Transcript Chapter Three - Donna Vandergrift

Chapter Five
Gender Issues
Distinction Between Gender & Sex
 Gender – refers to behavioral, psychological,
and social characteristics of men and women
 Sex – refers to an act or the biological aspects
of being male or female
 Gender Identity - subjective sense of being
male or female
 Gender (Sex) Role - cultural norms for male
and female behavior
Prenatal Development: X and Y Make
the Difference
 Humans reproduce sexually and are made to
be sexual beings
 Each parent supplies a gamete, each with half
of the genetic information (23 chromosomes),
including a sex chromosome
Male: sperm (X or Y)
Female: egg/ovum (X)
 Sex is determined at conception
Sexual Differentiation in the Womb
 Gestation: 9 months
 4-6 weeks: gonads begin to develop and
sexual differentiation starts 1-2 weeks later
 Sex chromosomes control development of:
internal sex organs
external sex organs
the embryo’s hormonal environment
the brain’s sexual differentiation
Typical Prenatal Differentiation
Typical Prenatal Differentiation
 Chromosomal sex
XX, XY, etc.
 Gonadal sex
Ovaries and testes
 Hormonal sex
Estrogens and androgens
 Genital sex
Internal and external organs
Typical Prenatal Differentiation
 Internal structures
Wolffian duct
Males – Vas deferens, seminal vesicles, ejaculatory duct
Müllerian duct
Females – Fallopian tubes, uterus, inner 1/3 vagina
 External structures
Genital tubercle
Clitoris or penis
Labioscrotal swelling
Labia or scrotum
Prenatal Differentiation of
Internal Structures
Homologous Sex Organs
Sex Differentiation Of The Brain
 Hypothalamus
Differentiates in pregnancy
Directs production of sex hormones
May influence sex differences and sexual
functioning
 Cerebral hemispheres
 Corpus callosum
Girls’ Brain Development
 By adolescence, a girl’s corpus callosum is 25 percent
larger than a boy’s, so the girl has more “cross talk”
between hemispheres and can multi task better
Girls have fewer attention span problems and can
make faster transitions between lessons.
 Stronger neural connectors create better listening
skills, more detailed memory storage, and better
discrimination among the tones of voice.
 A girl’s stronger neural connectors and a larger
hippocampus provide greater use of sensory memory
details in speaking and writing.
 Girls’ prefrontal cortex develops earlier and is larger
than boys’.
Girls’ Brain Development
 Girls have more serotonin and make fewer impulsive
decisions than boys.
 A girl’s brain also experiences approximately 15%
more blood flow, which is located in more centers of
the brain than a boy’s.
 With more cortical areas devoted to verbal
functioning, girls are better at: sensory memory,
sitting still, listening, tonality, mental cross talk, and
the complexities of reading and writing, i.e. the very
skills and behaviors often rewarded in schools.
Boys’ Brain Development
 Boys have more cortical area devoted to spatialmechanical functioning and half as much to verbalemotive functioning.
 For many tasks, brain imaging studies show that
women use the most advanced areas of the brain, the
cerebral cortex, whereas men doing the same task use
the more primitive areas, especially when related to
emotions. Men emote from the amygdala.
 Boys have less blood flow to the brain and tend to
structure or compartmentalize learning.
Boys’ Brain Development
 Spatial-mechanical brain functioning makes boys want
to move objects through the air, such as balls,
airplanes, their little sisters, or just their arms and legs.
 Boys have less serotonin and less oxytocin (and more
testosterone), which makes them more impulsive and
likely to behave in a risky way.
 The male brain is designed to go into rest states in
which it renews, recharges, and reorients itself.
 The more words a teacher/mom/girlfriend uses, the
greater chance a boy will quit listening.
 Boys’ brains are better suited to symbols, abstractions,
and pictures.
Hormonal Development and Influences
 Ovaries produce:
Estrogen: female sexual characteristics
Progesterone: menstrual cycle and
pregnancy
 Testes produce:
Androgens: development of male-typical
characteristics
Atypical Prenatal Differentiation
 Intersexed
True hermaphrodites
Pseudohermaphrodites
 Sex chromosome disorders
Over 70 sex chromosome abnormalities
Turner’s syndrome XO
Klinefelter’s syndrome XXY
Atypical Prenatal Differentiation
 Disorders affecting prenatal hormonal processes
Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS)
Fetally androgenized females (AGS)
DHT-deficient males
Atypical Prenatal Differentiation
Theoretical Explanations for
Gender Differences
Gender Stereotypes
 Gender stereotypes greatly influence our
thoughts and interactions
 What are some stereotypes?
Gender Role Expectations
 Women undersexed, men oversexed
 Men initiate, women receive
 Women as controllers, men as movers
 Men are unemotional and strong
 Women are nurturing and supportive
Gender Stereotypes
 What stereotypes does this cartoon reinforce?
Gender Stereotypes
 What stereotypes does this cartoon reinforce?
Gender Stereotypes
 What stereotypes does this cartoon reinforce?
Gender Stereotypes
 Gender-based stereotypes (North American)
Males
Independent and aggressive
Females
Dependent and submissive
 Recent trend away from rigid stereotypes
Women less entrenched than men in rigid genderrole stereotypes
 Ethnic variation in gender roles
Masculinity and Femininity
 Ideal cluster of traits that society attributes to
each gender
 Changes with society, and varies from culture
to culture
Less gender role stereotyping in African
Americans and Northern U.S.
Masculinity: The Hunter
 Rights of passage in many societies
 Contradictions in the male role:
Provide, but don’t solely focus on career
Be sexually successful, but not degrading
to women
Be strong and stable, but be emotionally
available
Do not be dependent on a woman
 Men have a less flexible role than women
Femininity: The Nurturer
 Typically viewed as the opposite of
masculinity
 Characterized by beauty, empathy, concern,
softness, modesty
 Contradictions in the female role:
Job fulfillment, but stay at home with kids
Not just for looks, but use makeup/be thin
Opportunities are available, on men’s
terms
Gender Roles
Agents of Socialization
 Parental expectations
 Peers
 School teachers and textbooks
 Television and gender-based stereotypes
Gender Role Theory
 A variety of theorists and positions
 Evolutionary biology: gender differences are
due to adapting to our environment
 Social learning: learn gender roles from
society, our environment
 Cognitive development: universal stages for
understanding and utilizing gender
Gender Role Theory
 Gender schema: Cognitive structures
organize “gender,” influenced by culture
 Chodorow’s developmental:
Psychoanalytic background; boys separate
from mom by devaluing females; girls can
love mom as a heterosexual and idealize
father’s qualities
Androgyny
Transcending Gender Roles
 Having characteristics of both sexes
 Benefits
 Drawbacks
 May show more flexibility and comfort with
sexuality
Transgender
 Transgender is an umbrella term for persons
whose gender identity, gender expression, or
behavior does not conform to that typically
associated with the sex to which they were
assigned at birth.
Billy Tipton was a well-known jazz musician who was discovered to be a female when he died in 1989.
Transsexualism: When Gender and
Biology Don’t Agree
 Feel their gender identity does not match
their biological sex (Gender Dysphoria)
 “Trapped” in the wrong body
 More males than females experience this
 Sex reassignment surgery involves a long
process: psychological counseling, live as the
other sex, hormones, multiple surgeries
M2F: realistic results, orgasm
F2M: experimental stages
Third Genders: Other Cultures, Other
Options
 Some cultures have a third gender category
Native American berdache
Oman xanˉ ýth
Indian hijra
Thai kathoey
Hawaiian aikane
Tahitian mahu
Asexualism: The Genetics
but Not the Sex
 Born without any sexual organs (no biological
gender)
 Has a genetic gender (XX or XY)
 Typically assigned gender as a child and
given hormones