Gender Identity Lesson Plan Gender Schema Theory sex

Gender & Identity

Lesson Plan • Gender Schema Theory & sex typing (cont. ) • Readings: I/1 (transnational, historical, multicultural approach to gender) • Readings: III/4, 7 (representations: colonialism, orientalism/Africanism)

feminine : masculine • sort the following attributes and behaviors into masculine / feminine categories: • nightingale, tender, flower, motorcycle, assertive, eagle, weak, strong, computer games, Barbie, barrettes, skirt, Mary, butterfly, blushing, bikini, gorilla, hurling, trousers, ant, stepping, sweater

Gender schema theory • even if society is aware of negative images based on particular attributes of f / m, it continues to exaggerate sexual distinctions and the functional importance of the gender dichotomy • gender schematic associative network is reinforced by: toys, clothing, occupations, hobbies, domestic division of labor, all vary as a function of sex

Gender schema theory • How and why sex-typed individuals develop a readiness to organize information and selfconcepts in terms of gender?

Gender schema theory • social categories: eye-color, gender, skin color, caste, class, income are categories but not necessarily organizing a cognitive schema • Transformation of a given social category into a cognitive schema depends on the nature of the social context within which the category is embedded, not on the nature of the category itself (importance of associative networks)

Gender schema theory • Gender schema theory proposes that a category will become a schema if: • Social context makes it the nucleus of a large associative network (if ideology and/or practices of the culture construct an association bw that category and a wide range of other attributes, behaviors, concepts, and categories • Social context assigns the category broad functional significance, that is, if a broad array of social institutions, norms, and taboos distinguishes bw persons, behaviors, and attributes on the basis of this category

Gender schema theory • Passive network of associations are transformed into an active and readily available schema for interpreting reality • Functional importance assigned by society to particular categories and distinctions animates their associated networks and gives these schemata priority and availability over others

Gender schema theory • Children would be far less likely to become gender schematic (sex-typed) if the society were to link the associative network linked to sex and temper its insistence on the functional importance of the gender dichotomy • Society is aware of negative sex-stereotypes and begun to expunge them from the media & children’s literature but still insists on gender dichotomy

Gender schema theory • gender schema theory as explanation of sex typing is acceptable because it is tied to socialization (reversible) vs. • ‘anatomy is destiny’ view: associated with conservative conclusions regarding the inevitability of sex typing

Gender schema theory ideal • to accept that we are male or female as unconsciously as the fact that we are human • gender distinctions would be perceived but not functioning as imperialist schemata for organizing everything else • realize that gender has come to have cognitive primacy over many other social categories because culture has made it so

Gender schema theory solutions • feminist parents trying to create what is typically called a nonsexist or a genderliberated form of childrearing • a number of plausible strategies consistent with gender schema theory for raising a gender-aschematic child in the midst of a gender-schematic society

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) solutions • gender schema theory provides theoretical framework for thinking about the psychological impact of various childrearing practices • 2 strategies for nonsexist or a genderliberated form of childrearing: teaching children about sex differences, providing alternative schemata

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) strategies for nonsexist childrearing • parents can enable children to learn about sex differences initially without their also learning the culture’s sex-linked associative network by simultaneously retarding their children’s knowledge of sex’s cultural correlates and advancing their children’s knowledge of sex’s biological correlates

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) strategies for nonsexist childrearing • parents can provide alternative or ‘subversive’ schemata that their children can use to interpret the culture’s sex-linked associative network when they do learn it (in that way they are socialized to the gender-schematic processing but learn how to critically process it

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Teaching Children about Sex Differences • Cultural correlates of sex • Biological correlates of sex Providing Alternative Schemata • Individual Differences Schema • Cultural Relativism Schema • Sexism Schema

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Teaching Children about Sex Differences • Cultural correlates of sex • parents retard the child’s knowledge of cultural messages about gender: by eliminating sex stereotypes from their own behavior, by providing alternatives for children in toys, clothing, etc. , by controlling media messages of gender • eliminates cultural correlates of sex (cultural markers of gender) by eliminating associations, but teaching what sex is not rather than what it is

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Teaching Children about Sex Differences • Biological correlates of sex • anatomy and reproduction are undisputed biological correlates of sex; by teaching that whether one is female or male makes adifference only in the context of reproduction, parents limit sex’s functional significance and thereby retard genderschematic processing, and construct their own concepts of femaleness and maleness based on biology, rather than cultural correlates

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Teaching Children about Sex Differences • nonsexist childrearing strategies will produce children who are more naïve than their peers about the cultural aspects of gender and far more sophisticated about the biological aspects of sex • How are such children to deal with sexlinked correlations to which they will become exposed? 3 alternative schemata

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Providing Alternative Schemata • Individual Differences Schema • point to variability of individuals within groups as compared with the small mean differences between groups; prevents children from interpreting individual differences as sex differences, and assimilating perceived differences among people to a gender schema • encourage children that sexes are basically similar to one another

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Providing Alternative Schemata • Cultural Relativism Schema • as the child recognizes that there are differences between his or her family’s beliefs and attitudes about gender and those of the dominant culture, one needs to introduce a concept of cultural relativism, that ‘different people believe different things’ and that coexistence of contradictory beliefs is the rule in society rather than exception

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) Providing Alternative Schemata • Sexism Schema • parents should not convey to the child that all ideas (about gender) are equally valid -- at some point they need to declare that the view of men and women conveyed in mass media (fairy tales, next door neighbor, etc. ) is not different but wrong • Sexism schema provides a coherent and organized understanding of the historical roots and consequences of sex discrimination and that will truly aid their comprehension why the sexes appear to be different in our society

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) • Androgyny (ability to be psychologically male & female; 1970 s alternative to the traditional, sex-based standards of behavior) • Encourages individuals to embrace both the feminine and masculine within themselves, to become both masculine & feminine

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) • Problems with psychological androgyny from the point of view of gender schema theory • gender schema theory does not recognize masculine & feminine as content (something inherent in us, that has reality in itself) but as process of socialization (cognitive constructs)

Gender Schema Theory (cont. ) • From the point of view of GST, androgyny as approach is fatalistic because does not embrace transformation of a schema; it locks individuals further into schemata • GST is political because it shows that human behaviors and personality attributes should no longer be linked with gender, and society should stop projecting gender into situations irrelevant to biological sex

Gender & Identity: Class, Nation, Race • Gender in relation to race, class, nationality, culture, religion, sexuality • Transnational approach to gender (focus on differences & inequalities rather than continuity; transnational networks: new social movements and non-governmental organizations; new international communities and identities--connections)

Gender & Identity: Modernization, Globalization • Effect of modernization policies: population control, increased industrialization, use of technology in agriculture • Global economy (national and local identities questioned by movement of goods, money, and media images)

Readings: Women’s Bodies in Science and Culture sex, gender, race • meanings change over time • historical and medical knowledge influential in spreading information about bodies male and female and influencing society • emergence of notion of sex differences as primary explanation for human diversity