One example of a psychological theory of gender hierarchy is found in the work of Nancy Chodorow (1978). Chodorow draws from psychoanalytic theory to argue that girls and boys undergo fundamentally different psychological developmental processes. Because females have always been the primary child rearers, Chodorow suggests, we must explore what it means to boys and girls to be brought up by women. Both boys and girls create a powerful bond with their mothers; the mother becomes the source of personal identification for both. But, argues Chodorow, boys have a dilemma: they must separate themselves from their mothers and reidentify themselves as males. This is a very difficult
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process, and boys do it by devaluing the female role. Because their attachment to the mother is so profound, the only way they can overcome it and adopt a male role is to decide that being female is inferior to being male.
On the other hand, girls have a different problem: they can continue to identify with their mothers, but they cannot continue to love their mothers as they mature into heterosexual adults. Boys can carry over their original love for their mothers into adulthood, but heterosexuality in adult girls to some extent involves the loss of the mother. Girls cope with that separation by idealizing the qualities of the father (and therefore all men).
This brief description of Chodorow’s rich and complex theory shows how the psychological needs of boys and girls both result in a devaluation of the female and an overvaluation of the male. Perhaps, Chodorow suggests, the overall social gender hierarchy can be traced back to these important psychological processes.