AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	2. Representation of the African Family of the 21st Century
Paper ID	722
Author(s)	Moeno, Ntlantla Sylvia
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	The paper attempts to explore the nature and role played by socialization in its transmission of gender roles, which help to foster gender identity at a very early age. We argue that in urban African areas of Gauteng, in South Africa, the manner in which boys are raised, is in some way, disadvantageous to them, as the old traditional African ways of preparing boys for adulthood are no longer being adhered to and practised.Special attention seems to be directed at young girls who are protected, guided, supervised and nurtured on a daily basis, as soon as they arrive home from school: while boys, in most cases, seem to be left to their own devices, in the company of their own peers, from a very early age - which may, in some cases, encourage them to engage in activities which may lead them astray. Consequently, it is not surprising that boys, often turn to delinquency to redeem themselves for not attaining goals through legitimate means.Boys in such circumstances, have ample opprtunity to deviate from appropriate behaviour to delinquency, since their families treat them with less supervision and attention, when compared to their female counterparts. The impact of gender socialisation is one of the most importantprocesses in our society. This may be attributed to the fact that urban societies are are complex and often, children are influenced by a number of factors, both positive and negative. And, within these societies, social problems like crime , juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and high school drop-out rates, can be seen as both overt and covert outcomes of gender socialization. For example, it has become common to treat boys in a more lenient manner, often casually dismissing their bad behaviour, justifying this by repeating the saying "that boys will be boys!" While girls are treated in a strict and protective manner. This may often lead to to a situation where it becomes normal for boys to be deviant, while society always seem to turn a blind eye or finds an excuse to justify their irresponsible and anti-social behaviour. Therefore, contrary to popular belief that differential treatment of boys and girls benefits boys, the paper argues that differential treatment does not benefit boys, but it actually disadvantages or discriminates against them,while with girl children, the opposite is in fact the case, as they become more serious and resposible, and are protected from harmful and dangerous situations and experiences. We look at some stastics relating to tertiary enrollment figures, to find out if there are differencence in numbers of female students and compare them with those male black African students enrolled in higher education learning institutions. We also look at prison population figures and compare the numbers of male and female inmates, and the type of offences committed by prisoners.

Gender socialization and its impact on Gauteng boys and girls