Gender Roles Gender Roles General patterns of work

Gender Roles

Gender Roles • General patterns of work, appearance, and behavior associated with being male or female • Gender roles persist because they are deeply rooted in both nature and nurture – Girls speak and write earlier and more fluently. – boys are more skilled at manipulating objects, constructing 3 -D forms, and mentally manipulating figures and patterns – Girls are likely to be more kind, considerate, and emphatic. Their play is more orderly – Boys are more physically aggressive, play in larger groups and spaces, and enjoy noisier, more strenuous games

– The biological contribution to these malefemale differences is supported by studies of differences in anatomy, hormones, and brain organization and functioning. • Ex-across cultures men’s homicides outnumbered women’s by more than 30 to 1 • Girls physically mature faster, are less susceptible to illness, and suffer less from speech, learning, and behavior disorders, mental retardation, emotional problems, and sleep disorders

Gender roles are nurtured by social interactions and environmental cues. From birth, boys and girls are treated differently. – Even as infants girls are played with more gently and talked to more frequently – Toys are often gender specific. Boys tend to receive encouragement to achieve, compete, explore, control their feelings, act independently, and assume personal responsibility. – Girls are more often encouraged to be reflective, dependent, domestic, obedient, and unselfish. They talk more, and use more supportive speech – Parents, teachers, and tv role models consciously or inadvertently pass on ideas about “appropriate” behaviors for boys and girls – Children also pick up gender-appropriate behavior from peers. Peer pressure exaggerates whatever differences may already exist – Children are influenced by gender schemas, the generalizations they develop about what toys and activities are appropriate for boys vs girls and what jobs are meant from women vs men, etc. • By age 3, they know which toys are gender appropriate

Which gender difference in language do you think is most true? Why?

Social training by both adults and peers amplifies any biological predisposition that distinguish boys and girls, thus creating gender roles that are the joint products of nature and nurture – the effort of some parents to de-emphasize gender roles in their children’s upbringing may be helping to reduce the magnitude of gender differences in areas such as verbal and quantitative skills – The evolutionary approach suggests that some gender differences are unlikely to change. Some psychologists suggest that prenatal exposure to male or female hormones influences the organization of male and female brains, influencing social development