Summary ‘Adolescence and emerging
adulthood: A cultural approach’
Chapter 5 Gender
Difference between sex and gender:
- Sex: The biological status of being male or female.
- Gender: The social categories of male and female, established according to cultural beliefs
and practices rather than being due to biology.
Adolescents and gender in traditional cultures
In traditional cultures gender roles tend to be sharply divided, and during adolescence boy’s and girls’
daily lives are often separate. Girls spend their time with adult women learning skills important for
childcare and running a household, whereas boys learn the skills necessary for the requirements of
the male role: provide, protect and procreate (some degree of sexual experience before marriage).
Differences between boys and girls in adolescence:
- Girls spend a lot of time with their mother and family; boys typically have more contact with
their peers than they did before adolescence.
- There are double standards: Adolescent boys in traditional cultures are allowed and even
expected to gain some sexual experience before marriage, girls are expected to be virgins.
- School is not usually part of the adolescent girl’s experience, boys are much more likely to be
allowed to attend school until age 12 or older.
- For boys, manhood is something that has to be achieved, whereas girls reach womanhood
inevitably, mainly through their biological changes.
Adolescents and gender in European history
From girl to woman: In earlier periods of European history, adolescent girls were constricted in many
ways: in terms of the occupational roles they were allowed to study or enter; they were constricted
by cultural perceptions of females as fragile and innocent, less intelligent and too weak to do any
important physical work; they were expected to be virgin until marriage; and they were expected to
look good (ex. corsets). But there were also some advantages of being a woman. They benefited from
a ‘protective umbrella’ of involvement and concern by adult woman (the focus was on service
projects in the community, building relationships between adolescent girls and adult women, and
developing character qualities, including self-control, service to others, and belief in God).
From boy to man: Anthony Rotundo describes the transformations that have taken place in the last
couple centuries in how we view the passage from boyhood to manhood:
- 17th and 18th century: The phase of communal manhood: the focus on gender expectations
for adolescent boys was on preparing to assume adult male role responsibilities in work and
marriage. Preparing for community and family responsibilities was considered more
important than striving for individual achievement and economic success.
- 19th century: The phase of self-made manhood: males were increasingly expected to become
independent from their families in adolescence and young adulthood as part of becoming a
man. But, becoming a provider and protector also remained important.
, - 20th century: The phase of passionate manhood: self-expression and self-enjoyment replaced
self-control and self-denial as the paramount virtues young males should learn in the course
of becoming a man. Individualism increased further.
Socialization and gender today
The gender intensification hypothesis: John Hill and Mary Ellen Lynch introduced the gender
intensification hypothesis: hypothesis that psychological and behavioral differences between males
and females become more pronounced at adolescence because of intensified socialization pressures
to conform to culturally prescribed gender roles. Hill and Lynch believe that it is this intensified
socialization pressure, rather than the biologically changes of puberty, that results in increased
differences between males and females as adolescence progress. And they argue that the intensity of
gender socialization in adolescence is greater for females than for males.
Cultural beliefs about gender: There is still persistence of traditional gender beliefs in society,
however, compared to 1977, many adults today are less likely to believe men are better politicians,
less likely to see women as the ones who should take care of the home and more likely to believe
working mothers can have warm relationships with their children.
Gender socialization; family, peers and school: Differential gender socialization is the term for
socializing males and females according to different expectations about the attitudes and behavior
appropriate to each gender. In European society today, boys and girls receive differential gender
socialization from birth, and gender-related socialization pressures intensify at adolescence. Research
shows that pressures to conform to gender expectations come from the family, peers and teachers.
For girls, the magazines they like best relentlessly emphasize physical appearance.
Gender socialization as a source of problems: For both girls and boys, the intensified gender
socialization they experience in adolescence can be a source of problems. For girls, the focus on
physical appearance that is the heart of the female gender role can produce many kinds of distress.
For boys, the problem at the core of their gender role in adolescence is aggressiveness. Adolescents
who value aggressiveness as part of the male gender role are especially likely to engage in problem
behavior.
Cognition and gender: Lawrence Kohlberg proposed the theory of gender development known as the
cognitive-developmental theory of gender: theory based on Piaget’s ideas about cognitive
development, asserting that gender is a fundamental way of organizing ideas about the world and
that children develop through a predictable series of stages in their understanding of gender:
- 3 years: Children understand gender identity (they understand themselves as being either
male or female). They use gender as a way of organizing information obtained from the world
around them. Furthermore, children seek to maintain consistency between their categories
and their behavior, called self-socialization.
- 6-10 years: Children’s perceptions of gender roles become more flexible.
- Early adolescence: Expectations become more rigid again in early adolescence. Boys had
especially rigid views of gender roles, particularly for masculine traits.
How can cognitive-developmental theory explain these changes? The development of self-reflection
and idealization, leads to asking oneself questions about what it means to be a woman or a man, and
to making judgements about how one measures up to cultural gender expectations.
The gender schema theory state that we tend to organize our perceptions of the world according to
schemas of male and female, and we categorize a wide range of behavior and objects on this basis.
Sandra Bem stresses that people apply gender schemas also to themselves.
, Masculinity, femininity and androgyny: In general terms, femininity is associated with being nurturing
and compliant. In contrast, masculinity is associated with being independent and aggressive. The
difference in traits associated with each gender role has been described as a contrast between the
expressive traits (personality characteristics such as gentle and yielding, emphasizing emotions and
relationships) ascribed to females and the instrumental traits (personality characteristics such as self-
reliant and forceful, emphasizing action and accomplishment) ascribed to males. Androgyny is the
term for combining ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ traits within one person. The women’s movement has
led people to reconsider ideas about male and female roles, and one outcome would be combining
the traits of femininity and masculinity together. Among adolescents, androgyny tends to be
acceptable for girls but not for boys.
Gender roles in minority groups: Adolescents and young adults who are member of minority cultures
are exposed not only to the gender roles of their own culture but also to the gender roles of the
majority culture, through school, the media, and friends and peers who may be part of the majority
culture. This may make it possible for young people in minority cultures to form a variety of possible
gender concepts based on different blends of the gender roles in their minority culture and the
gender roles of the larger society.
Gender stereotypes in young adulthood: Gender stereotypes attribute certain characteristics to
others simply on the basis of whether they are male or female. Among young adults, gender
stereotypes sometimes lead them to evaluate women’s work less favorably than men’s. However,
gender stereotypes appear to be weaker in young adulthood than in adolescence.
The persistence of beliefs about gender differences: Research generally finds few substantial
differences between males and females in most respects. Most human characteristics fall into
something resembling what is called a normal distribution or a bell curve: that is, a small proportion
of people rate much higher than most other people, a small proportion rate much lower than most
people, but most people fall somewhere in the middle, somewhere around average. But why do so
many stereotypes about gender persist? Two possible reasons:
- Gender schemas are resistant to change once established.
- According to social roles theory, social roles for males and females enhance or suppress
different capabilities. Differential gender socialization leads males and females to develop
different skills and attitudes, which leads to different behavior. The difference in behavior
seem to confirm the appropriateness of the different roles (confirming of stereotypes).
Gender and globalization
Views of gender have changed substantially in the past century and are likely to change in developing
countries in the future as a result of economic development and globalization. For example,
discrimination (in schooling) against girls may change as globalization proceeds and traditional
cultures become increasingly industrialized and connected to the global economy.
Chapter 6 The self
Culture and the self
Cultures differ greatly in their views of the self, with some promoting an independent self that is high
in self-esteem and others promoting an interdependent self that is defined by relations with others.
Self-conceptions
Adolescent self-conceptions, like adolescent cognitive development overall, become more abstract
and more complex than when they were young:
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