Gender differences and construction

Gender differentiates among females and males, not by biological aspects but with social and cultural reference. Those are suceptible to change in time and according to specific socities. 

Children, when they are young, can notice the differences related to gender. At the age of two, they are able to recognize how actions, colors, behaviors and material things are more related to one gender. Those stereotypes come from the observation of adults and peers, and how gender segregation and gender typifing are visible. It is not until a few years later that they realize those conceptions are just stereotypes and that this situation is far from the truth, although many people still believe in gender roles. 

Stereotypes state that boys are aggressive, impulsive, creative and active whereas girls are calm, patient, tidy and sensitive. Proved differences among genders prove that at the age of two girls show more shame in front of a shameful situation than boys, and they show more aggressivenes regardless of the socio-economic position and culture. Females at that early age also are demonstrated to be more sensitive as they, with the excpetion of anger, they express more intensively and openly their emotions and feelings to adults and peers. As girls are in contact with emotions since they are that young they have the ability to comprehend other's emotions before boys. This more contact and facility that girls have with emotions and their expressions is translated later as they know how to self-regulate better than boys. Females are conscious of how to attend emotional expressions and how to interact with the situation and environment that created them.

This video shows how boys and girls are expected to react to certain situations according to social impositions.

All these stated differences are produced because of biological influences -girls show a more advanced profile and develop earlier the language skills- and the socialization process. Gender differences tend to increase as the child grows because he adopts the characteristics that are socially atributed to his gender. They kind of lose a part of personal identity in order to become the typical man looked for the social requires of his environment. Kids take behavioral models from their family and friends.

Families and school magnify gender segregation and differences, as they teach children the behaviors and attitudes that are considered adjusted for their gender situation. That is why both families and teachers usually teach boys the resoultion of problems when are girls the ones who need more help with this competence as they have more facilities with language skills but not with intellectual capacities. Girls should be taught resolution of problems more regularly and efficency than boys. 

As a matter of fact, girls have an earlier development of some skills such as language and they have responsibilites at home since they are very young. These are some reasons which explain girls' better general performance at school. It is true that they do not have better results in all subjects -boys tend to have the best grades in intellectual subjects like Maths- but when results are seen in a global point of view, girls have a better educational success than boys.

In school, children interiorize gender indentity through the interaction with their peers. It is in school where they learn how to differentiate between a boy and a girl, and start to reproduce the social stereotypes and adopt the attitudes imposed by society.

Children start to interact differently among them inside the classroom and in the playground. When they start to notice gender differences, they segregate and tend to group with children from the same gender and play with games socially applied to them. For example, during the break, boys are more likely to play football in the football court with an homogeneous group -all boys- whereas girls are in another part of the playground playing all together with dolls or playing jump rope.

Though children themselves differentiate among genders, teachers also makes this segregation when using distinctive adjectives for boys than for girls, and usually positive adjectives tend to be addressed to boys more often than to girls. 

So, as we can observe, school is one of the main factors creating gender differences but, at the same time, with the correct inclusive strategies, those differences can be overcome so gender stereotypes decrease progressively. When differences among boys and girls are taught in class, the teacher should remark that those varied characteristics are not a mean to promote segregation. They must use those qualities related to their gender to promote development and to grow as human beings. Students also need to learn that stereotypes are not fixed and they can be changed according to the demands of the society, so they must be educated through the principles of freedom, justice and ethic values. School also should promote equal groups and mixed interactions -boys and girls should participate in activites and play together-.