Gender in the Cradle: Evaluating Gender Assignment as a Social Norm

Society exhibits an obsession with gender in early childhood that creates the binary gender landscape
within which a child lives. Previous research on gender assignment fails to consider the normative
expectations that lead a parent to ascribe socially constructed gender roles onto their children. This
study substantiates the necessity to recognize gender assignment as an ongoing, socially motivated
process that occurs before birth, at birth, and in early childhood. Interview and survey research was
employed to A) investigate parenting decisions and motivations to assign gender and B) decipher the
measurable components of a social norm in gender assignment. Parents show evidence of mutually held
beliefs of social expectations to assign gender and indicate that these social expectations motivate their
decision to assign gender. These findings support the diagnosis of gender assignment as a social norm,
enhance knowledge of gender assignment, and prompt change in parenting practices.