English 1001: Differences in Raising Male and Female Children

Yang yu

Professor Ripley

English 1001

02/02/2013

                Differences in Raising Male and Female Children

Nowadays, gender issue is the main topic for discussion. the great brains of the world were interested in such delicate point as sex differences in society and how this influenced mankind during many centuries. The main point of gender studies is the following: biological, psychological, however, sociocultural appraisal and interpretation are more important than social differences between men and women. I am the only child in my family, therefore, I will analyze my best friend’s family and how his parents were raising him and his sister. I will analyze both differences and similarities in their upbringing.

First of all, it is worth mentioning that the gender issue is known almost to everybody in current time; in our century this term is used almost everywhere, especially by people, who want to show some sexual inequality. The general concept of gender was unreasonable from ancient times by Chinese, In my country, long time ago, no female can go to school. People don't expect female too much. People think female is the role that should be stay at home take care of baby, house clean.  Of course, those kind of thought were far away from today. Since I am the only child in my family, therefore, I am going  to talk about my best friend Jialei, whose family I took as an example for my essay. I know him since the age of 5, so I can make fair conclusions. Jialei and Jiaxin’s (that is the name of his sister) parents are very modern, and kind-hearted people. Jielei is three years older than his sister.

Above all, I want to describe those similarities, which I observed in their upbringing. Jialei’s parents have never discriminated their children from the point of mental abilities. It is common knowledge that lot of parents believe that boys should be smart and girls must be beautiful, however, this family supports opposing views. Jialei and Jiaxin were given the same books in their childhood, they read the same fairy-tales and stories of course later they began to choose the books they liked by themselves. It is very interesting that now, when they are 20 and 17, both are with a wonderful imagination and have some writing skills. Moreover, in this family there were no stereotypical boy and girl’s toys and clothes. I remember Jiaxin adored playing football as a child, and Jialei liked to help his mother in the kitchen.

These features in raising Jialei and Jiaxin were similar, although boys and girls have a bit different goals in life. Consequently, when kids came into juvenile period the rules changed a bit. McKie (2010) argued that boys develop improved spatial skills not because of an innate superiority but because they are expected and are encouraged to be strong at sport, which requires expertise at catching and throwing. Similarly, it is anticipated that girls will be more emotional and talkative, and so their verbal skills are emphasized by teachers and parents. Probably that was crucial reasons for the future raising their children.