Chapter 4

Gender Convergence and Role Equity

Chapter Outline

• Male - Masculine and Female - Feminine: Not Necessarily So

• How Sex and Gender Identity Develop

• Role Equity • Traditional Gender Roles

Chapter Outline Changing Male and Female Roles Gender Role Stereotypes The Movement toward Gender Equality

Male = Masculine and Female = Feminine: Not Necessarily So

• There is controversy about the answers to questions about gender.

• The differences between the sexes are lessening, and the similarities are increasing.

Gender Identity A person’s gender identity is how that

person views him-/herself: “Am I a man or woman, masculine or

feminine?”

Social Norms and Roles• Norms are accepted and expected

patterns of behavior and beliefs established either formally or informally by a group.

• Roles involve activities demanded by the norms.

How Sex and Gender Identity Develop

1. Sex is genetically determined at conception.

2. Hormones secreted by glands directed by the genetic configuration produce physical differences.

3. Society defines, prescribes, and reinforces the gender-role aspect of sexual identity.

Contributing Factors Biological Contributions Environmental Contributions Gender Differences

Biological Contributions Every human starts with the potential of

becoming either male or female. As a fully differentiated adult each still carries

the biological rudiments of the opposite sex.

Sexuality

• Intersexual: A person who has biological characteristics of both sexes.

• Transsexual: A person who feels psychologically that he or she is actually of the opposite gender.

• Transvestite: A person who gains sexual pleasure from dressing like the opposite sex.

Environmental Contributions

Once a baby is born, society begins to teach the infant its proper gender role and reinforce its sexual identity.

Normal Curves of Most Gender Characteristics

Role Equity When men and women are freer to choose

gender roles for themselves, especially within intimate relationships like marriage, their chances for success and fulfillment increase.

Role Equity

What is role equity? • When the roles one fulfills are based on

individual strengths and weaknesses,rather than on stereotypical differences between the sexes.

What is androgyny? • The blending of traits associated with the

sexes by society.

Changing Male and Female Roles

• The women’s movement has focused attention on gender inequalities and has energized efforts to reduce these inequalities.

• As women change their roles, the masculine role also changes.

The Movement toward Gender Equality

To say that men and women are equal in all ways overlooks the advantageous, and disadvantageous, differences between the sexes.

To say that one sex is better than the other because of those differences is stereotyping at its worst.

Masculinity and femininity are not polar opposites; most of us are both masculine and feminine, depending on the situation.

Quick Quiz

1. The blending of traits associated with the sexes is called

a) Androgyny

b) Transvestitism

c) Transsexualism

d) Intersexualism

Answer: a• The blending of traits associated with the

sexes is called androgyny.

2. Accepted and expected patterns of behavior and beliefs established either formally or informally by a group are called

a) Socialization

b) Norms

c) Roles

d) Gender

Answer: b• Accepted and expected patterns of

behavior and beliefs established either formally or informally by a group are called norms.

3. Gender Identity is

a) the process by which sex is determined.

b) the same as stereotypical gender roles.

c) how that person views him-/herself.

d) the idea that men and women are equal.

Answer: c• Gender identity is how that person

views him-/herself.