Gendered Parenting in Early Childhood: Subtle But Unmistakable if You Know Where to Look

Gendered parenting refers to parental messages and behaviors that convey information about how girls and boys are supposed to behave. In this article, we show that although gendered socialization is rarely found in broad parenting styles or explicit parenting practices, it is present in implicit parenting practices. Such implicit practices can be directed to the child (direct messages) and take the form of exposing children to different products and responding to children's behaviors differently depending on gender. Implicit gendered parenting practices can also be directed to others or reflect general gendered expressions that are conveyed to the child (indirect messages); these can take the form of gendered evaluations of others’ behaviors in the child's presence and modeling gendered roles. We argue that studying these subtle forms of gendered parenting is important to understand gendered child development in light of the changing societal backdrop of gender roles and values.