Differences in gender are, in part, a result of the way society treats boys and girls starting at a young age, said a professor from Willamette University.

On Wednesday, assistant professor Jade Aguilar led a group of around 30 students along with a few adults in a discussion of the ways gender affects all aspects of life.

Aguilar teaches sociology, and women’s and gender studies at Willamette University. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her broad areas of study are gender, sexuality and family.

Her “Mind the Gaps: How Gender Shapes our Lives” discussion was the last of four Conversation Projects sponsored by the nonprofit organization Oregon Humanities. The Conversation Project brings Oregonians together to talk about important issues and ideas, according to the Oregon Humanities website.

Aguilar highlighted the notion that we choose to compare men and women based on characteristics that society has created.

We are born into a world with a preconceived idea about what each gender should be like and then children try to act the part to gain the approval of adults.

Students agreed that women are taught to be passive and reserved, whereas men are told to and act tough, outspoken, and unemotional.

“We gender everything, and then value what men do more,” Aguilar said.

When girls do things considered masculine, such as lift weights, they are considered tough and cool. But when men act feminine, they are looked down upon.

“It puts a really negative message out there that we are so different, and we’re not,” said Aguilar. She said that men and women are actually much more similar than they are different.

She showed examples of products that are unnecessarily gendered, such as pens.

The “regular” pen will be for men, and then there will be a pink version made specifically for women. On top of this, the products marketed to women cost more.

Aguilar also helped students understand the wage gap.

In 2014, women earned approximately 78 cents for every dollar a man made, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity.

Aguilar explained that even though men and women make the same in minimum wage jobs, as jobs become more specialized men tend to get promoted more often and make more money.

“People reduce gender differences to biology, but it’s more than that,” Aguilar said.