Today’s popular media, like movies, books, and social media, seem to focus highly on gender roles of adults, but it is less common to find people discussing how young children define their roles as male or female. As a result, people are neglecting the fact that the gender roles parents teach their kids are defined by the way that they were raised as children, and in return, children are being taught that they have to act a certain way based on their gender when they reach adulthood. It is important to highlight how those gender roles are assumed and exemplified through normal childhood activities and why adults assume gender roles in the first place. Media representations guide gender roles and alter children’s ideas of gender, but many other factors contribute to the way a child perceives the way he or she should act not only as a youth but as an adult. Parental influences play a huge and almost unnoticed role in the way youths perceive gender roles, and even aspects of marketing have had a strong effect on children and how they develop their sense of self as a male or female. Adults in general impact the way children portray gender roles, especially in early childhood classrooms. Common early childhood stigmatisms that are brought on to children such as “boys are better at math because they are smarter” are important to note because they shape the way intelligence is perceived. This is obviously not true, but the problem lies in that teachers and parents show their admiration of one gender over the other based on certain characteristics, hence the introduction of gender role bias at such an early age.  People everywhere, parents or not, need to pay closer attention to the different aspects of childhood that shape a child’s understanding of gender roles to avoid discrimination between genders during adulthood. Perhaps the problem stems from the lack of knowledge on the topic of gender role bias in children because the topic is rarely addressed.

The media’s effect on children in all stages of their development is very strong, but media as it relates to their gender role development is often overlooked.  Different means of media have different effects on a child, but ultimately media shapes the way youths define gender. Media, as it relates to literature such as children’s books and folktales, defines gender roles by portraying male characters as “active, dominant figures… whereas female characters were portrayed in passive, victimized roles”. (Drees) This occurs in many children’s films such as Hercules where Hercules is the main male role and personifies a demi-god who is the strongest man on Earth. The main female character, Meg, personifies a frail, gentle, and helpless woman who cannot accomplish things on her own.  This theme of female helplessness and male power is reoccurring in several other popular children’s films such as The Incredibles and Aladdin. These movies are part of the reason why young girls aspire to find their “prince” when they grow up instead of aspiring to be successful, and they are the reason that young boys tend to show more thirst for power than girls do.  As mentioned in Drees’ article, a large study was done on picture books and how well they represent each gender role, and the results noted that “females were underrepresented in titles, central character roles, and illustrations in those books” (Drees). Most children’s books show the male characters portraying more active roles and show them fighting or some rigorous activity. Female roles in many books, even adult books, are characterized by serenity and passiveness. Nonetheless, while there are some books that have more active female characters, these are rare and are the reason that young girls think that girls are supposed to sit around and boys are supposed to run around, play, and generally be more aggressive. 