Gender roles have always been present within society, but as time has passed roles have become less enforced and people have been much more able to choose things without the restriction of gender. 

Yet despite this there are still clearly things marketed or aimed at specific genders. Children's toys often market stereotypical toys with matching colours. I've also noticed that a lot of children tend to use phrases such as 'no- that's for boys' and 'only girls can wear pink', as well as countless others.

The whole concept of gender specific toys also limits interaction between the two biological genders because they tend to drift more towards the toys that they perceive as more appropriate for their gender, and so they generally mix more with their own sex. But do they gravitate towards certain toys because of nature, nurture- or even both? A popular theory is the gender schemas theory, which is the theory that children  are heavily influenced by the culture around them in regards to their beliefs on gender and the differences, and so adjust themselves to fit into typical 'gender norms' within that culture.

If we continue to promote gender neutral clothing and toys, perhaps we will begin to see children branch out more from gender specific things- or maybe not. Sciencedaily.com has reported in July last year that 'Children as young as 9 months-old prefer to play with toys specific to their own gender, according to a new study from academics at City University London and UCL.' Do you think 9-months are enough time for a child to be influenced by nurture? Or is it only down to nature? Biological and environmental factors we have as a child also heavily influence our adult lives.

As stated by various articles, on sites such as aauw.org and mashable.com, men are more likely to go for and be accepted into STEM based jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) than women. However, articles like 'Why the Stem Gender Gap is overblown' on pbs.org argue that, in fact, the only area where the proportion of males is higher than females in a STEM based job is in the computer science and engineering fields. Being in an all-girls school, I can confirm that there are only six students in year 11 that take computer science, which supports the concept above. 

And as much as we'd like to disagree, a lot of us do link specific jobs to specific genders even if we don't mean to. I asked some peers at school what gender they automatically thought of when they saw the following 5 jobs listed 'Makeup Artist, Builder, Ballerina, Teacher and scientist' Only a select few were asked but 100% of them voted for a builder as a male job and a ballerina as a female job. The job of a makeup artist was practically 50/50.

So, how do some people fit into these gender roles? Is it through nature, biological factors that we are born with?-or is it nurture, the way we are brought up and other influences such as the media? People arguing for nature being the cause can talk about Neuroanatomy, which according to ncbi.nih.gov, shows how the two sexes have similar but not completely identical brains (such as differences in the size of the nuclei and synaptic patterns.)  They can also talk about how hormonal influences such as how testosterone typically causes behaviour like aggression, competitiveness and a higher sexual drive etc. (all according to simplypsychology.org)

I asked 53 people on their opinion to this question, and here’s their response: (percentages were rounded to 1dp and so do not completely add up to 100%)

1.) Nurture [24.5 %]

"Your hormones don’t influence your thinking the way your parents, friends and environment do as they can impose their views on you”

2.) Nature [7.5 %]

"Women are naturally more nurturing than men (For example because women breastfeed whereas men cannot.) Also, in a country they took away gender roles and yet people still went towards their natural gender roles.”

3.) Mostly nurture [32%]

"I think that our parents and the environment in which we are raised in have the biggest influence on us because we look up to and rely on our parents”

4.) Mostly nature [13.2%]

5.) 50/50 [18.8 %]

"I think nature as it’s a part of you and nurture because I think gender roles are also influenced by upbringing and how you’re treated”

6.) Other [3.7%] 

“It’s down to individuality, really.”

What’s your opinion?

Chloe Lewis, Dartford Grammar School for Girls