Gender Role Development

Gender Role Development

What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails, And puppy-dogs' tails; That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, and all that's nice; That's what little girls are made of.

Gender refers to the identity a person adopts as a result of developmental processes. Gender identity is usually linked to biological sex organs but this is not always the case. Some women adopt a masculine identity, some men adopt a feminine identity.

Identity formation is an active cognitive process and is therefore open to influence from innate physiological processes as well as from social forces (such as media, cultures, parenting and so on). Gender role refers to the sets of behaviours, rights, duties and obligations of being male or female (Bee, 1995).

It is therefore a schema, a mental guide for action, steering an individual towards a socially agreed construction of gender expression.

What is Gender?

Some Native American and Canadian First Nation indigenous groups allow for multiple genders to exist at the same time in a person via the two-spirit concept. This concept recognises that an individual may possess both male and female identities.

In Oman, the Xanith form an accepted third gender in a strictly gender-segregated society. They are usually male homosexual prostitutes who dress as males but have female mannerisms. Xanith mingle with women but they also run their own households, performing all tasks of both male and female gender roles (Lorber, 1994).

Western cultures have a notion known as androgyny (Bem, 1974).

What is Gender?

So if you wanted to, could you

raise your child to be

gender neutral?

The vocabulary of sex & genderA. Biological Gender – anatomical and

physiological attributesDifference are universal, biological determined,

and unchanged by social influence. Some would say this leads to:the development of social roles? (Ev. Psy. – be

careful)Breast feeding = care for infantsStay close to home while men hunt and gather =

physical strength difference (Rossi, 1984)

The vocabulary of sex & genderB. Gender identity – one’s sense of maleness or

femaleness – an awareness & acceptance of one’s and others maleness or femaleness – age 2

• Gender consistency: no mater what you do/look etc. your gender remains the same – around age 7

C.Gender roles (typing) – What society says each gender should do (The IB focus!)what society/culture teaches children about what behavior

is appropriate for each sex – a process

D.What to attribute to nature/nurture is up for debate!

Gender BehaviourHigh degree of agreement across 30 cultures of

gender behavior/roles (Williams & Best, 1994)Male:

Aggressive, better a spatial abilities, assertive Females:

verbal, nurturing, emotionally more sensitive, gentle

Is this due to socialization (societies influence) or some other reason?

Biological Theories of Gender Development

1. Biology (hormones) & Gender rolesA. Evolutionary Psychology

Natural selection based on division of labor has created different gender roles Know the mechanisms of evolutionary theory

E.O. Wilson – different gender roles equal to division of reproduction & labor Males hunt & females tend babies because of physical

features Mating strategies = roles/behavior Parental investment theory (Kenrick, 1994)

Society organized by gender to exclusive meet female needs

Biological Theories of Gender Development

1. Biology (hormones) & Gender rolesA. Evolutionary Psychology

Critics: gender roles not the result of evolution, but a consequence of culture assigning roles

There are cross-cultural differences as well as similarities in gender roles Development of gender roles should be

seen as an interaction of biological & social-cultural factors

1. Biology (hormones) & sexual IdentityB. Hormones influence on gender

(Testosterone/androgens) – “Theory of psychosexual differentiation” In prenatal development testosterone is released This influences brain development

Male ‘brain circuitry’ – spatial abilities, aggression How do we know?

Use of case studies – naturally occurring events (next slide)

Biological Theories of Gender Development

2) Hormone influence on gender roles Bailey, 2003: 200 healthy children

Found positive correlation between levels of testosterone in amniotic fluid and later measure of male-type play

CAH disorder: XX exposed to high levels of testosterone in uterus Girls have more male type behavior

Biological Theories of Gender Development

B. Hormones (cont.) Chromosome (XX & XY) influence: case studies

1) Chromosome influence on gender roles & how society ‘labels’ them & subsequent behavior Reiner & Gearheart, 2004: longitudinal study of 16 genetic

males - rare disorder of being born without a penis – otherwise everything else is normal (had testicles) 2 raised as male & developed male gender identity 14 surgically altered and assigned female role

8 have since declared themselves male 5 living as females 1 is unclear in gender identity

Money (1974): Accidental penectomy –– David Reimmer born male, raised female, unhappy, became male

Biological Theories of Gender Development

Theories of Gender Development

Zucker, 1999: “A persons gender identity depends on the interaction of genes, prenatal hormones, anatomical structures, and experiences.”

Children not passive, but select whom they copy (same sex) (Bandura & SLT)

Children are gender police Fagot, 1985 – observations study of

children between 21 – 28 months Those children who did not behave in

gender appropriate ways were made fun of by other children

Theories of Gender Development

Cognitive Development TheoryKohlberg (1966) argued children acquire greater

understanding of gender as cognition matures – this means children can only acquire gender identity and enact appropriate role behaviours when they are mentally ready. Initially, children acquire a gender concept and then actively seek information from members of the same gender for clues on how to behave. Once they understand gender is fixed and they are to be a boy or a girl forever, they become increasingly motivated to find information on appropriate behaviours.

Cognitive Theories of Gender Development

Cognitive Development TheoryKohlberg thought gender identity was acquired

between the ages of 2 and 3. Between the ages of 3 and 7, the child understands gender is largely fixed but can still change if there is a change in appearance such as hair or clothing. Gender constancy occurs between 4 and a half and 7 years old. This represents a form of the Piagetian notion of conservation as the child understands gender as immovable regardless of superficial changes.

Cognitive Theories of Gender Development

Cognitive Development TheoryMarcus and Overton (1978) report gender conservation

occurs at the same time as other forms of conservation suggesting the process has clear cognitive developmental origins.

Slaby and Frey (1975) divided 2–5-year-olds into two groups: one group they considered to have high gender constancy, and the other group they considered to have low gender constancy. They showed a film with a split screen; one side had male models performing a task, the other side had female models performing a task. Children with high gender constancy had more same-sex bias in their attention. This shows children actively seek and then respond to appropriate gender models.

Cognitive Theories of Gender Development

3. Gender Schemas (Cognitive Perspective)A mental network of attitudes, ideas, etc of what

it means to be male/female, Bem, 1993By age 9 months schemas start developing –

differentiate between male and female faces (Fagot, 1993)

Actively constructed gender schemasdevelops fully by age 4

Martin & Halverson, 1983: Experiment – 5-6 year olds showed gender congruent & incongruent picturesWeek later – remembered boy, not girl, playing with

gun

Gender Schema Theory

Liben and Signorella (1993) found that children who were shown pictures of adults engaged in perceived gender inversion behaviour (e.g. a male nurse) disregarded the information and forgot it – suggesting children are actively engaged in constructing their world view and only select information that supports their vision of gender-appropriate behaviour.

Hidden ReinforcersAdults respond/reinforce aggressive boys,

talkative girls (Fagot et al, 1985)“Boys will be boys”

(Jacobs & Eccles, 1985) Math – boys – you’re a natural whiz, Girls – you must have worked hard

How do you respond to young children of different gender?

Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity

3.Gender is expressed in a Social ContextWe behave in both male & female ways

depending on the social contextStrong gender producing situations

produce strong gender roles: Geis, 1991DatingMakeup of group

4.Social Role Theory, Eagly, 1987: Gender roles come from different work role

Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity

Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity

Social learning theory

Social learning theory assumes children learn gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behaviour via processes present in the environment/culture such as modelling and conditioning through reward and punishment.

Reinforcement can be direct and explicit:

‘You look like a girl in that hat’ (said to a boy)

‘Girls don’t wear jeans’ (said to a girl).

Or it can be more subtle in the form of media images and expectations in peer groups.

Learning the Rules of Gender Identity Lamb and Roopnarine (1979) observed nursery-age children at play and found

they reinforced each other for gender-appropriate play. They also noted reinforcement was more potent if it came from the same gender as the child being reinforced.

Leary et al. (1982) found children who were frequent television watchers are more likely to hold stereotyped ideas about gender and conform more to gender role preferences – suggesting the potency of modelling behaviour from media.

Lewis (1972) observed parent–child interaction and found boys were encouraged to be active and independent and girls were encouraged to be passive and dependent.

It should be noted, these Western-centric studies have a degree of ecological validity as they were conducted as observations but they were also in a time when gender roles were more clearly defined and caution must be used when contemporizing the results either to current Western society or to other cultures.

Theories of Gender DevelopmentSocial Construction

A. Any differences in gender roles between cultures supports the idea of learned roles

B. Margaret Mead (1935) – claimed that gender is cultural – Cultural determinist – 3 New Guinea tribes – all had different concepts of gender1) Changed her mind after birth of own child &

study of more cultures• Motherhood = biological inclination, Fatherhood =

social invention

2) Biological determinist! (1949)

Shift to modern worldGoffman, 1977: predicts that gender roles will switch

from a belief that gender roles are due to biological differences to a belief in general social equitySupport for this in new role of males & females in

Western cultureReinicke, 2006 – young fathers in Denmark find

childcare an important part of their identityEngle, 1994 – found that if fathers participated in

parenting classes, they took on more of a caregiver role

Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity