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...sly aware of their molding of the child to meet specific sex role standards and much of the differential treatment handed out is a reflection of the adults’ own life history, their firm sex role socialization dimming awareness of its generation replication. While biological evidence contributes to our understanding of the origins of gender differences, another route to take is the study of gender socialization, the learning of gender roles through social factors such as the family. ‘Medical technology like an ultrasound enables the identification of sexual difference even before birth’ . When the sex of the fetus is known the construction of such a difference is extended to life in the womb. Parents can then actively construct the fetus as a gender identity. This occurs through choosing gender appropriate names, discussing and purchasing gender appropriate clothing (such as pink clothes for girl babies) and by ascribing specific attributes (such as ‘tiny baby girl’) to the fetus according to the sex. Knowledge of the sex of a fetus therefore extends possibilities for the ways in which mothers and fathers begin constructing gender realities about their offspring. Luria and Rubin (1973) have shown that stereotypes even influence adults perceptions of newborn babies. When viewed for the...