Theories of Gender Development
Sam Mathews
Freud’s Work:
1. Psychoanalytic perspective has viewed gender, sex, and sexuality in an
essentialist light
2. Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective has been “popularized” and has become part
of our social consciousness
3. Structuralist—mind has an inherent structure (id, ego, superego; unconscious,
preconscious, conscious)
4. “Instincts” drive our personalities—life/sexual and death/aggressive
5. Psychosexual stages “track” our development
a. Oral
b. Anal
c. Phallic
d. Latent
e. Genital
6. Phallic stage is critical in that a “psychoanalytic dimorphism” occurs
a. Oedipal/Electra
b. Resolution of these stages is key to healthy maturation
7. Freud’s views of women were conflicted—saw them as inherently pathological
yet also saw women as intellectual equals
a. Pushed to admit women to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society when no
women had been admitted (Dr. Margaret Hilferding, 1910)
b. Disagreed on admitting women to the “common” workforce
 “it is really a stillborn thought to send women into the struggle
for existence exactly as men. If for instance I imagined my gentle
sweet girl as a competitor, it would only end in my telling her as
I did 17 months ago, that I am fond of her and that I implore her
to withdraw from the strife into the calm uncompetitive activity
of my home…Nature has determined women’s destiny through
beauty, charm, and sweetness…Law and custom have much to
give women that has been withheld from them, but the position
of women will surely be what it is: in youth and adored darling,
and in mature years a loved wife… Freud at 23 years prepsychoanalytic emergence
Karen Horney:
1. Raised in home with stern father—fought her attempts to go to medical school but
was convinced; she became one of the first women admitted to the medical school
at the University of Freiburg; Joined the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society;
2. Questioned assumption that women felt their bodies inferior;
3. One of the first to explore how culture impacted psychosexual development;
4. Wrote paper that suggested Freud’s view was the product of a male bias
a. the fears within males were really of being reabsorbed into the vagina;
b. castration fear was really a fear of becoming a woman;
c. men envied the woman’s ability to give birth and suckle the infant;
d. social environment in which children are raised can harm them through
two processes
i. devaluation—failure to respect the child as a unique and
worthwhile individual
ii. sexualization—parents taking a sexual approach to the child
e. Women envy men's freedom to pursue their interests because of their
own overemphasis on relationships this was her interpretation of penis
envy
5. Horney was ultimately disqualified as a training analyst by the New York
Psychoanalytic Society…but gained fame and wealth through writing and other
professional activities
Nancy Chadrow (sociologist):
1. Focused on mother—child bond
a. Mother—infant daughter bond closer due to maternal identification
(infants don’t discriminate yet)
b. Mother—son bond less intense; boys treated differently
c. Daughters have a more evolved sense of identity because their relationship
with their mothers does not have to be disrupted to find the feminine
identity
d. Boys must first separate from their mothers then identify with masculine
model to establish a masculine identity
2. Males’ denigration of women result of boys continued attempts to distinguish and
separate themselves from their mothers.
3. If parenting were more equally shared, this difference would not occur
4. Chadrow uses the word "reproduction," in her work on “mothering” in order to
stress the fact that mothering reproduces itself--that is, this oppressed side of the
division of labor is destined to reproduce its own oppression. The most
problematic aspect of this process is that mothering has been establlished as
biological (and thus essential, natural) labor.
5. Chadrow believes that psychoanalysis cannot make universal claims that concern
psychological development. They must take into account the cultural and
historical conditions of the present time. She characterizes Freud's work as only
sometimes describing how women develop in a patriarchal society. Instead of his
work arising out of clinical observation, Chadrow illustrates Freud's work as
making unsupported statements about how women and men "ought to be"(Flax,
1993).
Ellyn Kaschak:
1. Antigone’s dilemma is that she was destined to be the caregiver of her father;
hence, Kaschak’s analogy was based on the comparison of Antigone’s
relationship with her father to women’s relationships with their fathers/husbands.
2. Given the social structure propagates the subordination of women to men, the
Antigone dilemma continues—women are destined to be caregivers.
3. Men treat women as extensions (aka property) of themselves. Family violence
perpetrated by the father/husband is based on the privilege derived from this
position and was termed by Johnson (1995) patriarchal terrorism.
4. Women who separate from fathers (resolve Antigone phase) become more
independent..
Carol Gilligan:
1. Worked with Lawrence Kohlberg at Harvard in the area of moral development;
2. Kohlberg’s theory posited 3 major phases
a. Preconventional
b. Conventional
c. Post-conventional
d. Based on male participants in the first data set;
e. Posited that there was a set of universal principles for which individuals
strived; those principles transcended time and place/culture
f. Fewer females proportionately were represented at the highest levels;
3. Gilligan’s work was based on the critique of the initial theorizing. She posited that
given the male sample in the early work, the data were skewed in a masculine
direction.
4. Gilligan’s work was based initially on a sample of female adolescents from a
private school near Boston.
5. She found that there was a progression within an “ethic of care” among females
a. Self care from need
b. Other care from need
c. Self-Other care from need
d. Interdependence
6. Critiques of Gilligan’s work have resulted in a recognition that both men and
women can use a “different voice.” That is, it may depend more on gender role
than biological sex.
Cognitive Developmental Theory
1. Kohlberg argued that the development of gender identity, labels, and constancy of
gender followed cognitive developmental (ala Piaget) pathways and progressed
from labeling in preschool years through gender constancy in the early primary
school years.
2. Focus is on knowledge of one’s gender being primary force guiding search and
selection of gender appropriate experiences.
Gender Schema Theory
1. Children’s cognitive development allows the development of special schemata
around gender.
2. Again, the focus is on the primacy of the children’s schema. However, the schema
is impacted by culture. But, the individual’s cognitive structures are still prime in
constructing gender.
Social Cognitive Theory (Bussey & Bandura, 2004—published after Brannon went to
press with 2005 edition)
1. Gender Development and functioning…
a. the product of the interplay of cognitive, affective, biological, and
sociostructural influences
b. products of a broad network of social influences operating within familial,
educational, peer, mass media, occupational, and sociocultural subsystems
(pg. 691)
c. development extends across the entire lifespan as we construct and
reconstruct our gender identities
d. reciprocal transactions with role models based on:
i. functional value of the modeled behavior
ii. model’s perceived power
iii. model’s perceived control over desired resources (pg. 692)
e. non-stereotypic media modeling expands children’s aspirations and the
role options they consider appropriate (Ashby & Wittmaier, 1978).
f. Development of a sense of personal agency within gender roles based on
forethought, self reflective, and self reactive functions (Bandura &
Bussey, 2004, pg. 692)
g. Beliefs of personal efficacy…operate as determinants across diverse
spheres of functioning, societal subsystems, and cultural
orientations…over the entire lifespan (693)
h. Mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and
positive affective environment within these experiences enhance
perceptions of personal agency (Bandura, 1997) so, as individuals
i. are afforded opportunities to experience success,
ii. observe relevant models experience success,
iii. receive positive and informative feedback and
iv. experience perceive these as positive affective experiences,
v. they will likely develop a balanced gender identity through
informed choices
i. Social Cognitive Theory overcomes many of the weaknesses of the
Cognitive Developmental theories in that Bandura and Bussey posit a set
of transactions that involve the individual and culture and which occur
across the lifespan defining, validating, and altering the individual’s
conceptions of gender.