GENDER DEVELOPMENT
Gender is one of the universal dimensions on which status differences are
based. Gender is considered as one of the many social constructs specifying the
socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women to follow. It shapes the lives
of all people in all societies.
Understandings of gender continually evolve. In the course of a person’s life, the
interests, activities, clothing and professions that are considered the domain of one
gender or another evolve in ways both small and large. This has perhaps never been
truer than it is now.
People tend to use the terms “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. But while
connected, the two terms are not equivalent. Generally, we assign a newborn’s sex as
either male or female (some US states and other countries offer a third option) based on
the baby’s genitals. Once a sex is assigned, we presume the child’s gender. For some
people, this is cause for little, if any, concern or further thought because their gender
aligns with gender-related ideas and assumptions associated with their sex.
Nevertheless, while gender may begin with the assignment of our sex, it doesn’t
end there. A person’s gender is the complex interrelationship between three
dimensions:
Body. Our body, our experience of our own body, how society genders bodies,
and how others interact with us based on our body.
Most societies view sex as a binary concept, with two rigidly fixed options: male
or female, based on a person’s reproductive anatomy and functions. But a binary view
of sex fails to capture even the biological aspect of gender. While we are often taught
that bodies have one of two forms of genitalia, which are classified as “female” or
“male,” there are Intersex traits that demonstrate that sex exists across a continuum of
possibilities. This biological spectrum by itself should be enough to dispel the simplistic
notion that there are just two sexes. The relationship between a person’s gender and
their body goes beyond one’s reproductive functions. Research in neurology,
endocrinology, and cellular biology points to a broader biological basis for an
individual’s experience of gender. In fact, research increasingly points to our brains as
playing a key role in how we each experience our gender.
Bodies themselves are also gendered in the context of cultural expectations.
Masculinity and femininity are equated with certain physical attributes, labeling us as
more or less a man/woman based on the degree to which those attributes are present.
This gendering of our bodies affects how we feel about ourselves and how others
perceive and interact with us.
Identity. The name we use to convey our gender based on our deeply held,
internal sense of self. Identities typically fall into binary (e.g. man, woman), Non-binary
(e.g. Genderqueer, genderfluid) and ungendered (e.g. Agender, genderless) categories;
the meaning associated with a particular identity can vary among individuals using the
same term. A person’s Gender identity can correspond to or differ from the sex they
were assigned at birth.
Gender identity is our internal experience and naming of our gender. It can
correspond to or differ from the sex we were assigned at birth.
Understanding of our gender comes to most of us fairly early in life. According to
the American Academy of Pediatrics, “By age four, most children have a stable sense of
their gender identity.” This core aspect of one’s identity comes from within each of us.
Gender identity is an inherent aspect of a person’s make-up. Individuals do not choose
their gender, nor can they be made to change it. However, the words someone uses to
communicate their gender identity may change over time; naming one’s gender can be
a complex and evolving matter. Because we are provided with limited language for
gender, it may take a person quite some time to discover, or create, the language that
best communicates their internal experience. Likewise, as language evolves, a person’s
name for their gender may also evolve. This does not mean their gender has changed,
but rather that the words for it are shifting.
The two gender identities most people are familiar with are boy and girl (or man
and woman), and often people think that these are the only two gender identities. This
idea that there are only two genders–and that each individual must be either one or the
other–is called the “Gender binary.” However, throughout human history we know that
many societies have seen, and continue to see, gender as a spectrum, and not limited
to just two possibilities. In addition to these two identities, other identities are now
commonplace.
Youth and young adults today no longer feel bound by the gender binary, instead
establishing a growing vocabulary for gender. More than just a series of new words,
however, this shift in language represents a far more nuanced understanding of the
experience of gender itself. Terms that communicate the broad range of experiences of
non-binary people are particularly growing in number. Genderqueer, a term that is used
both as an identity and as an umbrella term for non-binary identities, is one example of
a term for those who do not identify as exclusively masculine or feminine. This evolution
of language is exciting, but can also be confusing as new terms are created regularly,
and since what a term means can vary from person to person.
Social. How we present our gender in the world and how individuals, society,
culture, and community perceive, interact with, and try to shape our gender. Social
gender includes gender roles and expectations and how society uses those to try to
enforce conformity to current gender norms.
Social gender is the third dimension. This includes Gender expression, which is
the way we communicate our gender to others through such things as clothing,
hairstyles, and mannerisms. It also includes how individuals, communities and society
perceive, interact with, and try to shape our gender. Social gender includes gender roles
and expectations and how society uses those to try to enforce conformity to current
gender norms.
Practically everything is assigned a gender—toys, colors and clothes are some of
the more obvious examples. We begin to teach children about gender from the moment
they are born; given the prevalence of the gender binary, children face great pressure to
express their gender within narrow, stereotypical definitions of “boy” or “girl.”
Expectations regarding gender are communicated through every aspect of our lives,
including family, culture, peers, schools, community, media, and religion. Gender roles
and expectations are so entrenched in our culture that it’s difficult to imagine things any
other way.
Children who express gender outside of these social norms often have a difficult
experience. Girls thought to be too masculine and boys seen as feminine face a variety
of challenges. Kids who don’t express themselves along binary gender lines are often
rendered invisible or steered into a more binary gender presentation. Pressures to
conform at home, mistreatment by peers in school, and condemnation by the broader
society are just some of the struggles facing a child whose expression does not fall in
line with the binary gender system.
Because expectations around gender are so rigid, we frequently assume that
what someone wears, or how they move, talk, or express themselves, tells us
something about their gender identity. But expression is distinct from identity–we can’t
assume a person’s gender identity based on their gender expression. For example, a
boy may like to wear skirts or dresses. His choice in clothing doesn’t define his gender
identity; it simply means that he prefers (at least some of the time) to wear clothes that
society has typically associated with girls. In fact, how we interpret a person’s gender
and the assumptions we make about them is related to our personal understanding of
gender and the norms and stereotypes we have integrated—it isn’t about them.
Finally, norms around gender change across societies and over time. One need
only consider men wearing earrings or women having tattoos to see the flexibility of
social expectations about gender. Even the seemingly intractable notion that “pink is for
girls; blue is for boys” is relatively new. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, pink was
associated with boys’ clothing and blue with girls’ clothing (still due to the gendering of
colors, but with a different rationale associating each color with particular gendered
characteristics).
Each of these dimensions can vary greatly across a range of possibilities and is
distinct from, but interrelated with the others. A person’s comfort in their gender is
related to the degree to which these three dimensions feel in harmony. Let’s explore
each of these dimensions in a little more detail.
I. Theories of Gender Development
We said earlier that gender is socially learned, but we did not say specifically just
what that process looks like. Socialization occurs through our interactions, but that is not
as simple as it may seem.
Psychodynamic Theory. The Psychodynamic Theory believes that parents, as
the distributors of reinforcement, reinforce appropriate gender role behaviors.
Psychodynamic theory has its roots in the work of Viennese Psychoanalyst,
Sigmund Freud. This theory sees the role of the family, the mother in particular, as
crucial in shaping one’s gender identity. Boys and girls shape their identity in relation to
that of their mother. Because girls are like their mothers biologically, they see
themselves as connected to her. Because boy are biologically different or separate from
their mother, they construct their gender identity in contrast to their mother.
When asked about his gender identity development, one of our male students
explained, “I remember learning that I was a boy while showering with my mom one
day. I noticed that I had something that she didn’t.” This student’s experience
exemplifies the use of psychodynamic theory in understanding gender development.
Symbolic Interactionism. Symbolic Interactionism (George Herbert Mead) is
based specifically on communication. Although not developed specifically for use in
understanding gender development, it has particular applicability here. Because gender
is learned through communication in cultural contexts, communication is vital for the
transformation of such messages. When young girls are told to “sit up straight like a
lady” or boys are told “gentlemen open doors for others,” girls and boys learn how to be
gendered (as masculine and feminine) through the words (symbols) told to them by
others (interaction).
Social Learning. Social Learning theory is based on outward motivational factors
that argue that if children receive positive reinforcement, they are motivated to continue
a particular behavior. If they receive punishment or other indicators of disapproval, they
are more motivated to stop that behavior. In terms of gender development, children
receive praise if they engage in culturally appropriate gender displays and punishment if
they do not. When aggressiveness in boys is met with acceptance, or a “boys will be
boys” attitude, but a girl’s aggressiveness earns them little attention, the two children
learn different meanings for aggressiveness as it relates to their gender development.
Thus, boys may continue being aggressive while girls may drop it out of their repertoire.
Cognitive Developmental Theory. Derived from Kohlberg’s speculations about
gender development. We know from Piaget’s work that children engage in symbolic
thinking, they acquire their gender identity and then Kohlberg believes, they begin the
process of acquiring gender-appropriate behavior.
Unlike Social Learning theory that is based on external rewards and
punishments, Cognitive Learning theory states that children develop gender at their own
levels. The model, formulated by Kohlberg, asserts that children recognize their gender
identity around age three but do not see it as relatively fixed until the ages of five to
seven. This identity marker provides children with a schema (A set of observed or
spoken rules for how social or cultural interactions should happen.) in which to organize
much of their behavior and that of others. Thus, they look for role models to emulate
maleness or femaleness as they grow older.
Gender Schema Theory. A schema is a mental blueprint for organizing
information. Such a schema helps a child to develop gender identity and formulate an
appropriate gender role. Children develop an integrated schema or picture of what
gender is and should be.
II. Stereotyping
Gender Stereotyping is defined as the belief humans hold the characteristics
associated with males and females.
A gender stereotype is a generalized view or preconception about attributes or
characteristics, or the roles that are or ought to be possessed by, or performed by
women and men. A gender stereotype is harmful when it limits women’s and men’s
capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make
choices about their lives.
According to social role theory, gender stereotypes derive from the discrepant
distribution of men and women into social roles both in the home and at work (Eagly,
1987, 1997; Koenig and Eagly, 2014).
Harmful stereotypes can be both hostile/negative (e.g., women are irrational) or
seemingly benign (e.g., women are nurturing). For example, the fact that child care
responsibilities often fall exclusively on women is based on the latter stereotype.
Gender stereotyping refers to the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or
man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership
in the social group of women or men. Gender stereotyping is wrongful when it results in
a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Several problems exist:
1. When the characteristic associated with a particular gender has negative image.
2. When a unique individual is assumed to have all the characteristics associated
with their gender.
3. Failure to criminalize marital rape based on societal perception of women as the
sexual property of men, and the failure to effectively investigate, prosecute and
sentence sexual violence against women based on, e.g., the stereotype that
women should protect themselves from sexual violence by dressing and
behaving modestly.
III. Gender and Equality
Gender equality gives women and men the same entitlements to all aspects of
human development, including economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, the
same level of respect, the same opportunities to make choices, the same level of power
to shape the outcomes of these choices.
Gender shapes the lives of all people in all societies. It influences
all aspects of our lives, the schooling we receive, the social roles we play,
and the power and authority we command. Population processes – where
women and men live, how they bear and rear children, and how they die –
are shaped by gender as well. (Riley, 1997)
What’s the goal here? To achieve gender equality and empower all women and
girls.
Why? Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore
also half of its potential. But today gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates
social progress.
What happens if gender equality is not ensured? Inequalities faced by girls can
begin right at birth and follow them all their lives. In some countries, girls are deprived of
access to health care or proper nutrition, leading to a higher mortality rate.
But, why should gender equality matter to me? Regardless of where you live in,
gender equality is a fundamental human right. Advancing gender equality is critical to all
areas of a healthy society, from reducing poverty to promoting the health, education,
protection and the well-being of girls and boys.
IV. Gender and Power
Power is a basic fabric of society and is possessed in varying degrees by social
actors in diverse social categories. Power becomes abusive and exploitative only when
independence and individuality of one person or group of people become so dominant
that freedom for other is compromised.
Gender shapes power, from the ‘private’ relationships of the household to the
highest levels of political decision-making.
Gender divides power. Inequalities between men and women are one of the most
persistent patterns in the distribution of power. For example, women’s lack of influence
marks political decision-making the world over.
Gender relations are power relations. Often what it means to be a 'woman' is to
be powerless (quiet, obedient, accommodating). A ‘real man’, by contrast, is powerful
(outspoken, in control, able to impose his will), particularly in relation to women. These
gender roles tend to perpetuate the power inequalities that they are based on. For
example, the fact that many men and women think it’s not ‘natural’ for women to speak
up in public often poses a key barrier to women’s access to decision-making. ‘Power
equals masculinity’ also helps explain why powerful people often demonstrate
dominance in gendered ways.
Gender shapes power inequalities based on other divisions, such as class and
ethnicity, and vice versa. In Sri Lanka, for example, a power analysis revealed that
almost all women parliamentarians were related to male politicians from powerful
political families. The vast majority also came from the dominant Sinhalese ethnic
group. Opposition to opening up more parliamentary seats for women representing
women therefore “not only stems from a reluctance to share power with women, but
also from a reluctance to enable women outside the main ‘political culture’ to access
seats of power and authority.”
Gender shapes how we understand what ‘power’ is in the first place. The widely
accepted definition of power is getting someone else to do what you want them to do.
Arguably this reflects a specifically male experience of the world: a place inhabited by
hostile ‘others’ with whom, to survive, you are forced to forge some kind of social
relationship. Women, particularly in their socially assigned roles of wife and mother,
may more often understand themselves as being in continuity with the people around
them rather than in opposition. They often aim to build capacity in others rather than to
dominate. This would suggest an alternative idea of power: the capacity to transform
and empower yourself and others. Amongst other things this alternative perspective
highlights that women can sometimes have special forms of influence on decision-
making because of their specific social status. In Liberia, for example, women working
for peace were able to achieve high levels of trust among opposing factions by
emphasising their non-threatening roles as sisters, mothers and wives.
V. Gender and Education
The study of gender and education encompasses gender differences in
educational outcomes such as achievement, attainment, and experiences within the
education system. This field also moves beyond the study of how gender influences
educational outcomes and incorporates how these differences impact the labor market,
family formation, and health outcomes.
General overviews of gender and education provide broad information on trends
and theories in this field. Jacobs 1996 focuses on gender specific trends in higher
education and early theories that sought to explain these differences, while Buchmann,
et al. 2008 provides a contemporary review of the literature on gender inequalities in
education. DiPrete and Buchmann 2013 provides a thorough review and analyses of
historical trends in gender and education in the United States, while Charles 2011
reviews trends in gender equality in education throughout the world. Grant and
Behrman 2010 and King and Hill 1997 both examine education patterns by gender in
developing countries. Today, like developed nations, these countries are experiencing a
reversal of the gender education gap where females now have an advantage over
males.
Investing in education is seen as one of the fundamental ways in which nation
states and their citizens can move toward long-term development goals and improve
both social and economic standard of living. The education of women is seen as
providing the key to securing intergenerational transfer of knowledge and proving the
substance of long-term gender equality and social change.
Significant gains have been made in women’s education as a result of global
advocacy, more often than not, the gains are fragile, vulnerable to changes in economic
and social environments, and lagging behind in male rates enrolment and achievement.
Schools also reinforce gendered social roles. Researchers have
documented the differential treatment accorded to males and females in
the classroom that reinforces a sense of inferiority and lack of initiative
among female students. (Sadker and Sadker, 1988)
Boys are far more likely than girls to be given specific information
that guides the improvement of their performance. (Boggiano and Barett,
1991)
