1. GENDER IDENTITY “Gender Identity” Interviews
Time Warp in the Toy Store by Ellen J. Reifler (19)
How Women are Treated in Language by Janet Shibley Hyde (20)
The Male Role Stereotype by Doug Cooper Thompson (24)
Conclusions

2. “Gender Identity” (63-65)
“In American culture, gender is the most salient feature of one’s identity”
Gender roles
What is a social role?
Content
traditional definitions of male, female
Alternative definitions
Processes
socialization, internalization, conscious choice
“Nature/Nurture”
Variations by subgroups including racial/ethnic, social class, region, rural/urban, religion, etc.

3. Interviews – Goals Learn about how others
Were raised in terms of gender roles
Responded to expectations
Approach the issue now
Learn more about your own history and reactions
Connect these findings to larger issues of our culture, subcultures, power, etc.

4. Interviews - questions
What was your family like in terms of gender roles?
Parent or parents
Any siblings
Extended family
What about your friends?
Did boys and girls play separately or together?
What kinds of play? What kinds of friendships?
How did adults shape or react to these patterns?

5. Questions, continued What about school?
How were boys and girls treated? Did you notice any differences?
How did this affect you, if at all
What else do you remember about how you were raised or treated based on gender?
How does gender affect your life now?
Are there expectations others have based on gender?
How do you respond to these?

6. Summary Questions
On a 1 – 5 scale, 5 being totally “traditional” (rigid gender roles), 1 being totally “nontraditional” (no gender roles)
How were you raised?
How would you like to raise children?
Why?

7. Time Warp in the Toy Store by Ellen J. Reifler (19; pp 69-71)
Observations
Toys are gender-stereotyped
Example – McDonald’s
Question – to what extent is this still true? (story is from 1994)
“Rigid role-typing starts at birth”
Examples including “culture cops”
Question – to what extent is this true, and for whom?

8. Reifler, continued
III. Conclusion: It is an “obvious truth that children’s personality traits and interests are not [biologically] “gender-based”
Questions
To what extent do males and females behave differently in our culture?
To the extent they do, why?
Is Reifler’s conclusion correct?
How do we know?

9. Reifler, continued
IV. Reifler’s Proposal – “get rid of the artificial categories”
Questions – to what extent is this?
Possible
Desirable?

10. How Women are Treated in Language by Janet Shibley Hyde (20; pp 71-74)
Main Points
Language is important
Shapes attitudes, behaviors
Towards self and own group, others
In our culture, language diminishes the status and importance of females
How?
See examples – male as normative, etc.

11. Hyde, continued III. Discussion IV. Larger issue – cultural power
To what extent do you agree?
To the extent you agree, what can you do to change things?
Levels: individual, small group, organization, society
Why would you, if you are male?
IV. Larger issue – cultural power
How does this relate to economic power, political power?:

12. The Male Role Stereotype by Doug Cooper Thompson (24; pp 86-88)
Review – what is a gender-role stereotype?
Male role stereotype – what is the content?
Discuss – to what extent were you or males in your family, community raised this way?
What are the consequences
In terms of personality?
In terms of relationships?
In terms of power?
What are the alternatives?
Discussion – have you ever challenged these stereotypes? If so, what happened? If not, why not?

13. CONCLUSIONS Most social scientists believe
Gender roles reflect some contribution from biology, but large contribution from culture
Evidence
Variation across cultures and subcultures
Variation over time
Males and females have fairly wide potential to act in “masculine” and “feminine” ways
Gender identity can be enriching, empowering for individuals, for society

14. Conclusions, continued
III. Culture pushes males and females toward more stereotypical behaviors
IV. This rigidity harms:
A. males and females, in terms of personality, quality of life, relationships
B. females, in terms of power
C. society, in terms of potential