I can't help but continue to ponder about Saturday's debates that we watched. I found the second debate by the women (sorry, can't remember her name) very interesting. Especially interesting was the comment about how parents treat their children differently, i.e. boys and girls are treated differently. This fact also tied into some of the reading this week about a woman's role in a man's life cycle. I believe that the parents do treat their children differently, although not necessarily on purpose. It seems from birth the girls are the pretty, sensitive, fragile beings that we must protect. They are taken in under their mother's wing. On the other hand, it seems that although boys to are nurtured by their mother, they are taken in under their father's wing and shown "the way to be a man," and "how to be tough." I found the perceptions of parents regarding their children in the studies profound. Just the simple fact that parents of boys reported their boys as being talented in math more than the parents of girls was pretty eye opening. Parents' perceptions influence their children's actions. That is why I think gender stereotypes live on, because to some extent they are true....and this is because it is a learned behavior....such as the girls helping mom in the kitchen and the boys out in the garage helping dad.
