Module 10 - Sex and Gender Roles_10799133_061658

MODULE 10: SEX AND GENDER ROLES

Sex vs. Gender

  • Sex: Biological identity determined by chromosomes, hormones, and physical characteristics.
  • Gender: Social and cultural identity as male or female. Overview:
    • At birth, children are labeled by sex, which influences treatment from others.

Early Gender Socialization

  • Parents and caregivers often treat infants differently based on gender:
    • Boys: Described as strong or active.
    • Girls: Described as sweet or cuddly.
    • Color Associations: Boys typically given blue clothing, girls given pink clothing.
    • Parents provide gender-typed toys, activities, and interaction styles.
  • This contributes to gender typing, the process where children learn behaviors and roles considered appropriate for their sex.

Gender-Role Standards

  • Defined as a behavior or value considered more appropriate for one sex than the other.
  • Historically, societies have encouraged two broad roles:
    • Expressive Role (often for females): Nurturing, cooperative, emotionally sensitive.
    • Instrumental Role (often for males): Assertive, competitive, independent, goal-oriented.
  • Research by Herbert Barry and colleagues shows:
    • Boys are encouraged toward achievement and self-reliance.
    • Girls are encouraged toward nurturance, obedience, and responsibility.

Gender Typing

  • Occurs when children:
    1. Recognize their gender identity.
    2. Adopt behaviors, motives, and values considered appropriate for their gender in their culture.
  • Gender Stereotypes Today:
    • While gender roles are becoming more egalitarian, many stereotypes persist.
    • Research by Deborah Prentice and Erica Carranza found that young adults still expect:
    • Women: Friendly, compassionate, emotionally expressive.
    • Men: Ambitious, assertive, strong leaders.
    • These expectations influence evaluations and responses to others.

Facts and Fictions About Sex Differences

  • Males and females show clear physical differences, but psychological differences are often much smaller than perceived.
  • Major review by Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin analyzed over 1,500 studies, revealing a few consistent psychological differences between males and females.
Actual Psychological Differences Between the Sexes

  1. Verbal Ability

    • Girls show a small advantage in verbal skills:
      • Develop language earlier.
      • Score slightly higher in reading comprehension and speech fluency.
      • Perform better on math tasks requiring verbal strategies.
      • However, boys may perform better in verbal analogies.

  2. Visual/Spatial Ability

    • Boys tend to perform slightly better in visual/spatial tasks.
    • Visual/spatial abilities: Ability to mentally manipulate images or understand spatial relationships.
      • Example: Mental rotation tasks (imagining how an object looks when rotated).
    • This difference appears around age 4 and continues into adulthood but is not large.

  3. Mathematical Ability

    • Boys show a small advantage in mathematical reasoning during adolescence.
    • Important points:
      • Girls often earn higher grades in math.
      • Girls display better computation skills.
      • Boys often express more confidence in math abilities.
      • Boys employ varied problem-solving strategies.
    • The difference is most notable among very high math achievers.

  4. Aggression

    • One of the largest consistent differences:
      • Boys show higher levels of physical and verbal aggression.
      • Boys are more prone to engage in violent crime.
    • Girls often exhibit relational aggression, which includes:
      • Ignoring others.
      • Social exclusion.
      • Damaging friendships or reputations.

  5. Activity Level

    • Boys typically demonstrate higher physical activity levels.
    • This difference:
      • Appears before birth and persists through childhood.
      • Explains the prevalence of rough-and-tumble play among boys.

  6. Fear and Risk-Taking

    • Girls tend to be:
      • More fearful.
      • More cautious.
      • Less likely to take risks.
    • Boys are more likely to:
      • Take physical risks.
      • Sustain injuries from risky behavior.
    • Parental expectations reinforce these behaviors.

  7. Developmental Vulnerability

    • Boys are more biologically vulnerable, experiencing higher rates of:
      • Autism.
      • ADHD.
      • Reading disabilities.
      • Speech problems.
      • Emotional disorders.
      • Cognitive delays.

  8. Emotional Expression

    • Boys and girls show similar emotional responses as infants.
    • Gender differences emerge later:
      • Boys express more anger.
      • Girls express more emotions overall.
      • Girls: Use more emotion-related words, discuss feelings more often, and are generally encouraged to express emotions.

  9. Empathy and Nurturance

    • Mixed research results:
      • Girls often report higher levels of empathy.
      • Experimental results indicate boys experience similar emotional reactions when witnessing distress.
      • In practical scenarios, boys may exhibit concern for pets or relatives comparable to girls.

  10. Compliance

    • Girls generally show higher compliance with authority figures.
    • Girls use polite persuasion and cooperation;
    • Boys more frequently employ demanding or controlling strategies.

  11. Self-Esteem

    • Boys show slightly higher self-esteem overall.
    • This difference arises in early adolescence and continues into adulthood.

Key Conclusion

  • Males and females are more similar than different.
    • Example: Gender accounts for only about 5% of aggression differences, indicating that 95% of differences arise from other factors.
    • Ability distributions significantly overlap between genders, making gender an unreliable predictor of individual abilities.

Cultural Myths About Gender

  • Many stereotypes lack empirical support.
  • Common myths suggest females are:
    • More sociable.
    • More suggestible.
    • Less logical.
    • Less analytical.
    • Less achievement-oriented.
    • These beliefs are considered cultural myths.

Why Gender Stereotypes Persist

  • Stereotypes endure due to selective attention:
    • Individuals notice behaviors confirming stereotypes while ignoring behaviors that contradict them.
    • Example study: Researchers observed a baby's reactions to a toy labeled “David” or “Dana”:
    • If labeled boy → anger.
    • If labeled girl → fear.
    • The identical behavior was interpreted differently based on the label.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

  • Occurs when expectations shape behavior, making the expectation become reality.
  • Example in education:
    • Parents believe boys excel in math, consequently:
    • Encourage sons more in math.
    • Attribute sons' success to ability and daughters' success to effort.
    • As a result, girls may:
    • Feel less confident.
    • Shy away from math courses and careers, perpetuating the stereotype.

Home Influences

  • Research by Jacquelynne Eccles indicates parental beliefs significantly impact children's interests and confidence.
  • Typical cycle:
    1. Parents anticipate boys will excel in math.
    2. Parents credit boys' achievements to ability.
    3. Girls internalize lower expectations.
    4. Girls subsequently lose interest in math careers.

School Influences

  • Teachers may also propagate stereotypes, for instance:
    • They might regard boys as having more math ability and view girls as simply harder workers.
    • This belief may steer girls toward fields like English, Music, and Arts, even with higher grades in math.

Changing Trends

  • Positive progress is evident, with more women entering professions such as:
    • Law.
    • Medicine.
    • Science.
    • Engineering.
  • Notable examples of female leadership include:
    • Nancy Pelosi.
    • Hillary Clinton.
  • This evolving landscape suggests a gradual breakdown of many stereotypes.

Developmental Trends in Gender Typing

  • Research focuses on three principal areas:
    1. Gender Identity – Awareness of one’s gender group and understanding that gender is stable over time.
    2. Gender-Role Stereotypes – Beliefs regarding the expected behaviors of males and females.
    3. Gender-Typed Behavior – Preference for activities and behaviors deemed appropriate for one’s gender.
Development of Gender Identity
  • Awareness develops early:
    • 4 Months: Infants can match voices with faces of males and females.
    • End of First Year: Infants distinguish photographs of men and women.
    • Ages 2-3: Children learn gender labels like “boy,” “girl,” “mommy,” and “daddy.” Most can identify their gender but do not yet grasp gender permanence.
      • Example misconceptions:
      • Boys think they can become mommies.
      • Girls think they can become daddies.
      • Misbelief that clothing changes can alter gender.
    • Ages 5-7: Children comprehend that gender is permanent and does not change over time.
    • Researchers Susan Egan and David Perry expand gender identity to include:
    • Feeling typical or atypical of one’s gender.
    • Satisfaction with one’s gender.
    • Freedom to explore cross-gender interests.
    • Views on gender superiority which may influence self-esteem and social adjustment.
Development of Gender-Role Stereotypes
  • Children acquire stereotypes very early.
  • Research by Deanna Kuhn reveals that 2½ to 3½-year-olds associate behaviors with genders:
    • Common Stereotypes Learned:
    • Girls:
      • Talk more.
      • Play with dolls.
      • Assist with housework.
      • Are gentle.
    • Boys:
      • Play with trucks.
      • Build things.
      • Are strong or aggressive.
  • Increasing Knowledge: Preschool and elementary school children learn broader stereotypes pertaining to:
    • Toys.
    • Activities.
    • Occupations.
    • Personality traits.
  • By ages 10-11, children's stereotypes resemble adult stereotypes.
  • A cross-cultural study by Deborah Best found common beliefs:
    • Women: Emotional, gentle, affectionate.
    • Men: Aggressive, ambitious, dominant.
Young Children’s Rigid Thinking
  • Ages 3-7 treat gender roles as strict rules:
    • Example reasoning:
    • Boys should not play with dolls.
    • Girls should not play with “boy toys.”
  • Reasons for rigidity include:
    • Attempts to clarify gender categories.
    • Exaggeration of stereotypes for better understanding.
Increasing Flexibility in Middle Childhood
  • Ages 8-9: Children start to think more flexibly about gender roles:
    • Recognize moral rules are serious violations while gender norms are customs and customs can be bent.
    • Example statements from this understanding:
    • Boys can play with dolls.
    • Girls can play football.
  • Despite increased flexibility, peer disapproval can still occur for those who violate gender norms.
Cultural Influences
  • Children’s gender attitudes vary across cultures:
    • Collectivist cultures (e.g., Taiwan) typically have stricter adherence to gender roles.
    • Individualistic cultures (e.g., Western societies) demonstrate more flexibility in norms.

Gender Thinking During Adolescence

  • Gender attitudes shift during early adolescence, undergoing a process termed gender intensification.
  • Gender Intensification: Represents increased pressure to conform to traditional gender roles during puberty.
  • During this phase:
    • Boys: Emphasize masculinity.
    • Girls: Emphasize femininity.
  • Three primary influences contribute to this intensification:
    1. Parental Influences:
    • Fathers typically spend more time with sons, while mothers spend more time with daughters.
    1. Peer Influences:
    • Teens desire acceptance and adherence to social norms.
    1. Dating Expectations:
    • Boys may adhere to traditional masculine roles to attract partners.
  • As adolescence progresses, thinking regarding gender tends to become more flexible again.