Gender is defined as the expected societal or cultural differences in men and women by virtue of their sex. Gender and sex are however two different aspects since a person's sex are definitive from birth while their gender is culturally or societally defined. Gender schema which refers to the cognitive network of cultural assumptions about the personality and moral characteristics of men and women is what shapes people’s attitudes, and behaviors towards gender identify and gender roles. Through a combined analysis of the gender determinants and gender theories, gender roles and identity are shaped by psychological, biological and social factors.
What factors are responsible for Gender Determination?
Gender determinants are the factors that society uses to define the gender of a person (Magnusson, 2012). To delve into the factors that determine a person's gender, it is imperative to analyze some of the cultural aspects that society associates with gender classification. Sex is one of the aspects that is mostly correlated with gender (Fausto, 2012). It refers to the biological and physiological differences that are apparent in both males and females. Society has through gender influence established sex roles which are expected behaviors and patterns from men and women which are directly determined by their biological differences (Fausto, 2012). Gender also plays a big role in the development of people’s sexual identity which is the degree of awareness and conformity to culturally defined sexual orientation and sex roles. Biological factors play a huge role in shaping children's physical development. Factors like hormones, genes and chromosomes are responsible for determining a person’s gender.
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Hormones are chemical secretions produced by the glands and carried in a person’s bloodstream (Fausto, 2012). Sex hormones are present in both men and women but in a different amount. The sex hormone testosterone is more present in males as compared to females and is responsible for their development and behaviors before and after birth (McLeod, 2014). It is released in the womb to facilitate the development of male sex organs and also acts upon the hypothalamus leading to the masculinization of the brain. Testosterone is responsible for the development of gender-related typical male behaviors like competitiveness, aggression, higher sexual drive as well as Visio-spatial abilities (McLeod, 2014). Hormones and their levels in the human body, therefore, determine how males and females behave and adapt to their gender.
Social and environmental factors are also major players in influencing a person’s gender Identity too. Children’s upbringing and the social environments they grow up in help in fashioning and developing their gender identities (Magnusson, 2012). Grownups’ interests and characters are shaped by their parents and other authority figures they interacted with when growing up. Regarding sexual stereotypes, children from a tender age catch on certain notions like the appropriateness or inappropriateness of possessing selected traits or engaging in certain activities by virtue of their sex (Fausto, 2012).They eventually internalize these perceptions and make them the pointers of what is gender appropriate or not in later life (Fausto, 2012). Children learn a lot through observation of what the society around them do more so their primary caregivers do. They watch, learn and internalize the things they observe and hear and then translate those thought processes and behavioral patterns into their lives (Magnusson, 2012).Therefore, it is common for children raised by strictly adhering gender stereotypes parents to take on these perceptions and conform to said gender roles.
Gender identity theories
Various theories have been developed in a bid to explain the gender phenomenon. The evolution theory is based on Darwin's Theory of Evolution (Magnusson, 2012). It posits that certain biological and psychological differences in the male and female sexes are as a result of nature and they are responsible for the formation of different gender roles. Men are said to be more competitive naturally and more inclined to aggression since these traits are important in attracting a partner and improve their capacity for providing resources for their offspring (McLeod, 2014). By comparison, women are said to lean more on the nurturing side since this trait gives them an advantage in attracting a partner and taking care of their off springs.
The theory of Psychosexual Differentiation claims that gender role identity results from chromosomal composition. It posits that in the early stages of fetal development, the hormones responsible for sex determination are released (Magnusson, 2012). The prenatal hormones affect the external sex organs of the fetus as well as the internal reproductive system which determine if it will become masculine or feminine (McLeod, 2014). Androgens which are male hormones are considered the differentiating factors in psychosexual differentiation (McLeod, 2014). Androgens like the testosterone hormones are responsible for the stimulation of the masculine characteristics development and the facilitation of the masculinization process on the fetal brain (McLeod, 2014). According to this theory, prenatal androgens compel people to act and feel feminine or masculine.
The biosocial theory of gender role development is the result of research done by its authors Money and Ehrhardt (McLeod, 2014).It claims that newborns don’t have a gender immediately they are born but it develops with time through their socialization processes. The theory’s basis is on a case study conducted on people born with ambiguous genitals (Fausto, 2012). The theory posits that children who are born with female genetic composition but are brought up as boys consider themselves male. Money theorized that human beings don’t have a gender identity at birth and it is, therefore, possible to change a baby’s gender within the first two years of their life (McLeod, 2014). An animal research experimental findings show that female rat fetuses that were given testosterone injections behaved more like male rats when they became adults. They failed to exhibit normal female sexual behavior in adulthood despite being injected with estrogen the female hormone as adults.
A case study was also conducted on a boy named David Reimer a young boy whose penis was severely injured when getting circumcised at eight months. Dr. John Money suggested a surgical and hormonal replacement sex change so that he could be raised female. He was transformed from a boy into a girl named Brenda (Magnusson, 2012). Her/his identical twin was used as a matched control during the study under the belief that the case would offer support data to the biosocial theory (Magnusson, 2012). However, Money scientific articles only published the success of the sex change and failed to publish evidence that would refute his theory. At the age of fifteen Brenda (David) decided to change back into a boy because he felt different from the other girls. He had reconstructive surgery to get male genitalia. This case study discredited the biosocial theory’s claim that socialization overrides biological composition in gender determination (Magnusson, 2012). The backfiring of the surgery acclaimed the hormonal psychosexual differentiation theory .
The Social learning theory was coined by Bandura in 1977.The theory argues that gender roles and identity are adapted from observing same-sex models (Magnusson, 2012). The Baby X experiment was carried out in a bid to prove the general findings. In the experiment, adults were asked to interact with infants who wore either blue or pink unisex snowsuits. The snowsuits were randomly selected with no regard for the infants ‘sexual orientation. The adults in the experiment played with the infants under the assumption that their genders were reflected by the color of their snowsuits (Magnusson, 2012). Their association of the babies’ outfits color with their sex proved that a baby’s gender is generated by their social environment (Magnusson, 2012).The experiment deducted that the children of around age of 10 and 11 who behaved contrary to a gender-stereotyped way were less popular. The experiment, therefore, indicates that children form a kind of social attitude about gender from a very early age (Fausto, 2012). Therefore, socialization is considered an important factor in the development of gender roles.
The Gender schema theory posits that g ender schemas are generalized societal realities about what should be considered appropriate behavior for the male and female genders (Magnusson, 2012). People are classified in both the feminine or masculine groups and assigned specific stereotyped gender traits (Fausto, 2012). Gender schemas are responsible for knowledge organization and the processing of information (Magnusson, 2012). The Gender schema theory is based on the presumption that cognition plays an important part in the formulation of gender identity and gender roles. The theory labels the most important aspect in the development of gender roles and identity as the children’s ability to identify themselves as either male or female (Magnusson, 2012). Gender schemas act as crucial guides in the subsequent information processing in children who are motivated to conform to thought processes to fit in (Magnusson, 2012). The theory posits that cultural beliefs about female and male gender roles and identities are shaped by gender schemas which strongly influence the way children perceive themselves and the world around them.
Gender roles and identity are therefore a result of a combination of social, psychological and physically observed stereotypes and a result of conformity to what society projects as a normal and correct way of doing things.
References
McLeod, S. A. (2014). Biological Theories of Gender. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2012). Sex and Gender . Routledge.
Magnusson, E., Marecek, J., & Magnusson, E. (2012). Gender and culture in psychology: Theories and practices . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
