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.
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.
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).
So if you wanted to, could you
raise your child to be
gender neutral?
The vocabulary of sex & gender
A. Biological Gender – anatomical and
physiological attributes
 Difference 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 infants
 Stay close to home while men hunt and gather =
physical strength difference (Rossi, 1984)
The vocabulary of sex & gender
B. 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 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?
Theories of Gender Development
Zucker, 1999: “A persons gender identity
depends on the interaction of genes,
prenatal hormones, anatomical structures,
and experiences.”
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
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.
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).
Freud: Gender development
 Oedipus complex – boys
 Desire for mother
 Frustration – hostility towards father
 Castration anxiety
 Desire for father
 Frustration – hostility towards mother
 Penis envy
psychlotron.org.uk
 Elektra complex – girls
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
1. Ideals to aspire to
2. Moral rules
3. Gender identity
psychlotron.org.uk

Biological Theories of Gender Development
1. Biology (hormones) & Gender roles
A. 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 roles
A. 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
Biological Theories of Gender Development
1. Biology (hormones) & sexual Identity
B. 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
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 (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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity
Social 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 gender
1) Changed her mind after birth of own child &
study of more cultures
• Motherhood = biological inclination, Fatherhood =
social invention
2) Biological determinist! (1949)
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
Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity
3.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
4.Social Role Theory, Eagly, 1987: Gender roles
come from different work role
Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity
Social learning theory
 Social learning theory assumes children learn genderappropriate 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.
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) .
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).
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.
Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender Identity
Findings not supporting Social learning theory
 Although Bandura et al's research 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).
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 oversimplistic. 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.
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 (sextyped) or egalitarian attitudes has been found to correlate
with four- year-olds' perceptions of sex roles (Quiery, 1998)
.
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.