2. Understanding gender stereotypes Flashcards
What is sex?
Refers to biological categories of male and female
What is gender?
Refers to broad social constructions to masculinity and femininity, such as stereotypes and roles. (how we tend to think about masculine/feminine)
Why is it important to separate sex from gender?
To avoid essentialism: tendency to view category members (e.g. all men or all women) as sharing deep, immutable properties that determine “who they are”. “Women are this way, no matter what they do”
What is essentialism?
Tendency to view category members (e.g. all men or all women) as sharing deep, immutable properties that determine “who they are”. “Women are this way, no matter what they do”
Why is gender essentialism problematic?
- Views differences in how women and men think, feel, and act as biologically fixed
- Assumes new cultural conditions (e.g. influx of women into the workforce) will not make men and women more alike
- Extends to race (e.g. racists talk about race as “in the blood” and “the one drop”)
Why are gender essentialist beliefs so popular?
- Gender dichotomy is clear-cut (i.e. cannot typically be “part male” but can be “part black”)
- Obvious physical differences between men and women
- Provides a “convenient” explanation for why men and women act like they do: “He’s a boy!/She’s a woman”
What are some literature examples of gender essentialism?
- Men are from Mars, women are from Venus
- What women want
What are the two general theories on whether biological sex translates into psychological characteristics?
Evolutionary approach:
- Considers men and women as fundamentally different in their abilities, ways of thinking, personality
- Consistent with essentialist beliefs
Cultural approach:
- Considers gender to be a social construction, a product of cultural ideals about femininity and masculinity
- Sex affects a limited number of physical traits, psychological differences are culturally created
What is the evolutionary approach based on?
Sexual selection: People must reproduce, not just survive, to pass on their genes
- To reproduce successfully, an individual must possess traits potential mates find attractive. These traits then become more common in successive generations
Which traits do men and women find attractive?
- Men can have 100s of children in a life span, so they are hence not choosy when it comes to picking mates
–> Their only requirement is health; thus women who are physically attractive (sign of health) are often selected
- Women can have a limited number of children (pregnancy=9 months, and comes with health costs), so they are very choosy when it comes to picking mates
–> They look for men who are willing and able to provide resources to ensure children’s survival; thus men who are dominant and have high social status are often selected
The evolutionary approach may seem ridiculous, but what did a recent meta analysis demonstrate?
Although gender differences in traits between men and women are tiny (85% overlap), two very big gender differences are:
- Attitude toward casual sex: men have more favorable views
- Physical aggression: men are more aggressive
What is the cultural approach based on?
Socialization: Process by which girls and boys learn feminine and masculine identities
How does learning occur?
From infancy, how people are treated depends on sex
Society communicates gender ideals (colors, clothes, occupations girls and boys should have):
Passive:
- Authority figures
- Media
Active:
- People “perform gender”: try to live according to society’s predetermined gender ideals and stereotypes
- Social (or observational) learning: modeling behavior after parent of the same gender
What are the pros and cons of the evolutionary approach?
+ Plausible story about distant origins of sex differences
- Focus on primeval origins makes the hypotheses difficult to test
What are the pros and cons of the cultural approach?
+ Shows how social conceptions of gender influence people’s beliefs and behaviors
- Overemphasizes social causes to the exclusion of biological differences
What is the social structural approach?
A theory that unifies the past two approaches, the most dominant approach today.
Social positions of groups within society and the structure of intergroup relations determine behaviors of members of these groups, as well as perceptions of and behavior toward members of these groups.
What is the social structural approach based on?
Social role theory: Roles generate specific demands for individuals to exhibit particular traits and behaviors.
Women:
Reproductive biology ties women to bearing and nourishing infants
→ Child-rearing roles
→ Stereotyped communal expectations of women
(women take care of kids because of their biology, and since they have been doing this for so long, expectations have formed on which characteristics you should have)
Men:
Since women bear/nourish infants, men evolved to provide for family
→ Non-domestic work role
→ Stereotyped agentic expectations of men
What is social role theory?
Roles generate specific demands for individuals to exhibit particular traits and behaviors.
What is sexual selection?
People must reproduce, not just survive, to pass on their genes
- To reproduce successfully, an individual must possess traits potential mates find attractive. These traits then become more common in successive generations
What is socialisation?
Process by which girls and boys learn feminine and masculine identities
What factors reinforce differences in stereotyped expectations in social structural approach?
- Male roles accrue more status and provide more opportunity to acquire resources than housekeeping/child-rearing
- Social rewards/punishments provide incentives for people to act in line with gender expectations
