Gender Socialization of Youth in the Family

India is the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census). According to the provisional figures of the 2011 census, the youth population in the country including adolescents is around 550 million. This phenomenal rise in the youth population has made India the youngest nation with a demographic dividend appearing to be a reality. Socialization of young in the family is very important. 

Family is an important sociological and demographic unit. The first step of socialization of a person starts from the family. Gender socialization is the process of learning the social expectation and attitudes associated with one sex.

This paper is an empirical survey of young students of Ahmedabad. The main objective of this paper is to know the different dimensions of gender socialization of the youth in the family i.e. their gender role, gender stereotypes, gender relations etc.

The sample of 600 students is selected from undergraduate and postgraduate students. The questionnaire is designed as a tool of data collection.

 This paper is divided into four parts. The first part introduces the Sociological concepts of youth, family, gender socialization, approaches of gender roles and socialization. The second part is on methodology. The third part consist the detailed analysis of the survey and final part is on findings and suggestions.

The study reveals that socio-cultural factors are important in gender socialization. The study indicated that there is a significant effect of gender socialization in the family on the young. The study also shows that there is quite a good relation between patriarchal system and inequality of socialization.

The study makes a number of recommendations for action.