Sex and Gender

Definitions

• Sex - refers to biological aspects of the individual.
  For example, a child’s sex is identified at birth by its genitals
• Gender - refers to the psychological and cultural aspects of maleness or femaleness.
• Sex identity - the biological status of being male or female
• Gender identity - some adults whose sex identity is male say they
  feel as though they are female, so we say their gender identity is female. Gender identity therefore refers to the individual’s feelings of being either male or female.
• Sex typing (or gender typing) - treating people in accordance with
  society’s expectations of them because of their sex, for example giving toy guns to boys and make-up sets to girls.
• Androgyny - the set of behaviours which includes high level of both
  masculine and feminine characteristics. This term was used by Bem (1975) as a result of her work on masculinity and femininity.
• Gender role - the set of expectations that society has about what
  behaviours, characteristics, attitudes, jobs and so on are appropriate for male and for females.

Biological Factors in Sex Differences

There are a number of ways that males and females differ

• Chromosomes - the major determinant of sex is the pairing of chromosomes. Females have XX chromosomes, males have XY.
• Gonads - the reproductive organs: in females these are the ovaries and in males the testes.
• Hormones - the chemicals that affect the development of the internal reproductive structures and the genitals. The testes in the male foetus produce testosterone. The ovaries in the female foetus produce oestrogen and progesterone.

The Batista Family

Four of the children who were born with normal female genitals were reared as girls.

However, at about 12 years old they started to develop male genitals and other male features, so that as adults they appeared to be male.

The hormone which creates external male features was absent in the foetus so the infant appeared to be female at birth. When the child reached puberty, this hormone was produced in sufficient quantities to trigger the external changes that should have occurred before birth.

There were several other families in the villager who were affected. They all had a common ancestor.

Social Learning theory and Gender rolesObservation

Models

• Similar - so the child is likely to observe the behaviour of someone who is the same sex. They learn what is appropriate for their sex.
• Powerful or caring - such as a parent or teacher. The parent of the same sex is a very influential model.
• Reinforced - if the child sees that the model’s behaviour leads to pleasant consequences, it is called vicarious reinforcement because the child is reinforced indirectly.

Imitation

Evaluation of Social Learning theory

• Children show gender-typed preferences for toys and imitation of same-sex models by about two years of age. Reinforcement and modelling are, by themselves, unlikely to produce such strong preferences at such a young age.
• Children reared in one-parent or homosexual families do not have difficulties with gender role development. There is no evidence that absence of a powerful same-sex model, or less conventional models for male or female behaviour, affect the child’s gender role development.
• Children persist in behaviour which they do not see modelled.

Psychoanalytic theory

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, instinctive drives underlie human behaviour.

A boy experiences the Oedipus complex because of his desire for his mother and fear that his father will castrate him. To resolve this conflict (to reduce anxiety) the boy identifies with his father he adopts his father’s behaviours, speech and attitudes.

The boy feels that his father will castrate him and behaving like the father will bring the boy closer to his mother. So the boy internalises male characteristics through identification with his father.

A girl experiences the Electra complex she has unconscious longings for her fathers and fears loss of her mother’s love. Because she thinks she has already been castrated by her mother, she is not afraid of her.

Her identification with her mother is less strong than that of the boy. But she still adopts the characteristics of her mother and so her gender role develops.

Evaluation of the Psychoanalytic theory

A second criticism is that children younger than four years old are aware of gender roles, such as preferring gender-typed toys and activities.

Cognitive Development

Kohlberg (1966)

Stage 1 - Gender labelling (up to 3 years old)

By about 18 months of age the child knows what ‘label’ it is and by the age of two and a half it can ‘label’ other children and adults. However, the child doe not understand that:

• We stay the same sex throughout life, so a little girl may say she will be a daddy when she grows up
• We stay the same even if we change our appearance to resemble someone of the other sex.

Stage 2 Gender stability (3 to 5 years old)

Gender stability is achieved when the child understands that one’s sex remains unchanged throughout life; a four year old girl will know she will become a woman when she grows up. But she can be deceived by appearance e.g. saying that a man wearing a dress would be a woman.

Stage 3 Gender constancy (from 6 years old onwards)

When a child understands that gender remains constant in other people despite changes in appearance they have achieved gender constancy.

Kohlberg said that when a child has a full understanding of gender, it pays more attention to people who are of the same sex as itself, and adopts their behaviours, attitudes and values – the child’s gender role develops.

Evaluation of the cognitive-developmental theory

• Although this theory can explain why children of about six years old pay more attention to the same sex this does not explain the younger child’s awareness of gender role.
• There is cross-cultural research which supports Kohlberg’s stages.
• Cultural differences in Gender role development

M. Mead (1935)

• The Arapesh tribe showed similar behaviours, regardless of sex. Both men and women were gentle and affectionate shared the rearing of children equally.
• The Mundugumor tribe also showed similar behaviours, but here both men and women were aggressive and competitive; children and child-bearing were disliked.
• The Tchambuli tribe had distinctive gender roles, but the males were dependent and spent much of their time making crafts and grooming themselves whereas the women supported and managed the family and were more dominant.

Munroe et al (1984)

They found a consistent pattern that children first come to understand that they will stay the same sex throughout life but can still be confused about the sex of others when those people change their appearance.