Hello,
The aspect of socialization I want to talk about is my gender. I am a female born to a single mother. My mother remarried when I was a toddler and they had two sons(my brothers). I was raised that women take care of the house meaning they clean,cook and take care of kids. The males in my family sat back and relaxed. I would constantly say how wrong this was until the day I moved out. But somehow these values got ingrained into me and no matter what I am still cooking, cleaning and taking care of kids while my partner relaxes.
I was also taught how to be a "girl" by my teachers and peers. In kindergarten I was obsessed with my nails growing long and what color I would paint them when they finally did. All the role play I did involved being married with a house and having babies. As I got older I could think about myself more in depth and what it meant to be a woman to me. I usually rebel against traditional woman roles. But oddly when I paint my nails I find strange comfort. The scariest aspect of my socialization is that no matter how much I try to reject what I was taught about gender it stays there. I am now genderizing my son. Just today someone made the comment that he was 100 percent male. This makes me sad. He is being bombarded with information on how men should be. I can't stop him from learning to be a "guy". But I can help him grow to be caring loving and understanding of all people.

Thanks