How do we become male or female in our society?
Socialisation is the norms, customs and ideologies that influence a person into developing the skills needed to be able to participate within society in an acceptable manner.
Primary socialisation occurs during childhood and is most commonly learned from parents and caregivers. This is when a child is taught about language, acceptable values & morals, regulating biological instincts and learning attitudes towards discrimination, honesty and cooperation. This is when a child develops their personality characteristics which are influenced by their parents/caregivers because they have an expectation as to how they want their child to develop.
This leads to the family having the most impact on a child’s socialisation skills. Most children rely solely on their parents/caregivers for basic necessities, nurturing and guidance which give them the authority to influence a child’s gender role within the family and within society. For example, if a male child is brought up in a family without a father, he may be expected to become the ‘man of the house’ when he grows up. This influences him into believing that men are needed to create a secure family unit.
Peers are also a big impact. When part of a peer group, a child starts to learn to make friends and decisions on their own, without their parents influence. This can either make a child a more independent person or their peers could influence them into making bad decisions and to engage in behaviour that may be forbidden by their parents or caregivers. For example, if a child’s peers are skipping school or drinking alcohol, the child will feel pressure to do the same and will find it hard to resist.
They may also feel pressured by their peers to a lesser extent. For girls, their peers may be wearing makeup and for boys, their peers may be very sporty, causing the children to conform to the way males and females are presented within their peer group.
Secondary socialisation is learned in smaller groups within a larger culture or society and is associated with adolescence and adulthood. It enables a person to become aware of what the larger society expects of them. School, religion and the mass media have a large effect on this.
The secondary agency of school has a large impact on a person because they spend the majority of their childhood in school. When at school, a child is introduced to new knowledge, order, rules and regulation. This may be a difference to the child, as they may not have this ‘order’ in their home life. The school experience puts pressure on