SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
What we'll be talking about:
Sex roles - the set of behaviors, attitudes, rights, duties and obligations that are a part of being a boy or a
girl.
Sex role concepts - set of ideas child has about specific content of a sex role. What M's and F's are
"supposed to do".
Sex typing -
extent to which child's behavior matches cultural expectation for his or her sex role.
These are issues of the extent to which child's ideas and behavior conform to social norms.
Important political and educational issues arise here...women's movement - societal change to roles and
sexuality.
At a deeper level...sexual identity
What kinds of emotional and motivational factors lead the child to adopt a sex role. How is sex role
related to personality?
Personality integration - achieved in large measure by acceptance of one's biological self, one's
sex. Stability = harmony of personality aims with biological fact of sex.
Disharmony - boys feel that masculinity not valued or masculine goals are dangerous elect a course which makes no demands on masculinity.
girls who despises body, believes that girls are inferior and aspires to be
masculine will experience conflict.
Self image is first derived from the body. Maleness or femaleness is an inescapable fact.
An image of self that denies or negates this fact will result in constantly renewable
conflict.
The process of identification with one's biological sex should be completed by ages 6-7 pleasure derived from being boy or girl. If not, there is some concern for worry.
Children in day-care centers will not have reached that point.
They play at being the opposite sex. Crossing over and doing typical things of
other sex.
Girls and guns
Girls urinating standing up.
"Borned" before being finished.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
2
Boys and wanting a baby - play with dolls.
How is this goal reached?
Attitude of child towards sex role - conceptual, normative emotional ties
How can we assist?
Emotional factors - self-image and identification with one's sex.
Love attachments of child to parents are normal...
3 to 5/6 years - child fantasies of parental substitution. Ambivalence
Daydream must be given up. How? The reality is that the child cannot have (merge with) parent.
Substitution - a realistic approach...to be like Father or Mother.
Identification: Another kind of satisfaction that reinforces masculinity or
femininity.
What does this mean?
It does not mean simply attraction for clothes or toys.
1.
harmony between mother and daughter in school age child - favorable sign
of positive attitude to mother and one own's femininity.
2.
Absence of strong rivalry with boys or aggressive attitudes toward men.
3.
Pleasure in associating with other girls and in activities.
4.
Daydreams and aspiration.
Problem - if masculine feelings dominate and repudiation of femininity.
Developmental patterns:
Gender concept - labeling own sex correctly, and that of others.
15-18 mo. -
Notice external features of men and women - hair and clothes.
2 years -
Identification with pictures - "which one is you?"
2 1/2 - 3 yr.
Correctly label and identify sex of others.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
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Stability – the idea that we stay the same
Age 4 - will you be "mommy or a daddy?"
Constancy - stay the same regardless of appearance.
Age 5 or 6 - fully developed gender concept.
Sex role concepts and stereotypes
What "goes with" or "ought to go with" being a boy or girl?
"What do girls (boys) like to do?"
"What is OK to do?" boys - dolls. girls - climb trees.
Adult sexual stereotypes...
Male - competent, skillful, assertive, aggressive, able to get things done.
Female - warm and expressive, tactful, quiet, gentle, aware of other's feelings, lacking in
competence, independence and logic.
These are blurring but are still present.
Stereotypes - partially in place by age 5 or 6 and firm at 7-8
Softens in adolescents.
What ought children do?
Similar results:
Age 4 - OK for George to play with dolls.
Age 6 - Wrong for George to play with dolls.
Age 9 - distinction between what you can do and what is usually done.
5-6 year olds looking for moral rules about how boys and girls behave. Later change to
conventions.
Male stereotype will develop earlier and more highly valued.
Good to be independent, assertive, logical, strong. Less good to be warm, quiet, tactful,
gentle.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
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Sex-role behavior
2(-3) years -
sex stereotyping in toy choice
Girls: dolls, housekeeping, sewing, beads, cooking
Boys: guns, toy trucks, fire engines, carpentry tools.
Probably results from imitation , reinforcement and direct guidance from parents. Not
absolute. Limited understanding of gender-related behaviors. Know that certain
objects go with mommy or daddy (e.g. lipstick and ties) but do not yet understand
broader categories of gender nor that they share gender with one parent.
2 ½ – 3.0 -
Choose same-sex playmates - more sociable, much stronger at school age.
3.0
60% of spontaneous play groups are same-sex.
5-6 years -
pay more attention to same-sex adults and playmates and play more with sex-appropriate
toys.
Cross-sex children:
More girls want to be boys than boys girls.
Feminine boys are more feminine very early on in appearance, more often ill or hospitalized early in life,
relatively less contact with parents.
Biological causes?
Feminine attitude
Androgenized girls.
Cultural sex stereotyping - modeling
T.V. and books (Mo. leaders, more of them, stories of what future role will be (F's more concerned with
this). Social class.
Toys given to children in playtime activities.
Non-sexist child rearing - Sandra Bem
Gender category too important in our culture.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
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Monitors in class - one boy and one girl.
Boys and girls on opposing teams.
Alternatively selected - hair color, eyes, race.
Result - a highly salient category.
1. Stress gender as a biological fact, defined by reproductive capacities and by anatomy
Genitals, not clothes, define sex.
Jeremy, age 4, wearing barrettes to school. "Everyone has a penis, only girls wear
barrettes.
2. Alter cultural messages about sex stereotypes.
Discussion of issues.
Selection of materials.
3. Stress inividual differences.
Some boys like football and some don't.
Different interests are OK.
4. Attitude - men and women are fundamentally alike in most respects.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
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Rough and tumble play (ethology) 4-5 years
High pitch of group activity.
Characteristics run, hop, jump, fall over, chase, flee, wrestle, hit at, laugh, make a face.
Playfulness indicated by laughter or play face.
(agressive conduct - hit, push, take-tug-grab, stare down, frown).
Most likely to occure out of doors and breaks out spontaneously after children have been released from
classroom or set tasks.
Boys - more vigorous activity, noise and shouting, closer physical contact (wrestling and
tumbling).
Movement toward periphery in larger mobile groups.
Girls - more likely to be centered on slides or swings, smaller groupings than boys.
Play in a more restricted area, staying closer to staff or playground equipment.
Usually one-sex groups.
Across all activities - girls more attracted to more sedentary play with toys or art materials, tend to talk
more with each other and spend more time with one or two
partners.
boys - race about more, make more and shorter social contacts,
focus less of their activity on toys and materials.
Younger children -
spend more time watching than in boisterous play - exploration by watching precedes
participation.
Three-year-olds - take part in active social play though less than older children.
New children engage in boisterous play last.
Highly social and different from intentional acts of aggression.
Some cultural influence.
Toy preference:
Often considered indicative of child's own sexual identification.
Boys: "masculine" toys - soldiers, trucks
Girls - dolls and household objects, but generally more versatile - some masculine toys.
Origins - parent as models, approval and support.
SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT
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Study of private rooms of 96 children, under 1 to age 6.
No difference with respect to books, furniture, musical objects, and stuffed animals.
Boys: more variety of objects, more toy animals in barns or zoos, objects relating to
space, matter, energy or time (magnets, puzzles, spaceships). Live animals, replicas of
heavy equipment, military. Some dolls, but none feminine.
Girls: more dolls, floral designs, ruffles and lace. Doll's houses, stoves, tea sets, cradles.
In child care center, at 18 mo., girls play with trucks as much as boys.
Conclusion:
parents not acceding to spontaneous interests of children but were primarily
responsible for different inventories of objects.
Later, boys move toward tool benches or push trucks, girls gather around
kitchen corner.
Objects provide enjoyment in mastering their use or in understanding the properties of things - facilitate
social contacts and assist in the expression of ideas and feelings.
Family Roles:
Children usually adopt sex-appropriate roles, especially in mixed-sex pairs.
Same sex pairs - boys take on some functional role usually adopted by girls (server, shopper) but
never specified family role as a female one.
3-year-olds - boy wants to cook dinner - told by girl that "Daddies don't cook". Girls are a bit
more versatile (some male professions.
Youngest children use only M, F, baby - no siblings
Pretend play:
Young - most often victim
Older - boy as defender