GENDER DEVELOPMENT�MODULE 3.3A�

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Learning Targets:

• Explain how the meaning of gender differs from the meaning of sex.
• Explain some ways in which males and females tend to be alike and different.
• Explain how sex hormones influence prenatal and adolescent sexual development.
• Explain some cultural influences on gender roles.
• Explain how we form our gender identity.

Key Terms

• Sex - the biological category of male or female assigned at birth
• Intersex – person born with unusual combinations of male & female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy.
• Gender – culture’s expectations of what it means to be a man or woman
• sex is a matter of the body, while gender occurs in the mind
• Gender Roles - behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits designated either masculine or feminine in a given culture
• Gender Identity - A person’s psychological sense of being male or female
• Gender Typing – acquiring the traditional male & female roles (argued to possibly be a natural process)
• Transgender – A person’s gender identity/expression is different from their birth sex
• Sexual Orientation - direction of a person's emotional and erotic attractions

Gender Related Differences

• Gender-roles – social expectations people hold about the characteristics and behaviors of each sex
• Culture shapes gender role development
• Gender roles differ over time & place
• The differences between men and women are average differences, not absolute differences.
• Knowing that a gender difference exists in no way explains what caused that difference.
• Differences do not mean deficiencies

Gender Differences

FEMALE

• Less Physically Aggressive but more Relationally Aggressive
• More democratic in leadership role
• More interdependent (tend & befriend)
• Score higher on verbal, reading, and writing

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MALE

• More Physically Aggressive
• More directive/autocratic in leadership role
• More independent (less empathetic, more domineering)
• Score higher on spatial skills - mentally rotating objects

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• No significant differences between men and women on most characteristics
• By age 50, many gender differences or no longer noticeable

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NATURE OF GENDER�(PRENATAL)

• Biology influences gender in two ways…
• Genetically – different sex chromosomes (Female: XX, Male: XY)
• Physiologically – Differing concentrations of sex hormones (Female: estrogen, Male: testosterone)

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Hormones & the Developing Brain

• At about 7 weeks, a gene turns on the production of testosterone by the testes in males.
• Estrogen is produced in females by the ovaries.
• During 4^th & 5^th months, the fetal brain’s wiring is influenced by these hormones.
• this is when one get’s “wired” male or female

NATURE OF GENDER�(ADOLESCENCE)

• Puberty – physical changes that occur as the result of sex hormones in adolescence.
• Starts at approximately age 10 (as early as 9) in females and age 12 (as late as 16) in males
• Major growth spurt
• Sequence of physical changes same for all, timing can differ by individual

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS

• Reproductive organs & external genitalia that make sexual reproduction possible
• Ovaries in females
• Menarche – 1^st menstrual period
• Testes in males
• Spermarche – 1^st ejaculation

SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS

• Nonreproductive sexual characteristics
• Breasts and hips enlarge in females
• Growth of hair in underarm & pubic regions
• Facial hair and voice changes in males

• Intersex – born with intermediate or unusual combination of male & female physical features.
• Born a Boy, Brought Up a Girl: The David Reimer Story – watch this documentary to see what life was like for a boy raised like a girl after a botched circumcision.
• (4 part series – 10 minutes each)

Intersex

Gender Role Development

• 45 of the 46 chromosomes are unisex
• Culture shapes gender role development
• Girls and boys are treated differently from birth.
• Gender identity/awareness emerges at a very early age.
• From about 18 months to the age of 2 years, sex differences in behavior begin to emerge.

GENDER ROLE DEVELOPMENT

• Between ages 2-3 years, children can identify themselves and other children as boys or girls.
• Preschoolers start acquiring gender-role stereotypes for toys, clothing, household objects, games, and work.
• The concept of gender or sex, however is based more on outward characteristics such as clothing.
• After age 3 we see consistent gender differences in preferred toys and activities

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• Toddler girls play more with soft toys and dolls, and ask for help from adults more

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• Toddler boys play more with blocks and transportation toys (trucks and wagons), and play more actively

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GENDER ROLE DEVELOPMENT

• Throughout the remainder of childhood, boys and girls play primarily with members of their own sex. Also, boys play in larger groups.
• Children (age 5-6) are far more rigid than adults in their beliefs in gender-role stereotypes
• As they grow older, girls grow more flexible in their gender role attitudes but boys become more rigid.
• In many ways, children’s behavior mirrors the gender-role stereotypes that are predominant in our culture.

See an example of these stereotypes by clicking on the picture

GENDER STEREOTYPES

Male and female brains are much more alike than they are dissimilar

Or are they?

GENDER IDENTITY:

How do we form our gender identity?

- Our Personal Sense of being Male or Female – regardless of whether this matches our birth-assigned sex

THEORIES OF GENDER IDENTITY

• Social Learning Theory – Children learn gender roles through observing & imitating others and through rewards & punishments.
• Gender Typing – Taking on traditional roles of male or female (varies from child to child and by culture)
• Gender Schema Theory – Children actively form mental categories (schemas) for masculinity & femininity from their culture, recognize their own gender role, and select activities that match that role.
• Androgyny – a blending of male and female roles (not the same as transgender)

GENDER SCHEMAS…

1. Influence how people pay attention to, perceive, interpret, and remember gender-relevant behavior
2. Seem to lead children to perceive members of their own sex more favorably than members of the opposite sex
3. Include a broad range of qualities and attributes that are less concrete, such as associating “gentleness” with females and “toughness” with males

TRANSGENDER

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• Identify emotionally and psychologically with the opposite sex than with their biological sex.

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• For the first seven weeks after conception, male and female embryos are anatomically indistinguishable.
• Then, the genes activate biological sex, which is determined by the sex chromosomes (XX, female; XY, male).

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• Production of testosterone begins in the male embryo in about the seventh week, and the external male sex organs begin to develop.
• Then in the fourth and fifth months, testosterone in the male and ovarian hormone estrogen in the female affect brain-wiring patterns.
• Some who identify as transgender show neural tracks that fire more in line with the opposite sex of their birth-assigned sex.

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