Gender Typing &

Identity

Gender Typing & Identity 1

Early Childhood

Gender Typing & Identity 2

 Gender typing refers to any association of objects, activities,
roles, or traits with one sex or the other in ways that conform to
cultural stereotypes (Blakemore, Berenbaum, & Liben, 2009)

Social learning theory

GENDER
TYPING
Cognitive-developmental theory

Gender schema theory.

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 Even before children can label their own sex consistently, they
have begun to acquire common associations with gender—men
as rough and sharp, women as soft and round.

Gender- Around age 2, children use such words as boy, girl, lady, and man
appropriately.
Stereotyped
Beliefs and As soon as gender categories are established, young children’s
Behavior gender-typed learning accelerates.

Preschoolers associate toys, clothing, tools, household items,

games, occupations, colors (pink and blue), and behaviors with
one sex or the other (Banse et al., 2010)

Gender Typing & Identity 4

During early childhood, gender-stereotyped beliefs strengthen—so much so that many children apply
them as blanket rules rather than as flexible guidelines.

Most 3- to 6-year-olds are firm about not wanting to be friends with a child who violates a gender
stereotype (a boy who wears nail polish, a girl who plays with trucks) or to attend a school where
such violations are allowed (Ruble et al., 2007).

These one-sided judgments are a joint product of gender stereotyping in the environment and
young children’s cognitive limitations.

Most pre-schoolers do not yet realize that characteristics associated with being male or female—do
not determine a person’s sex.

Gender-Stereotyped Beliefs and Behavior

Gender Typing & Identity 5
 According to an evolutionary perspective, the
adult life of our male ancestors was largely
oriented toward competing for mates, that of
our female ancestors toward rearing children.

Therefore, males became genetically primed

for dominance and females for intimacy,
Biological responsiveness, and cooperativeness (Konner,
2010).
Influences on
Gender Typing Evolutionary theorists claim that family and
cultural forces can influence the intensity of
biologically based sex differences.

But experience cannot eradicate those aspects

of gender typing that served adaptive functions
in human history.

Gender Typing & Identity 6

 Some researchers argue that biologically based sex differences, which
affect children’s play styles, cause children to seek out same-sex
playmates whose interests and behaviors are compatible with their own.

Biological
Influences on Research confirms that preschoolers are drawn to peers who engage in
similar levels of gender-typed activities.
Gender Typing

But they also like to spend time with same-sex peers regardless of type
of activity.

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Gender
Influences
on Gender
Typing

Gender Typing & Identity 8

 Beginning at birth, parents have different expectations of sons than of daughters.

Many parents prefer that their children play with “gender-appropriate” toys.

And they tend to describe achievement, competition, and control of emotion as

important for sons and warmth, polite behavior, and closely supervised activities as
important for daughters . Eg: Toys, play behaviour.
Parents Parents may provide children with indirect cues about gender stereotypes through
the language they use.

Of the two sexes, boys are more gender-typed.

Parents who hold nonstereotyped values and behave accordingly have children who
are less gender-typed.

Gender Typing & Identity 9

 Teachers often act in ways that extend gender-role learning.

Like parents, preschool teachers encourage girls to participate in adult-

structured activities.

Teachers As a result, boys and girls engage in different social behaviors.

As early as kindergarten, teachers give more overall attention (both

positive and negative) to boys than to girls—a difference evident in
diverse countries, including China, England, and the United States.

Teachers seem to expect boys to misbehave more often—a belief based

partly on boys’ actual behavior and partly on gender stereotypes.

Gender Typing & Identity 10

 The more preschoolers play with same-
sex partners, the more their behavior
becomes gender-typed—in toy choices,
activity level, aggression, and adult
involvement.

By age 3, same-sex peers positively

Peers reinforce one another for gender-typed
play by praising, imitating, or joining in.

In contrast, when preschoolers engage in

“crossgender” activities—for example,
when boys play with dolls or girls with cars
and trucks—peers criticize them.

Gender Typing & Identity 11

 Styles of social influence in gender-segregated peer groups.

To get their way in large-group play, boys often rely on

commands, threats, and physical force.
Peers
Girls’ preference for playing in pairs leads to greater concern
with a partner’s needs, evident in girls’ use of polite requests.

As boys and girls separate, in-group favoritism— more

positive evaluations of members of one’s own gender.

Gender Typing & Identity 12

 Children’s everyday environments present many
examples of gender-typed behavior—in occupations,
leisure activities, media portrayals, and achievements of
men and women.
The Broader Media stereotypes, which are especially prevalent in
Social cartoons and video games, contribute to young children’s
Environment biased beliefs about roles and behaviors suitable for
males and females.

Children soon come to view themselves through a

“gender-biased lens”—a perspective that can seriously
restrict their interests and learning opportunities.

Gender Typing & Identity 13

Gender Typing & Identity 14
Gender identity

 As adults, each of us has a gender identity—an image of oneself as relatively masculine or

feminine in characteristic.
 By middle childhood, researchers can measure gender identity by asking children to rate
themselves on personality traits.
 A child or adult with a “masculine” identity scores high on traditionally masculine items (such as
ambitious, competitive, and self-sufficient) and low on traditionally feminine items (such as
affectionate, cheerful, and softspoken).
 And a substantial minority (especially females) have a gender identity called androgyny, scoring
high on both masculine and feminine personality characteristics.
 The existence of an androgynous identity demonstrates that children can acquire a mixture of
positive qualities traditionally associated with each gender—an orientation that may best help
them realize their potential.

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  How do children develop a gender identity?
 According to social learning theory, behavior comes
before self-perceptions.
 Preschoolers first acquire gender-typed responses
through modeling and reinforcement and only later
organize these behaviors into gender-linked ideas
Emergence of about themselves.
Gender identity  In contrast, cognitive-developmental theory maintains
that self-perceptions come before behavior.
 Over the preschool years, children acquire gender
constancy— a full understanding of the biologically
based permanence of their gender, including the
realization that sex remains the same even if clothing,
hairstyle, and play activities change.

Gender Typing & Identity 16

 Children younger than age 6 who watch an adult dress a doll
in “othergender” clothing typically insist that the doll’s sex
has also changed.
 Piagetian conservation tasks.
Is cognitive-developmental theory correct that gender Emergence of
constancy is responsible for children’s gender-typed
behavior? Gender
 But overall, the impact of gender constancy on gender typing identity
is not great.
 Gender-role adoption is more powerfully affected by
children’s beliefs about how close the connection must be
between their own gender and their behavior.

Gender Typing & Identity 17

  It is an information-processing approach that combines social
learning and cognitive-developmental features.
 It explains how environmental pressures and children’s cognitions
work together to shape gender-role development (Martin, Ruble,
& Szkrybalo, 2002).

Gender schema  At an early age, children pick up gender-stereotyped preferences

and behaviors from others.
theory  At the same time, they organize their experiences into gender
schemas, or masculine and feminine categories, that they use to
interpret their world.
 As soon as preschoolers can label their own gender, they select
gender schemas consistent with it (“Only boys can be doctors” or
“Cooking is a girl’s job”) and apply those categories to themselves.

Gender Typing & Identity 18

Gender Typing & Identity 19
 Because young children’s cognitive limitations lead them
to assume that cultural practices determine gender,
parents and teachers are wise to try to delay
preschoolers’ exposure to gender- stereotyped messages.
Reducing
Gender Adults can begin by limiting traditional gender roles in
their own behavior and can provide children with
Stereotyping nontraditional alternatives.
in Young
Children Teachers can ensure that all children spend time in
mixed-gender play activities and unstructured pursuits, as
children’s behavior tends to be less gender-typed in these
contexts (Goble et al., 2012).

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 Adults can avoid using language that conveys gender stereotypes and can
Avoid shield children from media presentations that do so.

Reducing Once children notice the vast array of gender stereotypes in their society,
Gender Point out adults can point out exceptions.

Stereotyping
in Young Arrange Example: arrange for children to see men and women pursuing non-
traditional careers and can.
Children
By middle childhood, children who hold flexible beliefs about what boys and
Middle girls can do are more likely to notice instances of gender discrimination
(Brown & Bigler, 2004).

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Gender typing
MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Gender Typing & Identity 22

 Research in many countries reveals that stereotyping of
personality traits increases steadily in middle childhood,
becoming adultlike around age 11 (Heyman & Legare, 2004).
 For example: children regard “tough,” “aggressive,” “rational,”
and “dominant” as masculine and “gentle,” “sympathetic,” and
“dependent” as feminine.
 Children derive these distinctions from observing sex
Gender-
differences in behavior as well as from adult treatment. Stereotyped
 When helping a child with a task, for example, parents
(especially fathers) behave in a more mastery- oriented fashion
Beliefs
with sons.
 Furthermore, elementary school teachers tend to stereotype
girls who display “feminine” behavior as diligent and compliant
and boys who display “masculine” behavior as lazy and
troublesome.

Gender Typing & Identity 23

 Also, in line with adult stereotypes, school-age children often
regard reading, spelling, art, and music as subjects girls are
good at and mathematics, athletics, and mechanical skills as
subjects boys are good at.
 These attitudes influence children’s preferences for and sense
of competence at various subjects.
 Although school-age children are aware of many stereotypes, Gender-
they also develop a more open-minded view of what males and
females can do. Stereotyped
 The ability to classify flexibly contributes to this change. Beliefs
School-age children realize that a person’s sex is not a certain
predictor of his or her personality traits, activities, and
behavior.
 Similarly, by the end of middle childhood, most children regard
gender typing as socially rather than biologically influenced
(Taylor, Rhodes, & Gelman, 2009).

Gender Typing & Identity 24

 Children who were more
strongly gender-typed relative Nevertheless, overall changes
to their agemates in early do occur, with boys’ and girls’
childhood usually remain so in gender identities following
middle childhood (Golombok et different paths.
al., 2008).
Gender
Identity and
While still leaning toward the From third to sixth grade, boys
Behavior
“feminine” side, girls are more tend to strengthen their
androgynous than boys—more identification with “masculine”
likely to describe themselves as personality traits, whereas
having some other-gender” girls’ identification with
characteristics. “feminine” traits declines.

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Gender Identity and Behavior

 As school-age children make social comparisons and characterize themselves in terms of stable
dispositions, their gender identity expands to include the following self-evaluations, which greatly
affect their adjustment:
 Gender typicality: the degree to which the child feels similar to others of the same gender. Although
children need not be highly gender-typed to view themselves as gender-typical, their psychological
well-being depends, to some degree, on feeling that they “fit in” with their same-sex peers.
 Gender contentedness: the degree to which the child feels comfortable with his or her gender
assignment, which also promotes happiness.
 Felt pressure to conform to gender roles: the degree to which the child feels parents and peers
disapprove of his or her gender-related traits. Because such pressure reduces the likelihood that
children will explore options related to their interests and talents, children who feel strong gender-
typed pressure are often distressed.

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Thank you
Kamna Yadav
kamna.yadav@jgu.edu.in