more egalitarian attitudes among men and women, it does not mean that the more education you have, you will reach a point where there is no inequality some. No matter how many studies you have, it is inevitable that women and men are seen in one way or another, attributing certain roles to them based on their gender.

At least in the West, social differentiation is weaker the younger you are. Young people approve of gender differentiation less, something associated with being part of a generation that is more sensitive to inequalities between men and women and that certain traditional stereotypes about how people should behave based on whether they are male or female have been broken.

It should be said, however, that the economic crisis or the current health crisis makes these attitudes contrary to differentiation regress.