Discussion: The role gender plays when raising children

Your exam question asks you to discuss the role gender plays when we raise children. You must use Bibi van der Zee’s article, “A feminist’s guide to raising boys” and the video “Boys and Girls on Stereotypes” as sources of inspiration.

You can begin by saying that parents and society might have certain expectations about how boys and girls should act. In the video, there are several examples of children explaining what it means to be a boy. For example, Felice, age 14, answers that to be a boy means “to be strong” (00:10) and not cry (00:13), while Jose, age 9, says that boys are usually “athletic” (00: 16). 

Similarly, you can talk about toys that are targeted at boys or at girls. The article mentions a BBC program where young girls were dressed as boys and vice-versa, and members of the audience gave the children toys according to the gender they ...