A discussion about the institutions which shape girls’ lives.
This paper examines the role of the family, the school and the media on girls as they grow from infancy into adulthood. It shows that there are sexist influences that push a girl into becoming feminine. The paper also looks at positive trends that emerge in adulthood – unlimited resources of information and equal job opportunities.
What does it mean to grow up female in the United States today? There are three primary institutions that shape girls’ lives as they progress from birth through childhood and the adolescent years into adulthood. They are the family, the school, and the media. Traditional social science models of gender begin with the postulate that in humans, males and females are born neutral with respect to sex-dimorphic behavior predispositions, Lloyd B. Lueptow, Lori Garovich-Szabo, and Margaret B. Lueptow argue in an article called Social Change and The Persistence of Sex Typing: 1974-1997. The authors go on to say that most social scientists believe that these differences in the personality and temperament of males and females can be attributed to socialization practice and the nature of the roles males and females typically occupy. (Lupetow, 3). This essay will look at the influence of each of these institutions on a girl’s life and answer the question posed above, What does it mean to grow up female in the United States today?