Gender Socialization
Gender socialization – the lifelong social process through which individuals learn, interpret, negotiate, and respond to the gender norms, roles, expectations, values, and behavioural patterns prevailing in their society and culture.
Gender socialization takes place through interaction with family, peers, educational institutions, media, workplaces, religious and political institutions, and other social environments. Through processes such as observation, modelling, reinforcement, approval, disapproval, and sanction, individuals are exposed to ideas about which forms of behaviour, appearance, activities, relationships, and social roles are considered appropriate for people of different genders.
Individuals are not merely passive recipients of these norms. They may internalize them, reinterpret them, selectively adopt them, resist them, or reject them altogether. Gender socialization therefore contributes to the formation of gender identities and practices while also allowing for variation, change, and nonconformity.
Gender socialization continues throughout the life course and may involve gender resocialization, in which previously internalized gender norms, values, and behavioural patterns are reconsidered or replaced in response to new experiences, social environments, or changes in personal identity.
See also: Gender, Gender Role, Gender Norms, Gender Stereotype, Gender Identity, Gender Nonconformity.
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