Abstract
This study examins the role of child rearing practices, as one of the means of the constructionof genders, in the formation of genders and the gender system of Arab society.Various works, primarily, show that parenting is gendered in all societies around the world. Inother words, all parents in every society behave differently to their children considering theirsexes. Within the patriarchal system, especially related with economical reasons, the parent?sview is that boys have more reputation than daughters do. However, new researches revealthat parents are behaving with less discrimination in developed societies. The most importantreason of this change is the decrease of importance of gender differences in the presenteconomic and production oriented conditions of Western societies.When Arab society is examined, contrary to developed societies, it is seemed that traditionalpatriarchal system and gendered childrearing practices are still binding. Despite theheterogenity of the population, this tendency is common among different Arab collecitivities.The main reasons for this condition is fundamentally the lack of developed economy andindustrial production, and also the conservative interpretation of Qur?an throughout the Arabworld. In this way, the gendered childrearing practices begin as soon as the baby is born andcontinues until the child is married. During this period, parents behave dissimilar to their sonsand daughters, and pamper boys more than girls. The gender discriminating behaviour ofparents bring forth self-relying, authoritarian, dominant, chivalrous and audiacious boys andobedient, hard working, fastidious, devoted and silent girls, hence allow continuation of theformation of genders as social categories.
