WerewolvesAtMidnight
From my perspective I tried to raise my children equally and where they were 'treated differently' when they got older that was due to their personality and other traits not their sex or gender.
Neither of them have any particular traits relating to their gender described in the para above but they are in their thirties now. Is it a more recent thing again rather than just old fashioned sexist attitudes? Genuinely asking as none of my friends have small children.
When she says ‘raised’, I don’t think she’s referring to individual parenting styles, more how people are raised on a societal level. A good, if obvious, illustration of this is children’s clothing and toys.
Go into any High Street shop or supermarket, and the girls clothing will be more delicate, less practical and have animal motifs that feature weak/prey animals such as rabbits, deer, butterflies and slogans such as ‘Be Kind’ ‘Cute’ ‘Princess’ etc. Toys in the girls aisle will still be mainly kitchens, babies, nurturing and focus on home, friendship and creativity.
Boys clothing is almost always much more robust, shoes with proper treads, thicker materials and features strong, predator animals such as sharks, dinosaurs, bears and slogans like ‘Little Adventurer’ ‘Here Comes Trouble’. Boys toys are all about action, often fighting, building, sports etc
I have a five year old and can sadly confirm that gendering of kids stuff is definitely worse now than when in my seventies/early 80s childhood.
Obviously gender stereotyping is much more than just children’s toys and clothes, but the fact that this stuff is so ubiquitous from the very start and seldom noticed or challenged, supports Rebecca’s comments about the societal assumptions children are still raised under, whether their parents explicitly engage in it or not.
Sorry if this is a derail