Gender bias

Alpha bias

The differences between males and females is exaggerated

Beta bias

The differences between males and females is minimised or ignored

Gender bias

A preference or prejudice towards one gender over the other. Can be conscious or unconscious.

Androcentrism

Male centred: Male thinking and behaviour is seen as normal.

Kohlberg’s theory

whereby any behaviour or way of thinking which deviated from the “normal” male behaviour was considered inferior, unusual, or abnormal

Universality

the belief that ideas and findings can be applied to everyone, anywhere regardless of culture

Kolbergs theory of moral development - beta bias

indicated that because women tend to ‘place a stronger emphasis on things such as social relationships and the welfare of others’, they did not reach as high of a level of morality and moral reasoning as what most men would

Freuds theory of psychosexual development - Alpha biased and androcentristic

Anatomy is destiny - differences in physiology between males and females

Penis envy

where he states that a girls development is shaped by the relisation that she lacks said male organ, indicating a woman is simply defined as an inferior man.

What Freud thought women should do?

Reinforcing the stereotype that womens ambitions should cease at motherhood, when a man may continue to do whatever he pleases.

Erik Eriksons psychological theory - alpha bias

a womans identity is defined by the partner she chooses to marry and the role of motherhood

Impact of alpha and beta bias

the extent of misdiagnosing illness based on (sometimes uncouncious) gender bias. Real physical symptoms can sometimes be wrongfully attributed to mental health conditions.

Female hysteria

a genuine diagnosable illness in women. Instead of understanding the diferent characteristics expressed in illness/conditions possessed by different genders, it was assumed that women were more likely to be mentally ill than men.

Solutions to address the issue of gender bias

Carol Gilligan theory

Carol Gilligan theory

rather than labelling women as inferior or not as morally deloped as males, kolberg should acknowledge that womens morality may follow a different trajectory than that of a man.

How Gilligan’s theory was actually alpha biased

Gilligan possessed a strong gynocentric lens when developing her own theory

To counter androcentrism, we must

approach gynocentrism