Child Rearing

• Gender roles are learned from birth, usually unconsciously, by the differing ways that parents, schools and society in general interact with girls and boys. Even simple issues such as buying pink clothes for girls and blue clothes for boys reinforce ideas about what colors are appropriate for boys and girls to wear. Studies have found that parents treat male and female children differently from birth, such as in encouraging boys in activities that involve large motor skills or technological use and girls in verbal skills or playing with dolls. Schools and culture at large tend to encourage these differences. For example, toy manufacturers generally create girl's toys in pink and focus on dolls, makeup and model household toys, while boy's toys are often technological or mechanical, such as cars, erector sets and computers.
  
  

Behavior

• Gender roles are learned behaviors, so children learn early on how men and women are supposed to behave. The most common behavioral differences in gender revolve around the expressing of emotion (boys are taught not to do so, girls encouraged to do so) and aggressive tendencies (which are more encouraged and accepted in boys, discouraged in girls). While scientists disagree on exactly how these behavioral traits have developed, the predominance of these social ideas lead to issues such as shame in men who want to express emotion or women who turn their anger or aggression inward because it is not acceptable for women to express these masculine emotions. In addition, the issue of male violence against women can be traced to these gender role assignments.
  
  

Employment

• Due to gender roles, men and women also take different kinds of jobs. While men are more likely to take jobs in the hard sciences, such as physics, chemistry and technology, women are more often in caring professions, such as nursing, social work and teaching. These differences often stem back to early education, in which boys are encouraged in areas of math and sciences while girls are expected to excel in the humanities. These employment differences reflect the differing gender stereotypes of women as caregivers and men as more logical. It is also significant that the traditionally male professions have far higher pay than the female professions. Although there has been an increase in the amount of women in traditionally male professions through the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, there is still a large gender gap in many professions.
  
  

Body Image

• Body image is greatly influenced by gender-based stereotypes. While women are pressured to be thin, slight and traditionally feminine in appearance, men are expected to be muscular and masculine in facial features. These body images can be damaging, particularly to those who do not naturally have the characteristics that are considered attractive based on these gender norms. Attempts to meet gender norms can exacerbate issues such as eating disorders and steroid usage.