1. Gender Roles And Gender Differences
Chapter Thirteen
Gender Roles And Gender Differences

2. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
This field continues to be very controversial.
This is a prime example of a politically sensitive area--i. e., one where the attitudes of the scientists have to be scrutinized
Defining sex and gender
Gender: masculine or feminine behaviors
Sex: biological and physical attributes
Gender typing: culturally assigned roles

3. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Defining sex and gender
Gender-based beliefs: expectations
Gender stereotypes: based on beliefs
Gender roles: distinct behaviors displayed
Gender identity: perception of self
Gender-role preferences: desires

4. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Gender socialization begins at birth:
Parents have a role in socializing gender: Dress boys and girls differently, select toys based on gender, and often react negatively if they behave in ways they think are gender inappropriate.
Gender stereotypes
Males: controlling, dominant, independent, controlling and manipulating the environment; assertive, dominant, competitive. Females: relatively passive, loving, sensitive, and supportive in social relationships, especially in their family roles as wife and mother.
Warmth in personal relationships, the display of anxiety under pressure, and the suppression of overt aggression and sexuality as more appropriate for women than men.

5. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
These stereotypes are true cross-culturally as well.
This implies that the origins of these stereotypes does not lie in local cultures.
But there are some variations.
African American families: African-American families do not have clearly different boy-girl gender-role distinctions. They also encourage girls to be aggressive and assertive.
Mexican American families: For example, Mexican-Americans have very clearly differentiated gender-role socialization standards.

6. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Sex stereotypes that men are more aggressive than women and women more interpersonally sensitive than men are very robust, even among more educated people, both sexes, all social classes.
Probably because they have some truth in them!
Keep in mind that male/female distributions overlap.

7. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Some recent findings
Older, less educated women: stereotypicalEducation differences: In the US, females and college-educated women age are more likely than older or less educated women to perceive female role as more assertive, independent, and achievement-striving.

8. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Some recent findings
Sex differences: Men are more likely to have traditional gender stereotypes than women, especially if they are the sole wage earner in the family. Fathers are more concerned that their children maintain behaviors appropriate to their gender; fathers play a more important role than mothers in children's gender stereotyping.

9. Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
Some recent findings
Age differences: Young children are especially rigid in gender stereotyping; children between ages 3-6 are more gender stereotypes than adults. This reflects a general tendency for young children to have rigid, absolutist sense of rules. (This is also the case in moral reasoning where young children allow no exceptions to rules like "stealing is bad.")

10. Gender differences (Table 13-1, p. 556-557.)
NOTE: There are overlaps in all of these areas so that, for example, some girls are more physically aggressive than some boys. Physical Sex Differences:
Girls more advanced physically throughout childhood; they mature earlier and their development stops sooner.
Boys have larger lungs and heart, and they are superior at activities involving gross motor activities and strength; males more likely to suffer a wide range of developmental disorders (speech defects, ADHD, mental retardation), genetic defects (because of x-linkage; WHY?), and are more susceptible to malnutrition and disease.
Boys are more physically active; in preschool they are more likely than girls to play in a physically active style in larger groups away from the teacher.
Girls tend to have a few intimate friends
Boys have a larger number of "pals"—guys they hang out with but don't have close, intimate, confiding relationships.

11. Gender differences (Table 13-1, p. 556-557.)
Cognitive Sex Differences:
Girls superior at verbal abilities (vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal creativity) during early to middle childhood. These differences become attenuated as children get older, and disappear by adolescence.
Boys have greater visual-spatial ability beginning around age 10. (Visual-spatial ability is involved in manipulating objects in two- or three-dimensional space, reading maps, aiming at a target.)
Boys also excel at mathematics beginning around age 12.
Some studies indicate that boys have a higher IQ on average than girls by late adolescence (~4 IQ points).
Theory: Girls' development ends sooner than boys, and boys continue to develop. This is controversial.
Girls superior in Conscientiousness: Focused attention, responsibility, dependability, delay of gratification.
Conscientiousness is strongly correlated with school success.

12. Gender differences (Table 13-1, p. 556-557.)
Social Sex Differences:
Boys more aggressive, especially physical aggression and direct verbal assault. (Girls use indirect forms of aggression such as exclusion, negative gossip.)
Boys more into risk-taking and sensation seeking as well as curiosity and exploratory behavior; boys attracted to physically dangerous occupations
Girls more compliant with demands of parents and teachers. (Conscientiousness)
No sex differences in attachment classification. However, Girls more nurturant and dependent. (Affectional System) Infant girls more attracted to faces and may recognize mother's face earlier.
Girls more fearful of possible personal threats and dangers. No sex differences for social phobias, or possibly more common among boys.

13. Gender differences (Table 13-1, p. 556-557.)
Sex Differences in Atypical Development:
Boys more likely to have genetic defects, physical disabilities, mental retardation, reading disabilities, speech defects, and school and emotional problems.
Boys are more likely to have genetic defects because of x-linkage: Boys only have one X-chromosome and therefore any recessive gene on the X-chromosome is expressed. Girls are likely to get a dominant normal gene from their father's X-chromosome.
Boys are "the less canalized sex"—they are more open to environmental influences, including negative environmental influences. This may be seen as a high risk strategy. Boys are more vulnerable to stress such as family disharmony.
The evolutionary theory of sex (see below) implies that boys are expected to be the high risk sex in general; this is related to the finding that boys are more aggressive and more attracted to sensation seeking. Both aggression and sensation seeking are high risk/high reward undertakings.

14. Developmental Patterns of Gender Typing
Figure 13-1: 15- to 36-month-old toddlers have clear preferences for toys that are "gender appropriate"; but girls are more likely than boys to choose "gender inappropriate" toys.
In general, the male role is more clearly defined: there is a narrower range of activities considered appropriate for males.
Boys who play with "girl" toys or retreat in the face of aggression "fear derision" (p. 558). "Although we tolerate tomboys, we reject sissies" (pp. 558).
The condemnation comes from both parents (especially fathers) and peers.
Based on survey data, boys in the US like guns, boxing, wrestling and karate, team sports, and fixing and making things more than girls. Girls prefer dolls, sewing, cooking, dancing, and looking after younger children more than boys.
Parents encourage these patterns by, for example, assigning household tasks.
"Even in the 21st century, girls are more likely to make beds, clean, prepare meals, wash dishes, and do laundry. Boys are more likely to fix things, take out the garbage, and mow lawns" (p. 559).

15. Stability of Gender Typing
Masculinity and femininity develop early and are stable personality characteristics.
This is not surprising, since many of the traits that show sex differences are linked to personality systems.
There is some change in later adulthood as men become more nurturant and expressive, especially in old age.
Probably due to less testosterone.
Becoming a parent results in a divergence of gender roles.
Even among egalitarian couples who are committed to sharing household tasks equally, the onset of parenting means a return to traditional gender roles. 

16. Biological Factors in Gender Differences: HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Women have small amounts of the male hormone testosterone and men have small amounts of female hormones like progesterone and estrogen. In childhood, the differences are quite small, but they increase markedly in adolescents and adults.
There are two surges of hormones, prenatally and during adolescence.
The surge of hormones prenatally affects behavior in childhood, and the surge during adolescence activates and enhances the early predispositions created by the prenatal surge.
These are critical periods for the effects of hormones on later behavior.

17. Biological Factors in Gender Differences: HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Animal studies: Young, Goy, and Phoenix (1967) injected female monkeys with testosterone prenatally or around the time of birth.
Genetic female offspring were pseudohermaphrodites. Their genitalia were more masculine (large clitoris), and their behavior was also masculine (more aggressive, more mounting behavior [a male mating behavior], more rough and tumble play, more socially dominant).
Similar behaviors are elicited in genetically female rodents injected with testosterone.

18. Biological Factors in Gender Differences: HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
NOTE: Levels of testosterone are also influenced by the animal's experience. Animals that have been repeatedly defeated in fighting have lowered testosterone, and winners have elevated testosterone as a result of their experience.
This also occurs with humans: Winning an athletic event results in a surge in testosterone.

19. Biological Factors in Gender Differences: HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Human Studies: Girls who have received testosterone or testosterone-like hormones prenatally have masculinized behavior.
These girls are genetic females but their genetalia are typically masculinized at birth (enlarged clitoris, fused labia that resemble a scrotum).
They often receive an operation to make her appear more feminine.
These girls have masculinized behavior: Tomboyish, liked vigorous athletic activities, simply utilitarian clothing; little interest in dolls, babysitting, or caring for younger children, jewelry, cosmetics, or hair styles.
They also had a more male-type achievement pattern and male-type attitudes toward sexuality. They preferred boys as playmates and boys' toys.

20. Biological Factors in Gender Differences: HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
HORMONES AND COGNITIVE SKILLS
There is evidence for a critical period for brain organization and hemisphere lateralization (males more lateralized).
Testosterone surge prenatally is responsible. This surge makes females process verbal information better and males process spatial information better.
Female fetuses exposed to abnormally high levels of androgens are better at spatial abilities.

21. Sex differences in Spatial Reasoning
Figure 13-2, p. 563:
Water task; Light bulb in a car going uphill:
Male advantage is only found for spatial (geometric) ability, not for computational ability, basic math skills or algebra.
Biological influences do not rule out environmental influences.
Text notes that the differences are relatively small (but small differences lead to large differences in proportions at the high end of the distribution).
Girls enroll in progressively fewer math courses over the high school and college years. Even girls with superior math ability seem less interested in math as they get older (e.g., 34% of advanced physics classes). But the gender gap is narrowing.

22. BRAIN LATERALIZATION:
Brain becomes increasingly specialized with age, with right hemisphere more specialized for spatial tasks and left hemisphere more specialized for verbal tasks. Women who suffer left hemisphere damage are less likely to have damage to verbal abilities.
In a task where children had to identify objects inside a bag, sight unseen, boys were better when feeling with their left hand (controlled by the spatial centers in the right hemisphere). For girls there was no difference between hands in their ability to identify objects.
In a rhyming task where subjects were asked if nonsense words rhymed, both sides of women's brains were activated. For men, only the left hemisphere (underlying verbal abilities) was activated.

23. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
A.) KOHLBERG'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY a.) Child notices physical and behavioral clues, and classifies herself as a girl; b.) the child then finds it rewarding to behave in gender-appropriate manner and imitate same-gender models. EXAMPLE: A girl says, "I am a girl because I am more like my mother and other girls than like boys; therefore I want to dress like a girl, play girl games, and feel and think like a girl."

24. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
Kohlberg’s THREE STAGES: 1.) Gender identity: Recognizing that you are a boy or a girl; this then organizes incoming information.
This occurs between age 2 and 3. Recent research:
Even in early infancy, babies male and female faces as being in different categories; but they don't think of themselves as being in one category or the other.
By age 2, they identify traits as being male or female (men wear ties), but they do not see themselves as a belonging to a gender category until about age 3.

25. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
Kohlberg’s THREE STAGES: 2.) Gender stability: Child accepts the idea that males remain male and females remain female; e.g., a girl will no longer think she will grow up to be like her father or Batman.
This occurs between ages 4 and 5. Children of this age still have some gaps in their understanding. Two 4-year-olds:
Jeremy wears a barrette to nursery school. Another boy accuses him of being a girl because "only girls wear barrettes." Jeremy pulls down his pants to show that he really is a boy. The other boy replies, "Everyone has a penis; only girls wear barrettes."

26. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
Kohlberg’s THREE STAGES: 3.) Gender constancy: Recognizing that superficial changes in appearance or in activities will not change a person's gender.
A boy who wears a dress is still a boy; a girl who plays football is still a girl.
A child who understands gender constancy would not suppose that wearing a barrette makes one a girl.
This theory has been empirically confirmed cross-culturally.

27. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
B.) GENDER-SCHEMA THEORY: AN INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH
Children develop schemas or naive theories that help them organize gender differences and gender roles. They tell children what kinds of information to look for in the environment and how to interpret this information.
EXAMPLE: 5- and 6-year-old children shown gender-consistent (boy playing with train) or gender-inconsistent (girl sawing wood). A week later, children distorted the information from the gender inconsistent pictures: They said that they had seen a boy sawing wood. Memory for gender consistent pictures was better, and children were more sure that they remembered it correctly. Boys who have gender constancy pay more attention to TV characters of the same sex.
Gender schemas are more important for younger children because their schemas are more rigid. Some people are more "gendered" in their thinking than others.

28. Cognitive Factors in Gender Typing
C.) COMPARISON OF KOHLBERG'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL AND GENDER-SCHEMA THEORIES
Kohlberg predicts that achievement of gender constancy should influence children's gender-typed choices. As a result, it predicts that before age 5-7 there should be little or no preference for gender-typed activities. This is massively contradicted by observation of children's behavior.
Gender schema theory does not make this prediction. It proposes that children simply need to be aware of basic information about gender, such as identifying activities as gender appropriate.
Children who identify themselves as being a boy or a girl engage in more gender-appropriate behavior, and they do this around age 2 — way before they achieve gender stability or constancy.
Achievement of gender identity is sufficient to result in gender-typed play.
Some data indicate that children engage in gender-typed play before they have gender identity. This is compatible with biological theories that boys are simply attracted to certain types of toys and activities independent of cultural labeling.

29. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
1.) MALES DEFINED AS SEX WITH SMALL GAMETES, FEMALES ARE SEX WITH LARGE GAMETES  
2.) FEMALES TEND TO INVEST MORE IN REPRODUCTION THAN MALES.
TYPICAL MAMMALIAN FEMALE: PREGNANCY, LACTATION, CAREGIVING'VERY HIGH COST IN TIME AND ENERGY TYPICAL MAMMALIAN MALE: SPERM'VERY LOW COST .

30. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
3.) ECONOMICS 101: WHEN YOU HOLD VALUABLE RESOURCES, YOU DON'T GIVE THEM AWAY.
FEMALES EXPECTED TO BE SELECTIVE, DISCRIMINATING MATERS
FEMALES WANT: MALES WHO WILL INVEST IN OFFSPRING, MALES WITH GOOD GENES, HIGH SOCIAL STATUS, ETC.

31. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
4.) ECONOMICS 101: MALES DO NOT HOLD RESOURCES. THEREFORE THEY MUST COMPETE IN ORDER TO GET THEM. THIS RESULTS IN THE PREDICTION THAT MALES WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE.
IN GENERAL, MALES MUST COMPETE FOR FEMALES, AND THE MAIN OBSTACLE IS OTHER MALES:
ELEPHANT SEALS: DEFEATING MALES IN COMBAT
CHINESE EMPERORS: CONTROLLING MALES AND FEMALES
MOVIE STARS
SUCCESFUL HUNTERS in hunter-gatherer societies;
RICH MEN IN ALL SOCIETIES ARE ATTRACTIVE TO FEMALES (The Anna Nicole Smith phenomenon)

32. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
4. (Cont.) MALES HAVE MORE TO GAIN BY BEING HIGH ON AGGRESSION, RISK-TAKING, SENSATION-SEEKING, SOCIAL DOMINANCE: SUCCESSFUL MALE CAN MATE POLYGYNOUSLY,
SUCCESSFUL FEMALE CAN MATE ONLY ONCE.
EVEN IN A MONOGAMOUS SYSTEM, SUCCESSFUL MALES WILL HAVE ACCESS TO HIGHER QUALITY FEMALES (MORE NURTURANT, MORE PRONE TO FIDELITY, HIGHER INTELLIGENCE, ETC.) RISK-TAKING AND SOCIAL DOMINANCE PAY OFF MORE FOR MEN.  
THEREFORE MEN GAIN MORE BY CONTROLLING SOCIETY (PATRIARCHY), AND THEY GAIN MORE BY GOING TO WAR.

33. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Predictions
WHEN GENGHIS KHAN AND THE MONGOLS CONQUERED MOST OF ASIA, THEY REALIZED AN ENORMOUS GENETIC PAYOFF BECAUSE THEY ESTABLISHED HAREMS WHEREVER THEY WENT.
THE MONGOL Y-CHROMOSOME IS STILL FOUND AT HIGH FREQUENCIES IN ALL THE AREAS THEY CONQUERED. ~32 million direct descendants
A MONGOL FEMALE WOULD NOT HAVE SIMILARLY BENEFITED BY THIS SORT OF CONQUEST.

34. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Predictions
FEMALES ADOPT A MORE CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY: HIGHER ON FEAR, BEHAVIORAL INHIBITION.
FEMALES ALSO EXPECTED TO BE MORE NURTURANT AND LOVING AS MATE DISCRIMINATION SYSTEM (females benefit by choosing males who love them and are willing to invest in their children) AND BECAUSE OF ITS ROLE IN NURTURANCE (females who are high on affectional system are prone to nurturance).

35. Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of Sex: Predictions
Male sexual jealousy more directed at ensuring paternity confidence.
Female sexual jealousy more directed at ensuring continued affection as a sign of continued support.

36. The End