Originally Posted by
achoo
Is it a result of socialization, or are the social norms driven by innate differences in the sexes?
Go watch a basketball game played by 4- and 5-year-old boys. When the ball is going out of bounds, they know which team touched it last and players on that team will dive to save the ball. 4- and 5-year-old girls don't play a basketball game, they have a group conversation that peripherally involves bouncing a ball. If the ball goes out of bounds one or two of the girls might notice.
Watch 3- and 4-year-olds on the "kiddie squad" of a local pool's swim team. The boys talk trash and brag about beating the slow kids. The girls cheer each other on and try to help the slow kids.
There's such a huge disparity in behavior at that young of an age that it's pretty hard to attribute it to just social pressure.
While there is indeed an innate difference between the sexes, there is an amazing amount of pressure for children to conform to gender role norms as well. Once you start noticing it, it's probably greater than the innate differences between sexes. I make a strong effort not to do it with my kids, but not extreme. I've heard hundreds of comments from acquaintances and strangers like legos aren't for girls, tools aren't for girls, trucks aren't for girls, don't cry like a girl, and other types of comments pushing girls towards dolls, playing house, etc and boys towards boy toys and activities and away from girl toys and activities. So again, there are real differences, but the societal pressures are very strong, and much more common and relentless than you might think if you don't focus on noticing it. It starts early and like maneuvering operations on a spacecraft, small adjustments over time can lead to large changes. My goal with my kids is to make them aware, expose them to a lot of things, encourage them to do anything that's good for them, and to eventually make them aware of the pressures and options.
But to act as most people here have done, that nothing is going on, is naive. Of course the gender role norms and social pressures affect the choices people make for exercise and whether to take up biking beyond childhood. How much is up for debate of course, but it's not none and I don't think it's small.
Edit: Oh and I'd actually go as far as to say that some of the documented differences in the adult male and female brains are partly due to the activities they are encouraged to do as children and throughout life. I don't have evidence to back that up specifically, but there is increasing evidence now that what activities we focus on do affect our brains.