Gender roles in Mesoamerica are established from birth. Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: Mesoamérica) is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Boys, for example, are given toys to play with that establish their future masculine roles while the girls get toys that relate to grinding and other activities women are expected to perform. Gender roles that many Mexican societies try to establish from birth. At birth, newborn boys are given a machete by their fathers, and girls receive a metate and malacate (the stone instrument used to grind maize and the spinning whorl) from their mothers, representing their future economic roles. The stereotype that women play a minimal role in the family is far from accurate. Although women's roles in agriculture have been underestimated, if it were not for the contributions of women in agriculture, the family would not survive.
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