Gender Equality Today For a Sustainable Tomorrow: Break the Bias

Edem EO, Effiom BE and Inaja A

Published on: 2023-11-30

Abstract

In some Western cultures, pink is for girls, blue is for boys. Why? You might hear mothers remark with wonder that their little girls just love the pink dress (that was given to them). You may have heard fathers insist that their sons not wear pink clothing. It is interesting to think that at the end of the nineteenth century in the USA, pink was actually the colour preferred for boys, its being a soner version of military red. Things have changed.

The accepted wisdom that stereotypes originally come from a place of truth is erroneous. No credible research has indicated that girls gravitate toward pink things without any cultural prompting. Our gendered behavior is primarily socially conditioned. Research suggests that the idea of a female brain and a male brain is false. Rather, the plasticity of the brain means that it can be molded—from birth onward—through learning, engaging in the world, and being socially conditioned. This includes learning and absorbing gender stereotyping.