chapter summary:

Theoretical Approaches to Gender Development

• One major approach to gender development is biological, including evolutionary psychology, biosocial theory, and neuroscience approaches.
• According to evolutionary psychology theory, behavioral differences between males and females served adaptive functions in our evolutionary past and have been passed down as inherited behavioral dispositions. For example, direct aggression in males is interpreted as an advantage in mating competition, whereas nurturance in females is viewed as facilitating the survival of offspring.
• Biosocial theory focuses on the impact of evolved physical differences between females (childbearing and nursing capacities) and males (greater strength, speed, and size) in relation to the social ecology. For example, men’s strength and women’s childbearing may have made certain roles more appropriate for women and men in hunter-gatherer societies, but physical differences impose fewer constraints on roles in technological societies.
• Other biological researchers take a neuroscience approach to gender development by focusing on sex differences in brain organization and the influences of sex hormones (such as androgens) both before birth and after. A striking example of hormonal influence involves cases of girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), who tend to show a stronger inclination toward play emphasizing physical activity and tend to perform somewhat better on spatial abilities than do girls without CAH.
• A second approach, which addresses cognitive and motivational influences on gender development, includes cognitive developmental theory, gender schema theory, social identity theory, and social cognitive theory. All emphasize children’s active participation in learning gender roles and adopting the preferences and behaviors considered appropriate for their gender, thereby highlighting how gender development is largely a process of self-socialization.
• According to cognitive developmental theory, once children realize that their gender is consistent across situations (gender constancy), they pay close attention to same-gender models to learn how to behave.
• Gender schema theory maintains that children construct mental representations of gender based on their own experience and the gender-related ideas they are exposed to and proposes that children begin to acquire same-gender interests and values as soon as they can identify their own gender. Subsequently, children pay greater attention to, and learn more about, those things that they regard as relevant for their own gender.
• Social identity theory, which also stresses the importance of adopting a gender identity, proposes that children tend to form an ingroup bias favoring attributes associated with their own gender and also to enforce conformity to gender-role norms.
• Social cognitive theory addresses many processes involved in learning gender-typed values and behaviors, including observing others’ behavior and determining the consequences of particular behaviors in relation to one’s own or other people’s gender. Children internalize gender-typed norms, standards that they use to monitor their own behavior.
• The third theoretical approach focuses on cultural influences and includes the bioecological model and social role theory. The bioecological model characterizes children’s development as embedded in nested systems ranging from the microsystem (immediate environment) to the macrosystem (society). A key feature of the macrosystem is its opportunity structure and the corresponding roles available to women and men that shape the ways in which girls and boys are socialized. Social role theory similarly addresses the division of labor by gender in society and how it affects girls’ and boys’ gender-role development.

Milestones in Gender Development

• Between 6 and 8 weeks of prenatal development, sexual differentiation begins. External and internal genitalia are normally completed by the end of the first trimester.
• During their first year, infants learn to distinguish male and female faces. Between ages 2 and 3, children learn to identify their own gender, start to acquire stereotypes about males and females, and begin to prefer gender-typed toys and play activities.
• During preschool, children begin to gravitate toward same-gender peers, and a strong tendency for children to self-segregate by gender persists until adolescence. Preschool children also stereotype certain traits and activities for each gender. Preferences for gender-typed play become stronger from early to middle childhood.
• Around 6 years of age, children develop gender constancy. In addition, during middle childhood, they come to understand that gender roles are social conventions. They also may understand that gender discrimination is unfair and notice when it occurs. Average gender differences in social behavior begin to emerge, with boys more likely than girls to stress assertion over affiliation, and girls more apt to emphasize affiliation or a combination of affiliation and assertion.
• During adolescence, gender roles sometimes become more flexible (due to increased cognitive flexibility) or more rigid (due to concerns with heterosexual roles and adoption of conventional gender attitudes). Intimacy in friendships and romantic relationships also increases for both girls and boys, although friendship intimacy is more common among girls.
• Throughout childhood and adolescence, gender-role flexibility is more likely among girls than among boys. Peers and parents tend to react more negatively to cross-gender-typed behavior in boys than in girls. This asymmetry may be related to the higher status and power traditionally accorded males.

Comparing Girls and Boys

• Actual differences in girls’ and boys’ psychological functioning are decidedly fewer than commonly portrayed by gender stereotypes. Even on measures in which, on average, one gender scores higher than the other, the effect size often is trivial for many attributes. Moreover, considerable overlap usually occurs in the distribution of scores for males and females even when gender differences in effect size are greater.
• Boys and girls are quite similar in physical development until puberty, which begins earlier for girls than for boys. Among the largest average gender differences are physical strength, speed, and size after puberty, and a moderate difference exists in physical activity level.
• Girls and boys score similarly on tests of general intelligence. Slight-to-small average gender differences have been reported in specific cognitive abilities: boys show higher proficiency with certain types of spatial reasoning and mathematic ability, and girls show a small advantage in verbal ability. In academic achievement, girls have tended to do better than boys in reading and writing, whereas boys have tended to do better than girls in the physical sciences. Girls also tend to do better in overall school performance.
• Biological, cognitive-motivational, and cultural factors may contribute to gender-related variations in academic achievement. Biological processes, such as prenatal hormones, may influence girls’ and boys’ brain development; however, the degree to which these factors lead to gender differences in cognitive functioning is unclear. The evidence for cognitive-motivational and cultural influences on average gender differences in academic achievement is more clearly established. Researchers find academic achievement in particular domains is related to the expectations of parents, peers, and teachers. The gender gap in U.S. math achievement has dramatically closed in recent decades, and such differences are less likely in societies characterized by greater overall gender equality.
• Average gender differences in personality are seen in self-regulation (girls higher), physical activity (boys higher), and risk taking (boys higher). Biological factors, such as prenatal androgen levels, may be related in part to later gender differences in some or all these personality traits. However, traditional socialization may exaggerate gender differences.
• Direct (physical and verbal) aggression is associated with an average gender difference of moderate effect size, with higher rates among boys than among girls. No meaningful average gender difference appears in indirect aggression (such as social exclusion or negative gossip). However, indirect aggression constitutes a larger proportion of all aggressive behaviors among girls than among boys. Lower average levels of self-regulation may be partly related to the higher incidence of direct aggression among boys. Cognitive and motivational factors are important as well. For example, boys often practice aggressive themes and behaviors in their play, and aggression is tolerated more in boys than in girls. Some cultural variations in the magnitude of gender difference in direct aggression are related to the degree that behaviors such as sexual harassment are tolerated in a particular culture.