Write short note: Change in sex roles and the socialisation of children. (1984)
Sex roles (now usually called gender roles) are the socially expected behaviours attached to being male or female. They are learnt, not inborn: Margaret Mead‘s study of three New Guinea societies (Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, 1935) found “masculine” and “feminine” temperaments distributed differently in each. Because children learn gender mainly by watching adults, a change in adult sex roles alters both the models and the messages of socialisation, though unevenly.
How sex roles were traditionally transmitted
- Ann Oakley (1974) identified four processes: manipulation of the child’s self-image, canalisation towards “boys'” and “girls'” toys, verbal appellations (“brave boy”, “pretty girl”) and differential exposure to activities. School reading schemes and media later reinforce these lessons.
- Nancy Chodorow (The Reproduction of Mothering, 1978) argued that because women do the mothering, girls form identity through attachment and boys through separation, which reproduces the division of care.
- Talcott Parsons treated the father’s instrumental and the mother’s expressive role as models children copy.
- Leela Dube (“On the Construction of Gender: Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India”, 1988) showed Indian girls taught that they are temporary members of the natal home, trained in restraint, service and modesty.
What changes when adult roles change
- New role models. Female labour force participation rose from 23.3% (2017–18) to 41.7% (2023–24) (PLFS). Children of working mothers see women as earners and decision-makers, and fathers sharing care, which blurs the instrumental–expressive split.
- Wider aspirations. 89% of women aged 15–49 now operate their own bank accounts and 64.3% have used the internet (NFHS-6, 2023–24). Mothers with money and information back daughters’ schooling and careers.
- Androgyny. Sandra Bem (1974) argued that people can combine “masculine” and “feminine” traits. Middle-class urban parenting increasingly praises both sensitivity in boys and assertiveness in girls.
- Institutions. Schools and policy now contest stereotypes; the National Education Policy 2020 proposes a Gender-Inclusion Fund for girls and transgender students, and NALSA v. Union of India (2014) recognised transgender persons as a third gender, widening the categories children learn.
- Socialisation conflict. Egalitarian messages at school and in the media can clash with patriarchal practice at home, producing ambivalence, especially for girls approaching marriage.
What persists
- The home’s hidden curriculum is slow to change. The Time Use Survey 2024 records women spending 289 minutes a day on unpaid domestic work against men’s 88, and children absorb that pattern daily.
- Digital socialisation is gendered. ASER 2023 found 43.7% of rural boys aged 14–18 owned a smartphone against 19.8% of girls.
- R. W. Connell (Gender and Power, 1987) showed that hegemonic masculinity still pressures boys to avoid care and emotion, so change in women’s roles is not matched by change in men’s.
Conclusion
Changing sex roles have loosened the script children learn, but mostly on one side: girls are told they may do “male” things, while boys are rarely taught to do “female” ones. Egalitarian socialisation will follow only when adults actually share domestic work, because children learn from what parents do more than from what they say.