Tess, it seems like if gender equality hasn’t really changed in the past thousand years it will never change. I find this somewhat upsetting, but we have made major progress over the past few decades. I did not know that there was a specific name for the idea of the hegemonic myth and this is something that has not seemed to change very much over the past few decades. Overcoming stereotypes is very difficult. I am very curious to know if you chose to write about this because you have a twin brother and you have been raised slightly differently than him? I must admit that I succumb to the myth and I do let males take dominance in just about every aspect of my life. I think a big reason I am a part of this myth is because I am involved in a sport in which males are much more skilled than most women, so I have naturally let that idea creep into my life. I have been raised in a family with four girls and one guy, so you would think that this would not have been the case with me. Well, I guess not… I found some information as to why men are more dominant, mainly focusing on the differences between the male brain and the female brain, and I think it would be great if you included this information in your research essay. Thank you for this interesting research, and good luck with your paper!
https://www.netnanny.com/learn-center/article/165/

Tess, this was a really interesting article. I knew that sexism has been internalized in us from an early age, I just wasn’t sure exactly why. The studies and data that you showed was really surprising, but sad. It would be interesting to hear from you what parents can do to instill equality into their children from a young age. It would also be interesting to hear what you think about gender roles, and how this affects people.

Tess,
this is a great article to highlight the gender inequality gap. I really don’t like when people limit “the gender gap” to differences in wages, because it shows just how much of a blind eye we turn to other societal problems. My question is, where do you think this comes from? Why, even hundreds of thousands of years after the creation of humans, are women still disadvantaged in society? Additionally, I like the way you use “hegemonic,” since I feel like that word is typically reserved for foreign policy and nations. In this case, the relationship between men and women is not much unlike the relationship between a nation and one that is “inferior.” Given the chance, that nation wouldn’t be inferior at all, but there is such an inherent early advantage to the bigger nation that there is seemingly always a “gap.” Anyway, thank you for writing this article, and I am excited to see where this paper goes.
Hunter

Tess, I love your article. I think it’s so important you are discussing this topic and trying to understand why there is gender inequality. It’s interesting that you found some evidence of parents starting this gender inequality at home and that Moms have learned to underestimate their daughters and not their sons. I also believe this has something to do with education. In my lifetime I was never taught about gender inequality in school and never taught how to deal with it. The other day my brother was saying how their teacher is a strong feminist and has started having the young girls write “womyn” instead of “woman” to rid of the word man in the female gender. I think this is the wrong way to teach youth about feminism and women’s rights. It’s important that our youth and upcoming generations learn to support both genders and work towards no inequality. In this sense it seems schools are teaching girls to rather hate our male counterparts and despise everything our country was built upon. Women have been fighting a long time for their rights and adolescence should be taught that fight. I think it’s so important you are addressing this topic. We need to help our youth learn about man and woman the right way. I also think sex education is an important topic to be discussed in every school and would eliminate much of our problems with sexualizing a woman and rape. I found this article on how to teach your kid gender equality. I think it will help your article because you can give ways to help change this inequality in our society! (https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/health/gender-equality-teaching-children-parenting/index.html) Keep writing!!

Tess,
this was an excellent article and very well written. This is a very important topic and I cannot thank you enough for sharing. The myth about these so called gender roles has been very prevalent and domineering for so long now, that nobody even knows why or how they originated in the first place. As a society, we are slowly seeing a change in this regard, and I cannot wait to see where the future takes us! Well done!

Tess,
This is really interesting and I didn’t know there was a study on this pattern. The language we use with children always amazed me, but I never realized how deep-rooted the ideas of fundamental gender differences were. The fact that fathers elicit different reactions based on the expressions on their sons and daughters faces really threw me off. Although psychology is not the most exact science, I look forward to any further research you find on this topic.
Jacqueline

Dear Tess,
I enthusiastically read your post because, as a father, I often think about what messages I unconsciously send to my child when I interact with him.

I was particularly interested in your last sentence, “If we begin to understand where gender stereotypes are being taught we can start to eliminate them.” I want to ask, to what extent you believe gender stereotypes need to be eliminated? Would it be better to eliminate all socially-constructed gender differences, or work to reduce their impact?