Whether you are born male or female will be of major consequence for all aspects of your life: for the expectations others in society will have of you, for your treatment by other people and for your own behavior. This is true no matter what society someone is born into, although the consequences will vary from society to society. Virtually all societies are organized on the basis of gender differences between men and women. It is generally accepted that boys and girls are socialized differently in our culture. Perhaps parents are consciously aware of their molding of the child to meet specific sex role standards and much of the differential treatment handed out is a reflection of the adults' own life history, their firm sex role socialization dimming awareness of its generation replication. While biological evidence contributes to our understanding of the origins of gender differences, another route to take is the study of gender socialization, the learning of gender roles through social factors such as the family.

'Medical technology like an ultrasound enables the identification of sexual difference even before birth'

Sex role stereotypes are conventional images of gender. Such role stereotypes control our exceptions of other men and women, with particular respect to their behavior, their interests, their occupations and their psychosocial characteristics. At the same time, each person attempts to 'fit in' to these cultural expectations themselves in the way they behave.

The social assignment plays a powerful role in a child's sexual identity, yet the importance of biology can not be ignored. This is the cue that leads to the assignment of their social sex, so the two are almost always related. Thus parents are not the only factor that has to be taken into account as biological, peers, teachers and general society all play a role in socializing children into conventional forms of masculinity and femininity. .

'The men may interpret certain kinds of feminine interests or actions as signs of developing homosexual tendencies in their sons and react to their tendencies in the strongest terms' .

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Approximate Word count = 2153
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)