Q.Act like a boy if you are a girl, or act like a girl if you are a boy, for at least one hour in front of your friends and parents. Reflect on your experience — how difficult was it to perform like the other gender? (Activity 3.3)

This activity is likely to feel genuinely uncomfortable or difficult precisely because gender roles are so thoroughly internalised through years of socialisation by parents, peers, and media — making 'gender-inappropriate' behaviour feel psychologically effortful, and often drawing visible surprise or correction from others. …

This activity is a direct, personal way of experiencing just how powerfully gender roles are internalised through socialisation, a process the chapter describes in detail under the socio-emotional development of childhood.

Gender identity — accurately and consistently labelling oneself as a boy or a girl — is typically acquired by around 3 years of age, and from that point on, children's preferences increasingly show up in their toy choices and play. A gender role is a set of expectations prescribing how males and females are supposed to think, act, and feel, and parents are described as an especially important influence on gender socialisation, particularly in the early years — using rewards and punishments to encourage 'gender-appropriate' behaviour (teaching daughters to be feminine, sons to be masculine); peer influence is considered another major contributor. Parents are also documented to restrict school-aged girls more than boys, and to assign different household chores to sons and daughters, effectively giving daughters a kind of 'dependence training' and sons a kind of 'independence training' through countless everyday interactions. Media — including cartoons and commercials — is documented to further perpetuate gender stereotypes: research cited in the chapter finds that authority figures in commercials are shown as male across cultures, while women are shown more often in dependent or domestic roles, or selling body-care products, and men more often selling sports products.

Once children have internalised these gender standards, they begin actively expecting, and enforcing, gender-appropriate behaviour from themselves — the chapter gives the examples of young boys refusing to wear feminine clothing even in a fancy-dress competition, and girls playing 'house' (ghar-ghar) refusing to take on the father's role. This process — becoming ready to encode and organise information along the lines of what is considered appropriate for one's own gender — is called 'gender typing.' …