Gender Flashcards
Define androgynous.
Displaying roughly equal levels of masculine and feminine traits/behaviours.
What is sex?
Whether an individual is male or female. It relates to physical differences between men and women.
What is gender?
Whether an individual is masculine or feminine. It refers to differences in attitudes and behaviour.
What is the way of assessing masculinity and femininity?
Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). You rate yourself on 1 to 7 for each trait.
What is the study by Bem?
50 male and 50 female judges rated 200 traits for how desirable they were for men and women. Based on the ratings, 20 traits were chosen for masculinity (e.g. ambition and aggression) and 20 for femininity (e.g. compassion and shyness). These were used in the BSRI. When it was tested on over 1,000 students it probed to be valid when checked against their own gender identity.
What is considered to be a more psychologically healthy gender?
Androgyny.
What are two issues with Bem’s study?
- it relies on people having insight into their personality.
- people may lie or exaggerate to give socially desirable answers. However, it was all confidential.
Why is gender difficult to measure?
Someone may be very masculine, and other only moderately masculine. It is more subjective than sex, and is more open to interpretation.
Define transsexual.
A person who desires to be a member of the opposite sex.
What is gender identity?
An individual’s perception of their own masculinity and/or femininity.
When is sex determined?
When a sperm fertilises an egg during conception.
What is the issue surrounding sex-change operations?
If sex is biological, it is fixed in their genes and cannot be changes so sex-changes do not really change a persons sex. However their anatomy is part of the factor, which can be changed in gender reassignment surgery.
How would a transsexual woman have become a man?
She may have had a penis surgically constructed, her breasts removed, given hormones to stop menstruation and to deepen her voice and encourage facial hair growth.
Can gender be considered fixed?
Yes. People who undergo gender reassignment surgery may have had a female sex, but has a masculine gender identity. People who undergo the surgery have not been able to adopt the gender role of the sex they were born with.
What is the study by Imperato-McGinley? (testes at 12)
A case study was carried out on 18 males in the Dominican Republic. They were born with a hormone deficiency, meaning their genitals appeared to be female and were raised as such. It appeared however that they had trouble adopting that gender. At puberty, the increased production of male hormones caused their testicles to descend and their organs to form a penis. After this, they readily adapted to their true sex. This shows that sex and gender are distinct concepts. The sex had not changed over time, but their gender had. This shows gender is flexible.
What are the two issues with the Imperato-McGinley study? (testes at 12)
- The sample was only a small community. Other cultures may respond differently to the disorder, and some people may not adapt so easily to the gender roles. In the community used, roles were seen as God-given and part of one’s destiny. It was also a patriarchal society.
- Researchers didn’t meet the participants until they were adults, so had to rely on retrospective accounts. They therefore can’t reliably say that the boys had fully adopted the feminine gender role.
Where does further evidence for gender flexibility come from?
Rekers who used a three-year treatment programme of treatment to extinguish the highly feminine behaviour of an eight year old boy, and replace it with masculine behaviour. When the boy was assessed at 16, he was described as a normal gender-appropriate adolescent. This shows gender can be changed.
Define innate.
In-born; present at birth.
What are the two main arguments about how gender is developed?
Whether is is innate (nature) or learned (nurture).
What is the nature side of the gender argument?
Gender is biological, which would explain the strong relationship between sex and gender. Because each sex shares the same physiology and anatomy, they have many psychological traits in common. In the same way genetic and hormones determine sex, they determine gender.
What is the argument for gender behaviours being instinctive?
Reproduction basses on genes, and is one of the basic instincts of any animal. On this basis, masculine and feminine behaviour may also be instinctive. For example, women may be more careful and caring because biologically they are equipped to carry and care for children. Men are more aggressive because they have to look after and provide for families.
What is the study by Buss? (sexual preferences)
A survey was carried out in 37 countries across all continents, to rate the importance of a wide range of traits in a potential (heterosexual) mate. Men rated good looks, youth and chastity higher than women did. Women rated good financial prospects, industriousness and dependability higher than men did.
What did Buss’ study support? (sexual preferences)
The evolutionary theory that women and men instinctively seek out distinctive traits in potential mates. It suggests that mate preferences are universal. For men, it is indicators of a woman’s health, fertility and ability to carry and care for a baby. Chastity is important for men because an unfaithful mate may have another mans child; securing the survival of another mans genes. For women, the men should be able to provide for them. Dependability is important as it suggests they will stay around during and after pregnancy.
What is the issue with the Buss study? (sexual preferences)
The questions and traits were pre-set, giving respondents the inability to offer other traits they may have regarded as important. As a Westerner, she may have not identified traits that other cultures value.
What is cross-cultural research? Give an example of a study.
Investigations carried out across more than one society. Buss.
What does universal mean?
Occurring around the world.
What is a gender role?
The behaviours (masculine or feminine) that an individual displays.
Define ethnographic.
The scientific description of specific cultures.
What is Western society?
Mainly North American, European and Australasian countries.
What is an indicator that a behaviour is a result of nature?
It is universal, occurring across many countries and cultures regardless of experience and upbringing.
What are the three problem with the nature argument for gender roles?
- It cannot explain those who don’t adopt the gender role expected of them, even when there are no genetic abnormalities.
- If the sexes are different, it cannot explain why the sexes are becoming more similar in gender roles; becoming more androgynous.
- There is also evidence that opposes Buss’ findings.
What is the study by Mead? Detail the three tribes.
Mead carried out a detailed ethnographic study by living with various tribes in New Guinea for six months.
Arapesh: both sexes were feminine, and both parents were said to bear a child meaning the man took to bed whilst the child was born.
Mundugamor: both sexes were masculine. Both parents detested child care, so much that sleeping babies were hung out of the way in dark places.
Tchambuli: gender roles were reversed compared to Western society.
What was the conclusion Mead made?
Gender roles depend on culture. Although in most societies women are the carer and men the breadwinners, this is not the case all over the world. There are ‘exception to the rule’, showing gender isn’t universal, and is not determined by nature.
What are the three issues with Mead’s study?
- She may have become too involved, meaning her findings get criticised for being too subjective.
- She was accused of being biased and exaggerating the similarities between sexes in the Arapesh and Mundugamor tribes.
- She understated that men were more aggressive than females in all tribes, which could support that some traits are innate.
What did Mead reverse her ideas to and when?
After the birth of her first child, rather than viewing the roles as culturally scientific, she proposed that women were biologically better suited to nurturing and child care.
Define stereotype.
To over-emphasise similarities between members of a group and ignore differences. Examples include sex, race and age.
Define content analysis.
A study (usually longitudinal) of a particular aspect of the media.
Define longitudinal.
Over time.
What are three studies that challenge Western assumptions of gender?
Pontius: Investigated Pakistani school children and found no difference in spatial skills.
Roscoe: Studied Native American tribes and discovered the berdache were common. Berdache were individuals who combined both male and female gender roles and had a unique set of traits. Therefore they acknowledged three genders.
Sugihara and Katsurada: Used Bem’s inventory on Japanese students and found no significant difference between the sexes. Both scored high on femininity.
What is the nurture explanation for gender?
It is a product of socialisation and is dependant on environmental experiences. Upbringing and society’s expectations play a key role in a person’s gender.
Define socialisation.
A process whereby individuals are taught and encouraged to adopt certain values and roles.
Define norms.
Standard of appropriate ways of behaving.
What are agents of socialisation?
Individuals and groups in society involved in the socialising of others.
What is sex-role stereotyping?
Treating females and males differently according to a set of expectations.
What are sex-role stereotypes?
Culturally determined beliefs about what a particular sex’s gender role should be; often an over-generalisation.
What can the nurture argument explain that the nature argument cannot?
Why some people adopt gender roles not expected of their sex. In theory, a feminine boy would have had a set of experiences which have led him to acquire a different gender role. It also explains why they can change over time as anything learnt can be unlearnt and replaced.
How are norms, beliefs and values transmitted?
By agents of socialisation such as parent, peers, education system and the media. They work collectively to reinforce certain behaviours and discourage others.
What was Furnham and Farragher’s study? (TV)
A longitudinal content analysis on British television advertising. Samples of TV adverts were taken across the day over one month. Over 200 adverts were analysed according to the sex of the central figure. They were coded for the location of central figure, type of product, use of humour and sex of voice over. Men were most likely to be presented in autonomous roles (professionals, celebrities) and women in familial roles (mothers, home-makers). Men were shown doing leisure activities and in work settings, and were shown in domestic locations selling household products and body products. Men were found to be selling motoring products. Male figures were more likely to be shown as humorous, and nearly 70% of voice overs were male which implies women lack the status and authority to sell products.
What was an issue with the two coders in the Farragher study? (TV)
They didn’t always agree on categories.
What is an issue with the Farragher study? (TV)
We cannot assume that people are influenced by the adverts. Viewers will not perceive adverts the same way as academic researchers, and may extract different meanings (if any at all). We cannot assume they will passively respond to the stereotypes, and copy the gender roles without questioning them. However, there is a lot of evidence that people often do identify with and imitate what they see in the media.
What is the study by Fagot? (children)
Two researchers observed 24 different families. Half the families had young sons, and half had young daughters. Each set of parents was only observed on five separate one hour periods. It was found that parents reacted more favourably when their children engaged in gender-appropriate behaviour, and negatively to gender-inappropriate behaviour. This shows that parents reinforce certain behaviour through socialisation by sex-role stereotyping.
What is an issue with the Fagot study? (children)
The parents knew they were being observed and may have behaved differently. The findings might not be a valid reflection of what normally happened in the homes, as parents may stereotype more or less in reality.
Why can’t we generalise using older studies?
They may be out of date as sex-role stereotypes can change with time as attitudes change. For example, Farragher compared their analysis to one 20 years earlier and found there was less evidence of stereotyping in their study.
What did Willams and Best do?
Asked respondents from 27 different countries to categorise a list of traits as masculine and feminine and found there was a broad agreement.
