Abstract
Gender roles are separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms,
interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as either "male" or
"female" by one's culture. Gender roles are largely a product of the way in
which one was raised and may not be in conformance with one's gender
identity. Research shows that both genetics and environment influence the
development of gender roles. As society changes, its gender roles often also
change to meet the needs of the society. To this end, it has been suggested
that androgynous gender roles in which both females and males are expected
to display either expressive (emotion-oriented) or instrumental (goal-oriented)
behaviors as called for by the situation may be better for both the individual
and the society in many ways. However, this is not to say that traditional
roles, reversed roles, or anything in between are inherently bad. More
research is needed to better understand the influences of genetics and
environment on the acquisition of gender roles and the ways in which
different types of gender roles support the stability and growth of society.
Overview
Gender roles have changed in many ways throughout history as well as within
recent memory. In the 1950s, for example, little girls were said to be made of
"sugar and spice and everything nice" and wore pastel organdy dresses and
gloves to church. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, this all changed for many
women; bras were discarded, and patched jeans became de rigueur. In fact,
each succeeding generation has brought with it differing expectations for how
men and women should act within society. Despite these changes, however,
the truth is that modern society still has expectations for how men and
women are to act. Although we may be more open to exceptions than were
past generations, there still are expected norms of behavior for women and
men in society.
Gender vs. Sex. In biosocial terms, gender is not the same as sex. Gender
refers to the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics
associated with being female, male, both, or neither. Gender is defined by
one's gender identity and learned gender role. Sex, on the other hand, refers
in this context to the biological aspects of being female, male, or intersex, and
combines chromosomes, hormones, primary sex characteristics, and
secondary sex characteristics. Genetically, females are typically identified by
having two X chromosomes and males by having an X and a Y chromosome,
while intersex individuals may have these or other chromosomal
configurations. In addition, sex can typically be determined from primary or
secondary sexual characteristics. To assign a baby's sex at birth, doctors
usually rely on observing primary sexual characteristics comprising the
reproductive organs (i.e., the vagina, ovaries, and uterus for females and the
penis, testes, and scrotum for males). Secondary sexual characteristics
comprise the superficial differences between the sexes that occur with
puberty (e.g., breast development and hip broadening for women and facial
hair and voice deepening for men). Intersex individuals may have a
combination of male and female sex characteristics; sex characteristics that
are ambiguous, appearing both female and male or neither; or external sex
characteristics that differ from their internal sex characteristics. When one's
gender is in concordance with one's sex as designated at birth, that person is
cis-gender. When one's gender does not comport with their sex designated at
birth, that person is transgender.
Biology as Gender Role Determinant. It is relatively easy to see that
biology has an impact on gender and the subsequent actions and behaviors
that are thought to be more relevant to either females or males. For example,
no matter how much a cis-gender man might want to experience giving birth,
the simple fact is that he cannot, except as an observer. From this fact it is
easy (if not necessarily logical) to assume that biology is destiny and,
therefore, women and men have certain unalterable roles in society—for
example, that women are the keepers of home and hearth because of their
reproductive role, while men are the protectors and providers because of their
relatively greater size and strength. However, before concluding that biology
is destiny in terms of gender roles, it is important to understand that not only
do gender roles differ from culture to culture, they also change over time
within the same culture. Early 20th-century American culture emphasized that
a woman's role was in the home. As a result, many women did not have high
school educations and never held jobs; instead, they raised families and
supported their husbands by keeping their households running smoothly.
Nearly a century later, this gender role is no longer the norm (or at least not
the only acceptable norm) and sounds quite constricting to our more
educated, career-oriented 21st-century ears. If biology were the sole
determinant of gender roles, such changes would not be possible.
Culture as Gender Role Determinant. In 21st-century United States
culture, gender roles continue to be in a state of flux to some extent, although
traditional gender roles still apply in many quarters. For example, boys are
often encouraged to become strong, fast, aggressive, dominant, and
achieving, while traditional roles for girls are to be sensitive, intuitive, passive,
emotional, and interested in the things of home and family. However, these
gender roles are culturally bound. For example, in the Tchambuli culture of
New Guinea, gender roles for women include doing the fishing and
manufacturing as well as controlling the power and economic life of the
community. Tchambuli women also take the lead in initiating sexual relations.
Tchambuli men, on the other hand, are dependent, flirtatious, and concerned
with their appearance, often adorning themselves with flowers and jewelry. In
the Tchambuli culture, men's interests revolve around such activities as art,
games, and theatrics (Coon, 2001). If gender roles were completely
biologically determined, the wide disparity between American and Tchambuli
gender roles would not be possible. Therefore, it must be assumed that
culture and socialization also play a part in gender role acquisition.
Society as Gender Role Determinant. Socialization is the process by which
individuals learn to differentiate between what society regards as acceptable
and unacceptable behavior and act in a manner that is appropriate for the
needs of the society. The socialization process for teaching gender roles
begins almost immediately after birth, when infant girls are typically held
more gently and treated more tenderly than are infant boys, and continues as
the child grows, with both mothers and fathers usually playing more roughly
with their male children than with their female children. As the child continues
to grow and mature, little boys are typically allowed to roam a wider territory
without permission than are little girls. Similarly, boys are typically expected
to run errands earlier than are girls. Whereas sons are told that "real boys
don't cry" and are encouraged to control their softer emotions, girls are taught
not to fight and not to show anger or aggression. In general, girls are taught
to engage in expressive, or emotion-oriented, behaviors, while boys are
taught to engage in instrumental, or goal-oriented, behaviors. When the
disparity between the way they teach and treat their daughters and sons is
pointed out to many parents, they often respond that the sexes are naturally
different not only biologically but behaviorally as well.
Gender-Specific Toys. The teaching of gender roles does not only come
through obvious verbal teaching from parents and other elders in society; it
also occurs in more subtle ways. Many people have observed that children's
toys are strongly gender-typed. Girls are often given "girl" toys such as dolls,
play kitchens, and similar toys that teach them traditional, socially approved
gender roles for when they grow up. Boys, on the other hand, are often given
sports equipment, tools, and toy trucks, all of which help prepare them to act
within traditional male gender roles. Even if nothing is ever said to children
about the gender-appropriateness of these toys, research has shown that by
the time they reach school age, many children have already come to believe
that professions such as physician, pilot, and athlete are the domain of men,
while women are supposed to have careers as nurses, secretaries, or mothers
(Coon, 2001).
To investigate the influence of gender-specific toys on the development of
gender roles, Caldera and Sciaraffa (1998) performed a research study with
42 pairs of parents and toddlers (aged 18 to 23 months). Each dyad was
videotaped while playing with a box of toys that contained a large baby doll
that cried, a small baby doll with a bottle, and a soft, stuffed clown. For the
purposes of the study, the baby dolls were classified as stereotypical girls'
toys, while the clown was considered to be more appropriate for boys. The
parents were told to play with their children using toys in the box for at least
four minutes. The experimenters had three hypotheses:
· First, that the dolls would elicit more doll-appropriate play and the
stuffed clown would elicit more object-appropriate play.
· Second, that mothers would use the dolls to initiate higher rates of doll-
appropriate play with daughters and fathers would use the clown to
initiate higher rates of object-appropriate play with their sons.
· Finally, that girls would be more likely to initiate doll-appropriate play
than would boys.
These predictions were generally supported. The researchers concluded that
giving stuffed toys to boys is not the same as giving them baby dolls. Further,
by giving a toddler a stuffed toy rather than a baby doll, one is not
encouraging traditional feminine gender-stereotyped play.
Heredity & Environment. There has been ongoing debate for years
regarding whether gender roles are a biological imperative or the result of
socialization. As the example of the Tchambuli gender roles demonstrates, it is
difficult if not impossible to argue that gender roles are completely biologically
determined. However, this is not to say that there is not a biological
component in their acquisition. Research suggests, for example, that the
exposure of female fetuses to androgens (male hormones) during the second
trimester results in individuals more likely to break out of traditional female
gender stereotypes (Udry, 2000). Mitchell, Baker, and Jacklin (1989)
performed a twin study with pre-adolescents and adolescents to attempt to
determine the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors in
the development of femininity and masculinity in children. The sample
included both monozygotic pairs of twins (identical twins with the same
genetic background) and dizygotic pairs of twins (fraternal twins with similar
genetic backgrounds). Data on femininity and masculinity were collected by
asking subjects to respond to two standardized instruments of personality and
self-perception. The analysis of the data suggested that both heredity and
environment are important in the development of gender identity. Genetics
was found to play a significant role in the acquisition of gender identity,
accounting for 20 to 48 percent of the observed variation, and so was
environmental influences, which accounted for the remaining 52 to 80 percent
of the variation.
Applications
Androgyny in Contemporary Society. When it comes to gender roles,
traditional instrumental behavior for men and traditional expressive behavior
for women are not the only two options available, nor are they the only two
options that are accepted and tolerated by modern society. Women can
become pilots, nuclear physicists, business owners, or politicians without most
people thinking that they are accomplishing anything more out of the ordinary
than if a man had done the same thing. Similarly, men are readily accepted as
artists, poets, nurses, and social workers. In fact, 21st-century Western society
is very accepting of the concept of androgyny, or the presence of both
traditionally feminine and masculine characteristics or traits in one individual.
It has been posited that the twenty-first century's complex society is best
supported by flexible rather than traditional gender roles. So, for example, in
addition to being nurturing and caring and displaying expressive behaviors,
girls need also to learn instrumental behaviors, such as being assertive, self-
reliant, and independent when the situation calls for it. Similarly, boys should
not only display instrumental behaviors, such as being goal-oriented and
aggressive, but should also learn to be compassionate, sensitive, and yielding
when appropriate. It can be argued that such blurring of the lines between
traditional gender roles is good for both the individual and the society. When
women display more instrumental behaviors, they are able to use their talents
more fully than if they restrict themselves to traditional gender roles such as
wife, mother, or support person. Further, by learning to display instrumental
behaviors, women become better able to take care of themselves when a man
is not available to do so, whereas the paradigm of traditional gender roles
often necessitates the presence of a man in a woman's life. Similarly, this
situation is also good for society because it widens the pool of talent for many
jobs and allows people to fulfill the role best suited for them, no matter their
gender.
Society also benefits when men learn to be more androgynous and
demonstrate more expressive behavior when appropriate, such as when
fathers are more nurturing to their mates and children or express their
emotions and communicate more fully. In some ways, the move toward more
androgynous gender roles in itself reinforces the need for androgynous gender
roles by making it easier for people of all genders to break out of the
traditional gender stereotypes. Another way androgyny in gender roles is
good for both society and the individual is that androgynous individuals have
been shown to be more adaptable. Particularly in modern society, with its
rapidly changing technological demands and opportunities, faster
communications channels, and globalization, adaptability is a characteristic
greatly to be desired. Research has shown that androgynous individuals tend
to be more flexible when coping with difficult situations and also tend to be
more satisfied with their lives (Coon, 2001).
Conclusion
Virtually every culture in the world has gender role expectations for how
women and men should act. Sometimes these are in line with biological
factors and the extrapolation of reproductive roles to other areas in society,
such as in traditional Western gender roles, where the woman is nurturing and
expressive and the man is aggressive and instrumental. However, such roles
are not the result of biological destiny, as the gender roles of the Tchambuli
people in New Guinea illustrate. Further, individuals in postmodern 21st-
century society are increasingly performing androgynous gender roles in
which they are either expressive or instrumental as the situation demands.
Gender, however, is more than a socialized role that one learns; it is also part
of one's identity and self-concept. Neither the traditional Western gender roles
of expressive females and instrumental males nor the New Guinea Tchambuli
gender roles of instrumental females and expressive males are inherently
good or bad or even better than the other. Similarly, although there is
evidence that androgynous gender roles can be good for both the individual
and society, they, too, are not inherently superior. Although some observers
advocate for traditional roles and others advocate for androgynous roles or
even anti-traditional roles, in the end, it is what works best for the individual
and for society that is important. Families can be functional under any of
these paradigms, and so can societies. More research is needed in order to
better understand the biological and social components of gender roles, how
gender roles affect one's self-concept and mental health, and how gender
roles change over time to support the needs of society.
Terms & Concepts
Androgyny: The presence in one individual of both feminine and masculine
characteristics or traits as traditionally classified.
Culture: A complex system of meaning and behavior that is socially
transmitted and defines a common way of life for a group or society. Culture
includes the totality of behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and other
products of human work and thought.
Dyad: A group with only two members (e.g., husband and wife; father and
child).
Gender: Psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics
associated with being female or male. Gender is defined by one's gender
identity and learned gender role.
Gender Identity: The recognition that one is male, female, or nonbinary,
based on both biological and psychosocial considerations, and the
internalization of this gender concept into one's self-identity.
Gender Role: Separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests,
attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as "male" or "female" by one's
culture. Gender role is largely a product of the way in which one was raised
and may not be in conformance with one's gender identity.
Gender Stereotype: A culturally defined pattern of expected attitudes and
behaviors that are considered appropriate for one gender but not the other.
Gender stereotypes tend to be simplistic and based not on the characteristics
or aptitudes of the individual but on overgeneralized perceptions of each
gender.
Norms: Standards or patterns of behavior that are accepted as normal within
the culture.
Sex: The biological aspects of being female, male, or intersex as determined
by chromosomes, hormones, primary sex characteristics, and secondary sex
characteristics.
Socialization: The process by which individuals learn to differentiate
between what the society regards as acceptable and unacceptable behavior
and to act in a manner that is appropriate for the needs of the society.
Society: A distinct group of people who live within the same territory, share a
common culture and way of life, and are relatively independent from people
outside the group. Society includes systems of social interactions that govern
both culture and social organization.
Subject: A participant in a research study or experiment whose responses are
observed, recorded, and analyzed.
Twin Study: A research study in which the subjects are pairs of twins. The
object of twin studies is to try to better understand the relative contributions
of heredity and environment to behavior, traits, and other attributes of
interest. Twin studies often involve some pairs of twins who have been reared
together in the same situation, so that environment remains relatively stable,
and some who have been reared apart in different situations, so that
environmental factors vary significantly.
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