Gender Role Development

1. Gender Role Development

2. What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, and all that's nice; That's what little girls are made of. • What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails, And puppy-dogs' tails; That's what little boys are made of.

3. What is Gender? • 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.

4. 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).

5. So if you wanted to, could you raise your child to be gender neutral?

6. The vocabulary of sex & gender • Biological Gender – anatomical and physiological attributes • Difference are universal, biologicaldetermined, and unchanged by social influence. Some would say this leads to: • the development of social roles? (Ev. Psy. – be careful) • Breast feeding = care for infants • Stay close to home while men hunt and gather = physical strength difference (Rossi, 1984)

7. The vocabulary of sex & gender • 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 • 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 • What to attribute to nature/nurture is up for debate!

11. Gender Behaviour • High 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?

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

13. Theories of Gender Development • 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

14. Theories of Gender Development • Aggression: According to Maccoby & Jacklin (1974) and Weisfeld (1994), boys are more aggressive verbally and physically than girls, a difference which appears as soon as Social play begins (around two-and-a-half years). While both sexes become less aggressive with age, boys and men remain more aggressive throughout development. • However, some studies have shown that women score higher for certain kinds of indirect non-physical aggression (Durkin, 1995), while others have found no sex differences at all (e.g. Campbell & Muncer, 1994). • According to Schaffer (2004), when both physical and nonphysical aggression are taken into account, the gender difference almost disappears.

15. Theories of Gender Development • Verbal ability: From preschool to adolescence, the sexes are very similar with respect to verbal ability. But at age 11 females become superior, and this increases during adolescence and possibly beyond (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). But again, evidence suggests that any such differences are so small as to be negligible (Hyde & Linn, 1988). • Spatial ability: Males' ability to perceive figures or objects in space and their relationship to each other is consistently better than females' in adolescence and adulthood (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). But while there's male superiority on some spatial tasks, within-sex variability is large. • When between-sex differences are found, they're usually small (Durkin, 1995). • Mathematical ability: Mathematical skills increase faster in boys, beginning around age 12-13 (Maccoby & Jacklin,1974). But while there are significant sex differences, these are in the reverse direction to the stereotype (Hyde et al., 1990).

16. Freud: Gender development • Oedipus complex – boys • Desire for mother • Frustration – hostility towards father • Castration anxiety • Elektra complex – girls • Desire for father • Frustration – hostility towards mother • Penis envy psychlotron.org.uk

17. Freud: Gender development • Identification with same sex parent • ‘I want to be (like) you’ • Internalisation of same sex parent • A representation of the father/mother in incorporated into the psyche • Ideals to aspire to • Moral rules • Gender identity psychlotron.org.uk

18. Biological Theories of Gender Development • Biology (hormones) & Gender roles • 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

19. Biological Theories of Gender Development • Biology (hormones) & Gender roles • 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

20. Biological Theories of Gender Development • Biology (hormones) & sexual Identity • 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

21. Biological Theories of Gender Development • 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 (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia) disorder: XX exposed to high levels of testosterone in uterus – have high levels of androgens (male sex hormones) • Girls have more male type behavior

22. Biological Theories of Gender Development • Hormones (cont.) • Chromosome (XX & XY) influence: case studies • 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): Accidentalpenectomy–– David Reimmer born male, raised female, unhappy, became male

23. Cognitive Theories of Gender Development Cognitive Development Theory • Kohlberg (1966) • Gendered knowledge precedes gendered behaviour • 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.

24. Cognitive Theories of Gender Development Cognitive Development Theory • Kohlberg thought gender identity was acquired between the ages of 2 and 3. • Gender constancy – realisation gender will always be the same. • Three stages: • Gender identity – age 2-3 – aware of one’s own gender and that of others • Gender stability – realise that a girl grows to a woman etc – gender does not change • Gender consistency – girl remains a girl even when she has short hair and plays with trucks – age 3-7

25. Cognitive Development Theory • Marcus 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.

26. 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, 1993 • By age 9 months schemas start developing – differentiate between male and female faces (Fagot, 1993) • Actively constructed gender schemas • develops fully by age 4 • Martin & Halverson, 1983: Experiment – 5-6 year olds showed gender congruent & incongruent pictures • Week later – remembered boy, not girl, playing with gun

27. 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.

28. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity • Hidden Reinforcers • Adults 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

30. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Social Construction • Any differences in gender roles between cultures supports the idea of learned roles • Margaret Mead (1935) – claimed that gender is cultural – Cultural determinist – 3 New Guinea tribes – all had different concepts of gender • Changed her mind after birth of own child & study of more cultures • Motherhood = biological inclination, Fatherhood = social invention • Biological determinist! (1949)

31. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity • Shift to modern world • Goffman, 1977: predicts that gender roles will switch from a belief that gender roles are due to biological differences to a belief in general social equity • Support for this in new role of males & females in Western culture • Reinicke, 2006 – young fathers in Denmark find childcare an important part of their identity • Engle, 1994 – found that if fathers participated in parenting classes, they took on more of a caregiver role

32. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity • Gender is expressed in a Social Context • We behave in both male & female ways depending on the social context • Strong gender producing situations produce strong gender roles: Geis, 1991 • Dating • Makeup of group • Social Role Theory, Eagly, 1987: Gender roles come from different work role

33. 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.

34. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Support for Social learning theory • Sears el al. (1957) found that parents allowed sons to be more aggressive in their relationships with other children, and towards their parents, than daughters. For some mothers, 'being a boy' meant being aggressive, and boys were often encouraged to fight back. Although parents believe they respond ill the same way to aggressive acts committed by boys and girl s, they actually intervene much more frequently and quickly when girls behave aggressively (Huston 1983) .

35. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Support for Social learning theory • Boys were more likely to imitate aggressive male models than were girls (Bandura el al., 1961, 1963). • Children are also more likely to imitate a same-sex model than an opposite-sex model, even if the behavior is 'sex-inappropriate' • Although parents are important models, SL theorists are also interested in media portrayals of males and females. A large body of evidence suggests that gender role stereotypes are portrayed by the media, as well as by parents and teachers (Weber et al. , 1987). • Moreover, children categorised as ' heavy' viewers of TV hold stronger stereotyped beliefs than 'lighter' viewers (Gunter, 1986).

36. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Findings not supporting Social learning theory • According to Maccoby & Jacklin (1974), there are no consistent differences in the extent to which boys and girls are reinforced for aggressiveness or autonomy. In fact, there appears to be remarkable uniformity in how the sexes are socialised. This is supported by Lytton & R.omney (1991), who found very few sex differences in terms of parental warmth, overall amount of interaction, encouragement of achievement or dependency, restrictiveness and discipline, or clarity of communication.

37. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Findings not supporting Social learning theory • Although Bandura et al'sresearch is often cited, the evidence concerning imitation and modelling is actually inconclusive, and some studies have failed to find that children are more likely to imitate same-sex models than opposite-sex models. Indeed, children have been shown to prefer imitating behaviour that's 'appropriate' to their own sex regardless of the model's (Maccoby &Jacklin, 1974).

38. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Findings not supporting Social learning theory • The view that TV can impact upon a passively receptive child audience with messages about sex- role stereotyping, and mould young children's conceptions of gender is over-simplistic. For Gunter & McAleer (1997), children respond selectively to particular characters and events, and their perceptions, memories, and understanding of what they've seen may often be mediated by the dispositions they bring with them to the viewing situation. While ‘heavy' TV viewers might hold stronger stereotyped beliefs than other children, no precise measures were taken of the programmes they actually watched.

39. Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity Findings not supporting Social learning theory • While modelling plays an important role in children's socialisation , there's no consistent preference for the same-sex parent's behaviour (Hetherington, 1967). • Instead, children prefer to model the behaviour of those with whom they have most contact (usually the mother). Also, there 's no significant correlation between the extent to which parents engage in sex-typed behaviours and the strength of sex-typing in their children (Smith & Daglish, 1977). However, fathers' adoption of either traditional (sex-typed) or egalitarian attitudes has been found to correlate with four- year-olds' perceptions of sex roles (Quiery, 1998) .

40. 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.