Chapter Four
Growing Up
Chapter Highlights
- Overall, socialization practices involving families, schools, peers, and the media pass a gender-typed culture on to an actively thinking child, making individuals either products of or deviates from their culture
- "Baby X" studies highlight how social categorization affects perceptions of even very young children
- Research findings comparing girls with boys finds fewer differences in children's own beliefs about gender than others' expectations for children based on their assigned sex (social categorization), development of individuals' gender identity and sex category constancy, and gender differences in preferences and behaviors, most notably gender segregation among peers
- Chodorow's psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the role of family relationships in gender-identity development and ultimately calls for dual-parenting to break out of the cycle of reproducing emotionally unsatisfying, analytic, heterosexual men and relational, heterosexual women
- Social cognitive theory explores how children learn to be female and male from socializing agents and by actively developing their own gender schema, all within a culture that emphasizes gender as a social category
- This gendered culture is linked to power by socializing girls toward powerlessness and (heterosexual) boys toward mastery and privilege
- Although there are individual strategies for raising gender-aschematic children within a gender-schematic culture, sociopolitical change by individually challenging these practices is likely to incur costs associated with being culturally deviant
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In "Baby X" studies,
a. a child is raised as gender-indeterminant.
b. intersexual children are raised without any gender markers until they make their own choice.
c. people reacted to the same baby dressed to look either female or male.
d. the fetus's X chromosome was manipulated in utero.
2. "Girls are girls because that's just the way girls are." This statement is most likely to be made by:
a. essentialists.
b. social constructionists.
c. positivists.
d. experientialists.
3. The best summary of the extensive data comparing girls and boys is:
a. girls and boys think about themselves differently.
b. other people think about girls and boys differently.
c. differences in girls and boys have largely disappeared in more recent studies.
d. girls avoid boys and vice versa.
4. When a child realizes that girls are girls regardless of what clothes they wear and what they do, this illustrates the development of:
a. gender identity.
b. sex category constancy.
c. gender role.
d. biological permanence.
5. Catherine, a 10 year old girl, believes she is a "girly girl." She enjoys playing with Barbie dolls, and her favorite color is hot pink. Even though her parents offer to buy her more "gender neutral" toys, she prefers to play with her Barbies. By these actions, Catherine is displaying:
a. her gender identity.
b. her gender constancy.
c. the self-fulfilling prophecy.
d. a feminine personality trait.
6. Research evidence shows that when girls and boys play in elementary school, they commonly:
a. gravitate toward others of their same sex.
b. prefer gender-congruent toys and activities.
c. can distinguish between girls and boys.
d. do all of the above.
7. Gender segregation, girls playing mostly with girls and boys with boys, is one of the most consistent findings in the child development literature. This pattern is reinforced by:
a. differences in their play preferences (girls cooperate more; boys, rough and tumble).
b. girls evaluate girls more favorably than boys and vice versa.
c. girls value gender equality more than boys.
d. all of the above patterns.
8. "There are only a few women leaders of the world's countries because it is adaptive for women to stay home and have children." This observation is likely to have been made by a(n):
a. psychoanalyst.
b. evolutionary psychologist.
c. social learning theorist.
d. cognitive developmental theorist.
9. Which of the following points is shared by Psychoanalysts Freud and Chodorow?
a. Girls identify more strongly with their mothers than boys do with their fathers.
b. Gender identity is developed through the resolution of the phallic stage.
c. Girls resent their mothers because they believe that their mother castrated them.
d. Mothers turn to their sons to compensate for deficiencies in their relationship with their husband.
10. Which of the following is NOT true (i.e., which is false)?
a. Social cognitive theorists believe that socializing agents have an impact on a child's developing gender identity.
b. Social cognitive theorists believe that the child plays an active role in developing her or his own gender identity.
c. Neo-Freudians, like Chodorow, believe that personality is biologically determined.
d. Socialization theorists all believe that gender is socially constructed and learned.
11. Chodorow describes a cycle wherein girls and boys are raised in gender-limiting ways. How does she propose to break this cycle?
a. Have fathers share equally in parenting
b. Show fathers on television as full partners in parenting
c. Employ more men as elementary school teachers
d. Do all of the above
12. When Chodorow proposes that fathers actively engage in rearing their children, she is calling for a reformulation of what stage of psychosexual development?
a. oral
b. anal
c. phallic
d. genital
13. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways social cognitive theorists like Bussey and Bandura propose that children develop gender and other schema?
a. direct tutoring
b. modeling
c. enactive experience
d. operant conditioning
14. Which is an example of a gender schema in action?
a. Leon sees women in generally atypical industries as lesbians because he classifies their activities as masculine.
b. Observers see Baby X as female when "she" plays with a doll because we classify dolls as feminine.
c. Carmen differentiates masculine and feminine behavior based on patterns ingrained in her childhood.
d. All of the above are examples.
15. To argue convincingly that socializing agents influence children's development in sexist ways, we must provide evidence that:
a. socializing agents, such as parents and teachers, treat girls and boys differently.
b. children themselves act and think in gender-typed ways.
c. biases in socializing agents and in children are causally linked.
d. all of the above are true.
16. The most appropriate conclusion we can reach about the causal relationship between socialization and gender-typing is that:
a. gender-typed socialization causes gender-typed children.
b. gender-typed children cause gender-typed socialization.
c. a circular causal pattern exists between gendered socialization and gender-typed children.
d. no relationship can be established between gendered socialization and gender-typed children.
17. Social cognitive theorists argue that the fundamental reason gender is stressed in socialization is because:
a. parents treat their children in gender appropriate ways.
b. children construct social categories by age 6 or 7.
c. our culture has made gender a primary consideration.
d. teachers pay more attention to boys than girls.
18. Hilary Lips described an overall cultural in which girls are groomed for powerlessness. She bases her conclusion on examples like:
a. boys being called on more by teachers.
b. parents encouraging more risk-taking by boys than girls.
c. largely presenting girls at home in picture books.
d. all of the above research findings.
19. According to social cognitive theorists, girls come to play with girls and boys with boys because:
a. children see adults in many gender-segregated relationships.
b. children are primed to see the world through gendered lenses.
c. children begin to monitor their own play, choosing same-sex playmates.
d. all of the above contribute to gender-segregated play.
20. Stronger penalties are exacted against boys who violate gendered proscriptions than girls. This may be because:
a. feminine boys may be regarded as giving up more of their birthright as males.
b. feminine leanings in boys may be seen as more indicative of homosexuality than masculine leanings in girls.
c. femininity is devalued in comparison with masculinity.
d. all of the above are true.
21. Which of the following statements is supported by research on gender socialization by parents and families?
a. Children raised by lesbians are more likely to be homosexual than children reared by heterosexuals.
b. Parents generally allow boys to take greater risks than girls.
c. Parents are just as rigid about which toys are appropriate for their daughters as for their sons.
d. Hispanic families are especially gender polarized.
22. Which of the following statements is supported by research on gendered portrayals in the media?
a. Gender stereotyping in children's books has steadily declined from the 1930s to the 1960s.
b. Girls and women are no longer underrepresented in comics.
c. One way to make cartoon characters "bad" is to have them deviate from gender stereotypes.
d. Today there are many positive models of fathers in picture books.
23. According to Sandra Bem, when a child encounters injustices based on gender (e.g., "the boys used the stapler but the girls couldn't"), they should be taught to:
a. assimilate this example into a "sexism schema."
b. assimilate this information into their own gender schema.
c. accommodate their gender schema to fit these new "data."
d. avoid thinking about it.
24. Having an individual difference schema:
a. attributes people's interests and preferences due to gender.
b. increases a child's understanding of the importance of having a gender schema.
c. makes gender a main dividing line between people.
d. helps a child appreciate the uniqueness of an individual.
25. After a child sees a man knitting a quilt, research about compensatory expectancies would predict that the child will likely expect:
a. another man to act in nontraditional ways.
b. another man to act in traditional ways.
c. a woman to also act in nontraditional ways.
d. a woman to re-establish gender norms by acting traditionally.
Short-Essay Questions
26. We often hear people claim that "girls will be girls," conveying the idea that girls and boys are essentially different. What research evidence can you cite to refute this statement?
27. Imagine that you are part of a panel discussion about "Changing roles for girls and boys." Another panelist will claim that "it's not the 1950s anymore," that is, that differences in how girls and boys were treated have largely disappeared. What would you say to counter this claim? Be sure to back up your points with references to research findings.
28. You have been invited to address a group of parents to give them pointers on how to raise nonsexist children. List three points that you might make based on the ideas in the chapter, and in a sentence or two, describe why you think each strategy would be effective.
Long-Essay Question
29. Use Bussey and Bandura's (2004) model of social cognitive development to explain children's toy preferences. Start by referring to evidence of differences in girls' and boys' toy preferences. Then work through the model, step-by-step, to argue that these preferences are examples of gender-differentiated learning.
30. Hilary Lips (2002) argues that girls' wings are clipped in contrast to boys' whose are given flight, describing a general cultural of preparedness for powerlessness for girls. What evidence can you present that is consistent with this view? In other words, what does research about socializing agents tell us that leads Lips to come to her conclusion?
Video Suggestions
Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women (2000)
34 minutes
Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation
Discusses the manner in which women are portrayed by advertising and the effects this has on women and their images of themselves. I often use this in discussions of socialization under media influences because this is such a powerful issue for many students that I want to get to it early in my class. The almost universal appeal of this for women seems to open up discussion.
The Strength to Resist: The Media's Impact on Women and Girls (formerly Beyond Killing Us Softly)
33 minutes
Cambridge Documentary Films
Although the Killing Us Softly series does an excellent job raising viewers' awareness of sexism in advertising, this video takes that message a step further by linking emphases on thinness and women's appearance to issues of power, privilege, and difference.
Fair Play: Achieving Gender Equity in the Digital Age (1999)
57 minutes
Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences
Filmed at a middle school in Austin, Texas, this video captures not only gender differences in how girls and boys deal with computers, but also the observations of the Sadkers about the everyday gendered experiences of girls and boys in school.
Applications, Assignments, and Exercises
Preparing for Powerlessness
I debated whether to re-organize this chapter using Hilary Lips' insightful contention that girls and boys are raised in different cultures that undermine girls' powerfulness and privilege boys' mastery. I purposively held back from taking this step because I think it works more powerfully if these patterns are discovered by students themselves. This class exercise is intended to facilitate this discovery. The materials for this exercise also can be found in Appendix A.
Form students into 3-4 person teams assigned to fill in the handout in Appendix A. Have half the groups complete this form describing how they would raise an agentic child; the other half, a communal child (defined as: gentle, helpful, kind warm, emotional, devoted to others, aware of other's feelings, and understanding).
This form is meant to organize students' plans (i.e., their scripts for socializing children) so that they parallel information in the chapter. By comparing their scripts on the first page with actual research findings, they see that the agentic child is raised like a boy; the communal child, like a girl.
The second page of the exercise takes the gendered awareness developed on the first page and plays it out. We see that agentic boys and communal girls are likely to develop different skills, keeping the gendered cycle going. The last piece, which applies social cognitive theory and Bussey and Bandura's (2004) model, explores the mechanisms through which parental scripts are realized.
It is important to point out that parents dictate only part of their child's socialization - school and teachers, peers, and the media offer their inputs as well. One final question this realization raises is about parents who try to deviate from this pattern of communal girls and agentic boys. Do they risk raising deviates? For me, this point is why socialization practices offer little hope as sources of social change (although they certainly can reflect social changes).
Birth Congratulations
What could be more "genderless" than a newborn--without those pink and blue hospital wristbands could we tell them apart? Explore the expectations we have about how babies will be socialized by examining Hallmark's version of newborns. Look at least 20 different birth congratulations cards (10 for girls; 10 for boys). Are they parallel? Can you find any neutral ones?
Bridges, J.S. (1993). Pink or blue: Gender-stereotypic perceptions of infants as conveyed by birth congratulation cards. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17, 193-206.
Kids' Toys
Do you think girls and boys live in the same culture? Check out their toys. Take a quick inventory of the toy collections of at least two girls and two boys. Could they be readily exchanged? Ask the owners to identify their favorites and observe them playing with them for a little while. What similarities and differences do you notice, and what does this promise for raising gender-aschematic children? Also, find a toy that works for both girls and boys and explain how it manages this.
OR: Go to a major toy store (e.g., Toys R Us), and ask a clerk to suggest a toy. You'll probably be asked both the sex and the age of the child. Is there a girls' and boys' section to the store? Does it vary with age? What toys are stocked in each section? Are there sections that invite both girls and boys (and how do they do this)?
Bem, S.L. (1983). Gender schema theory and its implications for child development: Raising gender-aschematic children in a gender-schematic society. Signs, 8, 598-616.
Preparing for "Glamour"
Two magazines for pre-adolescents are Girls' Life and Boys' Life. (Girls' Life will appear in the newsstands; Boys' Life is distributed through the Boy Scouts and should be available in public libraries.) Take a closer look at a few issues: record what topics are (and aren't) covered in each, product ads, etc. Are boys being tracked one way and girls, another (e.g., toward adult women's magazines, like Glamour)? (If you'd like to explore a feminist girls' magazine, see New Moon at http://www.newmoon.org.)
Resources
Jones, M. (1991). Gender stereotyping in advertisements. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 231-233.
American Association of University Women (AAUW):
(1111 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, 800-326-AAUW, http://www.aauw.org)
