Women’s Psychology Unit 5

Unit Five: Gender Socialization Gender socialization: a process when individuals internalize the social expectations and attitudes associated to their perceived gender Theories of Gender Development: ● Psychoanalytic Theories: suggest that gender development (and personality) is controlled by unconscious forces ○ Oedipus complex: Freud believed that boys develop hostile feelings towards their father due to their unconscious love for their mothers ○ Electra complex: blames mother for her inferior anatomy (penis envy) ○ Penis envy: girl realizes she doesn’t have a penis for the rest of her life (connects to electra complex. ○ Castration anxiety: central part of young boy’s fear that father will cut of his penis ○ Womb envy: Karen Horney’s belief that men get envious of a women’s reproductive ability (they try to dominate women because of this) ● Behavioral Theories: aspects of the environment influence behavior (uses learning theory) ○ Operant Conditioning: suggests that gender develops when certain behaviors are reinforced or rewarded, and other behaviors are punished (apparently this is how gender development occurs) ○ Social Learning Theories: suggests that learning takes place in a social setting even if they aren’t being punished or reinforced (goes AGAINST behavioral) ○ Observational learning: children watch what others do ● Cognitive Developmental Theories: emphasize that children’s understanding of gender goes through stages corresponding to development of cognitive skills (CHILDREN ARE ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS OF FIGURING OUT GENDER ROLES) ● Gender Labeling: ability to say whether someone is male or female (tested by having young children sort photographs of different people into categories) ○ Gender schema theory: how children integrate network of assumptions about gender with how they understand himself ● Gender constancy: understanding that even if they change their physical appearance, a girl is always a girl and a boy is always a boy ● Social construction theories: cultural beliefs about gender that exist to uphold specific social and economic systems and inequalities ● Postmodern Perspective: (This is what social construction theories are based on) Knowledge isn’t objective, but constructed, where it can change as a function of time, place, and culture ● Doing gender: performing behaviors associated with a specific gender in daily life, rather than having a gender Books ● Many lead male characters (Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter) ● Equal representation in gender for children books, but not for animals ● Few books for children with people of color, disabilities, and LGBTQ+ ● Gender roles are established within the book (Women indoors and Men outdoors) ○ EXAMPLES: Harry Potter (boys having adventures while girls are studious), Twilight (glorifying powerful man, dependent women relationship), BUT the Hunger Games (POWERFUL FEMALE LEAD) Toys and Gender Socialization ● Girl Toys: Domestic and nurturing tasks or to emphasize physical attractiveness (makeup, Easy Bake ovens, doll houses) ● Boy Toys: Violent, dangerous, and involves competition (footballs, guns, action figures) ● How parents affect gender socialization: ○ Parents encourage gender-typed activities and okay (like in chores or emotional and aggressive emotions). Less seen with children of LGBTQ parents Related Vocabulary ● Gender segregation: segregate on the basis of perceived gender identity. Gender variant kids are often excluded. ● Borderwork: reinforces an invisible border between girls and boys ● Hidden Curriculum: school environment indirectly teachers norms, beliefs, and values ○ EXAMPLES: Dress Code, Disciplinary Code- Black girls more in trouble than Black boys ● Gender rigidity: strict gender typing (NOT FLEXIBLE) ○ EXAMPLE: Happens with transgender and cisgender kids alot where they correspont to their gender identity rather than their sex assignment at birth ● Gender Intensification: girls and boys act more like their gender roles ● Self-socialization: the process where we actively influence our own social development and outcomes. The process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.