Parent classes to help parents better understand divorce and each other in the process. If they understand what dirvorce means and how to go about doing it, the child would be less likely to be used as a weapon against either side.
Actively fighting for gender equality and eliminating gender bias in society. Changing the terms we use, making wages equal, seeing men and women's personality traits rather than the stereotypes created by society.
Raising children in a gender bias-free environment and society. Making books with princesses more open to all children and not just becoming gender exclusive. Teaching girls that they are strong leaders and letting boys know that emotions are okay.
2. Research:
“But the author goes on to decry other enforced “curbs” on divorce that actually are hugely helpful services created by divorce innovators, legal and psychological. Such as parenting classes, mentioned in the piece as an insulting intrusion on personal freedom. Massachusetts, for example, has a mandatory six-hour parenting education course for divorcing parents.”
These classes are meant to help parents understand how divorce affects a child’s mind as well as how it affects their ex-partner
“Parenting classes began appearing in the 1980s and ‘90s as family activists fought to replace the old law-oriented, adversarial, punitive approach to divorce with a more collaborative, interdisciplinary process.”
Arkansas is the state with the highest divorce rate, this is where parenting classes are being heavily applied
“We all have unconscious biases, attorneys and mediators included. It is part of the human experience. The unfortunate thing is that many of us do not recognize our biases when we are sitting in the room with our clients, during a negotiation and in the courtroom. The failure to realize our biases and to take actions to counteract them prevents us helping clients to come to the best resolution for them and their families.”
This bias springs from gender bias formulated by society
“Most of us grew up believing women were the natural caregivers and men were the breadwinners. These stereotypes carry into how we handle clients in a divorce. We assume the wife/mother is going to want primary custody, or maybe that she should have custody just because of her gender. This is archaic thinking.”
““Tender Years Doctrine” which favored the wife/mother for children of a certain age. This policy has been debunked and is no longer considered valid in the Courts, but it does not mean that those biases do not still exist.”
Check your own biases. Be mindful of the language you use, the way you treat people of different genders, and even the perspectives you hold on your own abilities and traits.
Have open discussions at home about the way chores are divided up. Set expectations that both kids and adults are expected to have a turn at everything: cooking, cleaning, yardwork, and taking out the trash.
Ask children for their feedback about these family practices. Do they think boys and girls are being held to the same expectations? Are parents dividing work up equally — and if not, do kids understand why?
Provide children of both genders with books and movies that feature nontraditional gender roles. Talk about female politicians, athletes, and scientists, and male teachers, dancers, and homemakers.
Encourage kids to try all types of extracurricular activities, and talk about why they might feel more comfortable in some pastimes than in others. Help them distinguish whether they enjoy an activity because they’re surrounded by people like them, or because of the activity itself. Allowing girls to do baseball, allowing boys to do ballet
For every 1 female character in a movie, there are 3 male characters
We must show children that women can be leader
We must show children that men can be caring and nurturing
“My Princess Boy”
This is a book written about a young boy who like to dress up in dresses and was attracted to more girlier things
By creating books like this, messages can be spread to children
Personal Notes and Ideas:
Looking into other cultures
Making small changes to how we see gender will add up in the long run
Seeing more fathers as nurturing
Understanding that a mother's loving and nurturing characteristics are cultural
Creating something for children to allow them to grow up in a society that sees both parents as prime caregivers
Having commercials with more male father role models / single fathers
Taking away gender from toys, boys and girls may still be attracted to certain types of toys, but dolls should be for both boys and girls. By taking care of them, it imprints a caring skill on to children
3. Analyze:
Limitations: I feel as if the major issue with trying to change gender bias in this nation (teaching children about gender bias and how to be aware of social bias, making men and women equal with means changes in both need to be made) is that there are many people who are against it and do not want to make a change, or even want to reverse the equality we have now. It will take us as an entire society to eliminate biases that affect things such as divorce, we each must make small changes to the way we talk, the phrases we use, the things we give and teach our child. Yet there are some members of society that have ideals they would like to keep the same. Many people fully believe that a man is supposed to be strong, tough, stern, and not seen as the most caring to a child; others believe women are soft, weak, nurturing, and are the only parent that really matters to a child’s growth. This is going to be the hardest thing to overcome. It is impossible to have immediate change to how we view gender roles and it is theorized that it will take another 108 years to reach gender parity.
Strengths: More and more new generations are coming up being pro-gender equality. It seems as if slowly children are being raised in a more equal and accepting world. Thinking about a 100 years ago really puts today's nation into perspective. Gender couldn’t have been more distorted and unequal in the United States and in many other places.