Whereas Chodorow draws from the experiences of individuals, Sherry Ortner’s (1974) theory looks at society as a whole. Ortner argues that a universal tendency in cultural thought is to align things male and masculine with “culture” and things female and femi­nine as closer to “nature.” Men are outwardly oriented, going out from the tribe or […]

Men tend to be more frequently assigned to formal positions of power and authority in society, creating what we might call a gender hierarchy. Though women have held for­mal positions of power across cultures and tend to wield power in more subtle ways than men, it is still indisputable that, viewed as a whole, women […]

Sandra Bem’s (1974, 1977, 1981) theory is a good example of a theory that tries to over­come the difficulties posed by the other theories. According to Bem, children (and, for that matter, all of us) think according to schemas (SKI-muz), which are cognitive mech­anisms that organize our world. These schemas develop over time and are […]

Cognitive development theory assumes that all children go through a universal pattern of development, and there really is not much parents can do to alter it. As the child’s brain matures and grows, the child develops new abilities and new concerns; and, at each stage, his or her understanding of gender changes in predictable ways. […]

Social learning theory suggests that we learn gender roles from our environment, from the same system of rewards and punishments that we learn our other social roles. For exam­ple, research shows that many parents commonly reward gender-appropriate behavior and disapprove of (or even punish) gender-inappropriate behavior. Telling a boy sternly not to cry “like a […]

Recently we have begun to understand more about the biological differences between men and women through the field of evolutionary theory. Evolutionary theory takes into account evolution and our physical nature. Gender differences are seen as ways in which we have developed in our adaptation to our environment.

In Chapter 2 we reviewed general theories of sexuality, and the debates there cen­tered on how much of human sexuality is programmed through our genes and physi­ology, and how much is influenced by culture and environment. Gender role theory struggles with the same issues, and different theorists take different positions. Social learning theorists believe that […]

As gender stereotypes evolve, a trait may no longer be seen as the exclusive domain of a single gender. For example, many people have been trying to change our current stereotypes of men as “unemotional” and women as “emotional.” The constellation of traits that has been traditionally seen as masculine and feminine may be becoming […]

Masculinity and Femininity What is masculine? What is feminine? Not too long ago, the answers would have seemed quite obvious: men naturally have masculine traits, meaning they are strong, stable, ag­gressive, competitive, self-reliant, and emotionally undemonstrative; women are natu­rally feminine, meaning they are intuitive, loving, nurturing, emotionally expressive, and gentle. Even today, many would agree […]