Gender

Gender-RolesinChildhood.pdf

Gender Roles in Childhood and Adolescence

Deborah L. Best and Caitlin D. Bush

It is a Friday evening and Mr. and Mrs. Finney are in search ofa babysitter for their two young children, Allison and Hunter. Their usual sitter just called in sick and the Finneys already have plans for the evening. In a frantic rush they visit a trusted child care website. Theyfind that a local sitter named Cameron is available for the evening and after reviewing excellent references they hire Cameron. Thirty minutes later the doorbell rings at the Finney household. Mr. Finney goes to the front door and opens it to find a teenage boy stand ing on the doorstep. The boy introduces himself as Cameron, the sitter they have requested for the evening. Mr. Finney attempts to contain his shock as he invites Cameron into the house, but it is evident that he is surprised that the sitter is a male. Apparently he and his wife did not read the reviews carefully, he thinks to himself, because they certainly would not have. hired a MALE babysitter to care for Allison and Hunter.

It is apparent that gender is a dominant consideration in many Western middle-class families' babysitter selection process and that a male per forming such a job violates typical gender role expectations (Chaker, 2014). Although ideas about gender and the way gender is discussed are shifting, hesitance to hire a male babysitter or "manny" is a trend that permeates American society and has become a recent topic of interest across journals and discussion boards in other countries as well. In a role-play experiment examining whether sex and sexual orientation mat ter in decisions on child care, participants were most likely to choose a heterosexual female as a babysitter. Participants also indicated that both homosexual men and women were knowledgeable about child care, but

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they were least likely to choose a heterosexual male as a babysitter as such a role is a supposed violation of traditional sex-role expectations (Regan & Ramirez, 2000).

The ways in which gender is perceived and discussed may be evolving, but one thing certainly has not changed: as psychologists interested in development and culture, gender inevitably remains of critical consider ation. Gender is one of the most salient physical features distinguishing human beings. As proof of its salience, what is the first question that is asked following the announcement of the birth of a healthy child? "ls it a boy or a girl?" This gender label affects almost every aspect of that child's subsequent life.

As infants, girls and boys are so similar that they are often difficult to distinguish from one another. However, throughout early childhood and into adolescence, boys and girls develop distinct differences in appear ance, mannerisms, ways of talking, styles of dress, interests and games, and preferred playmates. Children learn the gender role for their sex-the behaviors and social roles that are expected of males and females in their particular society.

Munroe and Munroe (1975/1994) noted that in all known human societies there are modal sex differences in physical characteristics (e.g., primary and secondary sex characteristics), behavior, and at the adult level a division of labor. For children, sex differences are reported in child behavior (e.g., in 45 countries, nurturance, responsibility, obedi ence, self-reliance, achievement, independence; Barry, Bacon, & Child, 1967), and in child training (34 of 35 countries with full ratings). Sex ual dimorphism appears very early in life (e.g., higher basal metabolism, more muscle development, higher pain threshold of male neonates, dif ferential responses to early life stress; Davis & Pfaff, 2014; Rosenberg & Sutton-Smith, 1972) and continues, resulting in the well-known adult physical differences (e.g., for males, greater height, more massive skele ton, higher muscle-to-fat ratio, higher blood oxygen capacity, more body hair, primary and secondary sex characteristics; D'Andrade, 1966). Both physical and behavioral differences have been well documented across cultural groups (Munroe & Munroe, 1975/1994), suggesting that sex and gender have a pervasive influence on almost every aspect of individual and communal life.

Gender researchers (Ruble & Martin, 1998; Verhofstadt & Weytens, 2013) often differentiate between the words "sex;' referring to the bio logical aspects of masculinity/femininity, and "gender" referring to the psycho-socio-cultural aspects that are constructed by culture. Unfortu nately, this creates an unnecessary dichotomy between biological and environmental influences (Fausto-Sterling, 2000; Hayenga & Hayenga, 1993).

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BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GENDER

Even though gender and sex are often treated categorically, many biologi cal differences between males and females are on a continuum rather than falling into a clean dichotomy (Kessler & McKenna, 1978). For example, people differ in levels of testosterone, some are at the higher end of the continuum with most males, others at the lower end with most females, and still others range across the middle at levels that are below the typical male but above the typical female. In most biological definitions of gender, chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and external anatomy are the determi native factors.

Biological Determinism

When similarities between genders are found across cultures, they are often used as support for the role of genes and hormones, which implies genetic or biological determinism. Biological determinism assumes that a biological influence leads to an irreversible sex difference, making biology the necessary and sufficient cause of sex differences. Biology is neither. The long-standing nature-nurture controversy within developmental psychol ogy has shown that biology does not cause behavior and that such a notion is quite naive.

Sex chromosomes or sex hormones are neither necessary nor sufficient to cause behaviors; they simply change the probability ofoccurrence of cer tain behaviors in various environments (Hayenga & Hayenga, 1993). The gene-behavior pathway is bidirectional (Gottlieb, 1983), and somewhat like people inherit genes, they may "inherit" environments by living close to parents and family.

Probabilistic Epigenesis

Genes and environment may act similarly on growth and development, and at all times, the developmental process reflects their interaction (Got tlieb, 1976, 2007). Life history strategies (evolutionary patterns of adaptation that differ by developmental stage) can be altered by both genes and develop mental environments (Hayenga & Hayenga, 1993), affecting brain anatomy, the child's intellectual abilities and traits, and leading to stability and change. In the sexually dimorphic process, gender is the added factor that affects the form of the interaction between genes and environmental context.

PSYCHO-SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF GENDER

Psychological aspects of gender refer to behavioral differences between males and females, how they interact with people and things in their

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environments. The gender of rearing usually determines gender iden tity, gender roles, gender stereotypes, gender-role ideology, and other cultural-environmental aspects of gender, and these are the focus of the present chapter.

Multidimensional View of Sex-Typing

Sex-typing, the development of gender-related differences in chil dren, changes continuously with age and is a multidimensional process including constructs and content areas (Huston, 1983). Ruble and Mar tin (1998) identified six areas (biological gender, activities and interests, personal-social attributes, gender-based social relationships, stylistic and symbolic content, and gender-related values) and four content aspects (beliefs, self-perception, preferences or attitudes, behavioral tendencies). Although gender-related differences are found in all areas, few studies have addressed the interrelationships among the areas, and even fewer of these relationships have been examined cross-culturally (e.g., two exceptions, examination of gender stereotypes and self- and ideal-self descriptions of adolescents by Cheung Mui-ching [1986] and Williams and Best [1990).

Cultural Influences on Gender Development

Even though biological factors may impose predispositions and restric tions on development, sociocultural factors are important determinants of gender development (Best & Williams, 1993; Munroe & Munroe, 1975/1994). Culture has profound effects on behavior, prescribing how babies are delivered, how girls and boys are socialized, how they are dressed, what is considered intelligent behavior, what tasks girls and boys are taught, and what roles adult women and men will adopt. Children's behaviors, even behaviors that are considered biologically determined, such as walking and other motor milestones, are governed by culture (Super, 1976). Cultural universals in gender differences are often explained by similarities in social ization practices, while cultural differences are attributed to differences in socialization.

Children grow up within other people's scripts, which guide their actions long before the children themselves can understand or carry out the cultur ally appropriate actions. For developmental researchers, one of the crucial tasks is to identify the mechanism responsible for the changes seen across time. This means that researchers must unpackage broadly defined cultural variables to identify what aspects or processes are responsible for the devel opment of particular behavioral outcomes. Gender should be examined not only in relation to culture (e.g., social systems, practices, myths, beliefs, rituals), but also in the context of the history and economics of the society

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(Mukhopadhyay & Higgins, 1998). Identification of the mechanisms within a culture that are responsible for age-related developmental change must also account for variation between individuals within the cultural group as well as variation between cultures.

Not only is the subject of study, the child or parent, changing across time, but that change takes place in a cultural system that is itself chang- · ing. Thus, developmental change is the emerging synthesis of several major factors interacting over time, what Cole (1999) refers to as a bio-social behavioral shift-changes in the relations between a child's biological makeup, the social world in which he or she lives, and the resulting behav iors that occur. Several illustrative examples of this interplay are: (a) a mother's influence on her child's prenatal development through the foods and other substances that she ingests (biological) or (b) the songs she sings during the final weeks of pregnancy (social, cultural), which can be heard in utero and become preferred (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980); (c) the cultural prac tices that surround the birth of a child in various societies that are relevant to the discussion of gender, (d) a parent's interpretation (e.g., Is it a boy or is it a girl?) of the child's biological sex characteristics following birth.

Even when particular behaviors are assumed to be heavily biologically determined, cultural practices can play an important role in shaping them. For example, lengths of sleeping bouts are modified by culturally deter mined demands on mothers' time, and the course of sitting and walking are influenced by childcare practices (Super & Harkness, 1982). Cultural practices shape children to fit differing life circumstances:

SOCIALIZATION OF BOYS AND GIRLS

Parents

"Baby X" studies (e.g., sex of the infant is not known to study partici pants) in the United States have shown that parents and young adults treat infants differently depending on whether they think they are interacting with a girl or a boy (Rubin, Provezano, & Luria, 1974; Sidorowicz & Lunney, 1980). Boys are described as big and strong, and are bounced and handled more physically than girls who are described as pretty and sweet, and are handled more gently. Even before birth after finding out their child's sex via ultrasound, parents described girls as "finer" and "quieter" than boys who were described as "more coordinated" than girls (Sweeney & Bradbard, 1989). Parental presumptions such as these reflect the impact of culture on parents' memory of their own past and their assumptions about their child's future. However, culture is dynamic and changes across time. In the United States, parents of the 1950s would never have assumed their daugh ters would grow up to be soccer players in college, but many 21st-century parents would certainly have this expectation.

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Such parental expectations are not peculiar to the United States. Green field and her colleagues (Greenfield, Brazelton, & Childs, 1989) report that shortly after birth, Zinacanteco babies in Mexico are given objects that are gender appropriate. A father reported giving his son three green chilies to hold so he would know to buy chili when he grew up. Parents assume that things in the future will be as they have been in the past, an assumption of continuity.

Behavioral differences between girls and boys are often attributed to dif ferences in socialization. Barry, Bacon, and Child (1957) examined social ization practices in over 100 societies and found that generally boys are reared to achieve and to be self-reliant and independent while girls are reared to be nurturant, responsible, and obedient. However, when Hen drix and Johnson (1985) reanalyzed these data, they found no evidence of a general sex differentiation in socialization, with similar emphases in the training of girls and boys to be self-reliant and independent.

In a meta-analysis, Lytton and Romney (1991) examined 158 North American studies of socialization and found the only significant effect was for the encouragement of sex-typed behaviors. In 17 additional studies from other Western countries, there was a significant sex difference for physical punishment with boys receiving a greater portion than girls. Dif ferential treatment of boys and girls decreased with age, particularly for disciplinary strictness and encouragement of sex-typed activities.

Overall, socialization studies suggest that there may be subtle dif ferences in how parents treat boys and girls. These differences are only occasionally significant, perhaps due to the ways the behaviors are meas ured or which parent is being observed. Fathers play an especially impor tant role in signaling the types of behaviors they consider appropriate, particularly for their sons who have fewer accessible male role models and for whom deviations are considered more undesirable (Langlois & Downs, 1980). Even if parents do not differentiate between daughters and sons, the same parental treatment may affect girls and boys differ ently. Research in the United States suggests that gender lessons are finely focused on specific behaviors and that learning often occurs during tran sitional periods, such as toddlerhood or adolescence, when new abilities first emerge (Beal, 1994).

Parents' behaviors communicate the importance ofgender via their reac tions to their children's behavior and by the organization of activities within the family. Parent behaviors, as well as that of peers, teachers, and other socialization agents, help shape sex-appropriate behaviors, toy choices, playmates, and other activities. Peers, task assignment, care-giving, and the educational environment are among the cultural influences that help to socialize children's gender role behaviors.

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Peers

Throughout childhood and adolescence, peers play an important role in socialization. In some cultures, boys and girls are separated by the end of infancy (Fouts, Hallam, Purandare, 2013; Whiting & Edwards, 1988), and in others, children play freely within mixed age and gender groups (Rogoff, 1990). Peer influence increases as children grow older, helping to structure the transition between childhood and adulthood (Edwards, 1992). Mac coby (1998) suggests that peers may play as important a role as parents, if not more so, in the socialization of gender roles.

Maccoby (1998) has identified three major gender-linked phenomena in children's social development: gender segregation, differentiation of interaction styles, and group asymmetry. In many cultures (Whiting & Edwards, 1988), sometimes as early as age 3, and somewhat later in other cultures (Harkness & Super, 1985), there is a powerful tendency for chil dren to seek out playmates of their own sex and to avoid children of the other sex, and this tendency strengthens throughout grade school. These segregated playgroups differ in their interaction styles and activities. Boys strive for dominance, play rough, take risks, "grandstand;' and are reluctant to reveal weaknesses to each other. In contrast, girls self-disclose more, try to maintain positive social relationships, and avoid open conflict. Same-sex playgroups provide children with useful socialization experiences and the venue for construction of social norms, but there is an asymmetry in these groups. Compared with girls' groups, boys' groups are more cohesive, more exclusionary, and more separate from adult culture.

In preschool children, sex similarity appears to influence playmate selection even beyond the role of activity similarity (Martin et al., 2013). Maccoby (1998) found that behavioral compatibility, avoidance of aggres sion or rough-and-tumble play, and matching activity levels also cannot by themselves account for gender segregation of playgroups. She proposes an interplay between biology ( differences in metabolic rate, activity level, arous ability, maturation rates of language and inhibitory mechanisms, prenatal hormones), socialization (role of fathers, more emotion-oriented talk with girls, role of peer-group, cultural practices), and cognition (self-identity, cultural stereotypes, scripts). Segregation of play groups leads to different activities and toy choices, which in turn may lead to differences in intellec tual and emotional development (Block, 1983).

Examination of peer interactions of2- to 10-year-olds from the Six Cul ture Study and from six additional samples (Edwards, 1992; Edwards & Whiting, 1993) showed a robust, cross-culturally universal same-gender preference that emerges after age 2. By middle childhood gender segregation is found frequently, perhaps in part motivated by a desire for self-discovery

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(Edwards, 1992). Agemates who resemble the child in abilities and activ ity preferences also provide the greatest opportunity for competition and conflict. Although interest in opposite-sex peers increases in adolescence, a preference for same-sex peers is evident throughout adolescence and into adulthood (Mehta & Strough, 2010).

Gender segregation also results from culturally prescribed adoles cent initiation rites, which are found in many cultures. Initiation rites are designed to separate initiates from their families, to socialize them to culturally appropriate sexuality, dominance, and aggression, to create peer group loyalty, and to solidify political ties. Collective rituals, more common for boys than girls, are found more frequently in warrior socie ties that emphasize gender differences in adult activities (Edwards, 1992). Western education has begun to change initiation rites, but vestiges remain in many cultures, such as circumcision celebrations for young Turkish boys.

Task Assignment

Examining children's learning environments in various cultures shows how cultural differences in socialization processes affect the development ofgender roles. Learning environments were investigated in the Six Culture Study (Edwards & Whiting, 1974; Minturn & Lambert, 1964; Whiting & Edwards, 1973), which examined aggression, nurturance, responsibil ity, and help and attention-seeking behaviors of children aged 3 to 11 in Okinawa (Japan), the Mixtecans in Mexico, the Philippines, India, the Gusii in Kenya, and the United States. Fewer gender differences were found in the three groups (United States, the Philippines, Kenya) where both boys and girls cared for younger siblings and performed household chores. In contrast, more differences were found where boys and girls were treated dissimilarly (India, Mexico, Okinawa) with girls assuming more respon sibility for siblings and household tasks. Indeed, the fewest gender differ ences were found between American girls and boys who were assigned few childcare or household tasks. More recently, similar patterns have been found in the United States where gender differences in household respon sibilities vary between ethnic and socioeconomic groups ( Giles, Cantin, Best, Tyrrell, & Gigler, 2014).

Bradley (1993) examined children's labor in 91 Standard Cross-Cultural Sample cultures (Murdock & White, 1969) and found that children younger than age 6 perform little work whereas children older than 10 perform work similar to that of same gender adults. Both boys and girls do women's work (e.g., fetching water) more frequently than men's (e.g., hunting), and children tend to do chores that adults consider demeaning or unskilled. Women monitor children's work while simultaneously socializing with

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their daughters. These joint tasks provide help for the mother, which she also needs. Parents report that along with providing care in parents' old age, children's labor is an important benefit of having children (Kagit<;:iba~i, 1982b).

Caregiving

Analyzing data from 186 societies, Weisner and Gallimore (1977) found that in most cases mothers, female adult relatives, and female children are the primary caregivers for infants. However, when infants reach early child hood, older girls and boys share caretaking responsibilities. Sibling caregiv ers play an important socialization role in societies where 2-4-year-olds spend more than 70% of their time every day with their child nurses (see Maynard's chapter 9 in this volume). Because mothers in such societies spend much of their time in productive activities, they are not devoted exclusively to mothering (Minturn & Lambert, 1964) even though children in all cultures see mothers as responsible for children.

Indeed, Katz and Konnor (1981) found that in 20% of 80 cultures they surveyed, fathers were rarely or never near their infants. Father-infant rela tionships were close in only% of the cultures, but even when close, fathers spent only 14% of their time with their infants and only gave 6% of the actual caregiving. Paternal interactions with children are more likely to be characterized by physical play than by socialization, caregiving, and didac tic play (Schoppe-Sullivan, Kotila, Jia, Lang, & Bower, 2013).

Father absence has been associated with their sons showing impaired social behaviors (Balcom, 1998; Katz & Kanner, 1981; Whiting, 1965). Sons who experience lengthy father absence due to war (Stolz, 1954) or sea voyages ( Gronseth, 1957) show effeminate overt behaviors, high levels of dependence, excessive fantasy aggression, as well as some overly masculine behaviors. Compared with father-present children, father-absent children are more aggressive (Amato & Keith, 1991) but only father-absent boys showed less stereotyped sex-role behaviors (Stevenson & Black, 1988).

Fathers pay less attention to female offspring than to males and pro mote sex-typed activities more than mothers (Lytton & Romney, 1991). Fathers begin engaging in such gender-typed activities with their children as early as age 2, before children have established a distinct understanding of gender roles (Leavell, Tamis-LeMonda, Ruble, Zosuls, & Cabrera, 2012). While mothers are equally involved in the caregiving for sons and daugh ters, fathers tend to be more involved as caregivers of sons (Rohner & Roh ner, 1982). Mackey (Mackey, 1981) observed parents and children in public places in 10 different cultures and found that girls were seldom with adult males while boys were frequently in all-male groups, and these differences increased with age.

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Education

Educational settings also greatly influence the development of children's gender roles. Observations in classrooms of Japanese and American fifth graders revealed that teachers paid more attention to boys, particularly negative attention, and the greater attention was not due to off-task or bad behavior (Hamilton, Blumenfeld, Akoh, & Miura, 1991).

Parents' beliefs about academic performance can also have a profound impact on children's achievements. Serpell (1993) found that education was considered to be more important for Zambian boys than girls, and fathers made schooling arrangements even though mothers were primarily responsible for childcare. In China, Japan, and the United States, mothers expect boys to be better at mathematics and girls to be better at reading (Lummis & Stevenson, 1990) even though they perform equally well in some aspects of both disciplines.

CULTURAL PRACTICES THAT INFLUENCE BEHAVIORS OF MALES AND FEMALES

The previous section examined specific aspects of socialization, but there are broader distal cultural influences on gender that provide an important context for gender-role learning. Among these practices are the status of women, gender division oflabor, religious beliefs and values, economic fac tors, and political participation.

Status of Women

Ethnographic evidence suggests that women's "status" is multidimen sional and includes economic indicators, power, autonomy, prestige, and ideological dimensions (Mukhopadhyay & Higgins, 1988; Quinn, 1977). Asymmetry in status between men and women may be due to women's reproductive roles and physical differences as well as the complexity of the society (Ember, 1981).

What is considered masculine and feminine may differ across cultures, but the literature suggests two possible cultural universals: At least to some degree, every society assigns traits and tasks according to gender (Mun roe & Munroe, 1975); and, in no society is the status of women superior to that of men, while the reverse is common (Hayenga & Hayenga, 1993; Population Crisis Committee, 1988).

Gender Division of Labor

Analysis of ethnographic records of jobs and tasks in 244 different soci eties found that men were involved with hunting, metal work, weapon making, and travel further from home while women were responsible for

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cooking and food preparation, carrying water, caring for clothing, and making things used in the home (D'Andrade; 1966). Women's participation in subsistence activities was consistent with childrearing activities (Segal, 1983), and men had major childrearing responsibilities in only 10% of the 80 cultures examined (Katz & Konner, 1981).

Recent decreases in infant mortality and advances in technology have made it possible for women to participate more extensively in the labor force outside the home (Huber, 1986). However, compared with men, women remain economically disadvantaged and are paid 70 to 90% less than their male counterparts, with even lower ratios in some Asian and Latin American countries (International Labor Organization, 2009). Even in societies where women are active in the labor force, there has not been a commensurate reduction in their household duties (The World Bank Group, 2013). Across 29 countries, including the United States, Switzer land, Sweden, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Poland, and China, the overwhelming majority ofhousehold work is performed by women, regardless ofthe extent of their occupational demands (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2014).

The difficulty in eliminating gender divisions in labor is illustrated by the Israeli kibbutz, established in the 1920s where there was a deliberate attempt to develop egalitarian societies (Rosner, 1967; Spiro, 1995). Initially there was no sexual division of labor. Both women and men worked in the fields, drove tractors, worked in the kitchen and in the laundry. However with time and increases in the birthrate, women found they could not undertake many of the physical tasks that men were capable of doing. Women soon found themselves in the roles they had tried to escape-cooking, cleaning, laundering, teaching, caring for children. Somewhat surprisingly, the kib butz attempts at equitable division of labor had little effect on the children. Kibbutz-raised children and Swedish children showed no differences in how they conceptualized typical female and male sex-role behaviors or in their sex-typed self-attributions (Carlsson & Barnes, 1986).

Religious Beliefs and Values

Religious and cultural views of gender roles and family honor influ ence perceptions of women and their working outside the home (Rapo port, Lomski-Feder, & Masalia, 1989), as well as the role models children see. For instance, ideals of personal and family honor in Latin America and the Middle East link the manliness of men (machismo, muruwwa) with the sexual purity of women (vergiienza,'ird), and these influence the division of labor within the family and work outside the home (Youssef, 1974). Some religious communities prescribe proper roles and behavior for males and females, and children are brought up in ways consistent with these views.

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Economic Factors

Economic factors appear to influence gender-related cultural practices. Bride price, a compensation for the loss of a daughter's economic contri butions to her family (Heath, 1958), is found more frequently where her contributions are substantial. Dowry accompanies the bride when her eco nomic contributions to her family are relatively small. Cronk (1993) theo rized that relative to females, the reproductive success of males is affected more by socioeconomic factors, particularly in societies where men may have more than one wife and where they must pay a bridewealth for their wives. Consequently, when parents have high socioeconomic status so that sons can pay for wives, males are favored, but when parents have low status, females are favored because they can be married off to wealthier, higher-status neighbors.

Sex-biased parental investment in children may be affected by socioec onomic conditions (Cronk, 1993). Among the Mukogodo of central Kenya who are at the bottom of the regional hierarchy of regional wealth and prestige, the male-female birth ratio is about equal, but the 1986 census recorded 98 girls and 66 boys under age 4. Although there is no evidence of male infanticide, it is likely that boys' much higher death rate is due to favoritism toward girls. Compared with sons, daughters are breast-fed longer, are generally well fed, and visit the doctor more often. Because men in the Mukogodo area can have as many wives as they can afford, women are in short supply and as a result they all find husbands.

In sharp contrast, in many other traditional parts of the world ( e.g., India, China, Turkey, Korea) cultural practices favor boys who are highly valued by their families and whose birth leads to great rejoicing (Kagitc;:iba~i, 1982a). Bride-burning (Ghadially & Kumar, 1988), wife beating (Flavia, 1988), and female infanticide (Krishnaswamy, 1988) are cultural practices that demon strate the lack of concern for women in some traditional Indian cultures. In the United States (Pooler, 1991; Puri, Adams, Ivey, & Nachtigall, 2011) and in non-Western countries (Bandyopadhyay, 2003), preference for boys continues to be strong even though many of the religious traditions and economic circumstances that created the preference for sons no longer apply in contemporary society.

Female Political Participation

Across cultures, men are more involved in political activities and possess greater power than women (Coffe & Bolzendahl, 2010; Ember, 1981; Ross, 1985). The long-standing stereotyped dichotomy of public/male versus pri vate/female suggests that men are in the public eye, active in business, pol itics, and culture, while women stay at home, caring for home and family

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(Peterson & Runyan, 1993}. However, this dichotomy is not supported by cross-cultural studies showing women actively working and in public life outside the home and men being more involved with their families (del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2014; Meil, 2013).

Moreover, young girls now conceptualize the female gender role to encompass both homemaking and employment outside the home, espe cially when there is a more egalitarian distribution of household labor (Croft, Schmader, Block, & Baron, 2014). Children's images of women reflect the change in conditions and attitudes toward women around the world.

THEORIES OF SEX ROLE DEVELOPMENT

Even though there is theoretical disagreement about the sources of influ ence and the course of gender role development, most theories recognize the role of gender information readily available in the child's culture. While maturational theories have gone out of vogue, many of the assumptions about the role of biological influences remain important and have been incorporated into other, more current theories ofgender role development, such as evolutionary theory and social role theory.

Evolutionary Theories

Growing out of early 19th-century Darwinian (1872} reasoning, evolu tionary theory posits that the forces of natural selection shape the mor phological features of the organism, which in turn shape behavioral and psychological tendencies (Dixon & Lerner, 1999; Kenrick & Luce, 2000}. Humans and animals inherit brains, bodies, and specific behavioral mech anisms that are equipped to adapt to their environments and to solve the recurrent problems confronted during their ancestral past. Evolutionary success is measured not by survival but ultimately by reproductive suc cess. Sexual selection (e.g., attracting a mate; Geary, 1998} and differential parental investment (e.g., nutritional cost of carrying fetus, provision of food, protection from predators; Trivers, 1985} may account for many of the sex differences found throughout the animal kingdom.

Sex differences in physical development and reproductive life history are linked to sex differences in social behaviors, such as mate preferences (Buss, 1989), aggression (Daly & Wilson, 1988}, sexuality (Daly & Wilson, 1988}, and child care (Geary, 1998}. Some evolutionary theorists assume that cultural variation in behavior results from a flexible genetic program unfolding in variable environments (Kenrick & Luce, 2000; Ohman, 1986).

In an effort to strengthen their arguments, evolutionary theorists deal ing with gender have borrowed experimental psychology's concept of

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preparedness, which grew out of research with animal taste aversion and with the development of human phobias (Rozin & Kalat, 1971; Seligman, 1971). They propose that males and females enter the world biologically prepared to experience their environments differently and these experi ences shape sex-appropriate behaviors (Kenrick & Luce, 2000). While this is an interesting application, there presently are no data to support the exten sion of the preparedness mechanism from the learning of food avoidance (poison) and fear responses (e.g., from the predatory defense system-fear of snakes, spiders; from dominance/submissiveness system-social fears) to gender-related social behavior.

Many current researchers find the broad outline of evolutionary the ory to be correct but point to the difficulty in testing the propositions and assumptions. Perhaps the most serious weakness of evolutionary approaches is that they do not account for the precise developmental mechanisms by which gender-differentiated values and norms are trans mitted to individuals within a cultural group.

Social Role Theory

According to social role theory, the differences between male and female behaviors are a result of the different social roles that they play, which in turn are based on the sexual division oflabor. The division oflabor and the gender hierarchy of power and status are a function of the differences in reproduc tive activities and the physical size and strength ofwomen and men (Wood & Eagly, 1999), with differences typically favoring men (Eagly, Wood, & Diek man, 2000). The contrasting social positions of men and women result in differing gender roles (Ross, 1977), which include both beliefs (descriptive norms) and expectations (injunctive norms; Cialdini & Trost, 1998) about what men and women do. Because women are more frequently associated with the domestic role, the characteristics thought to exemplify homemak ers are ascribed to women in general. Likewise, characteristics thought to typify providers are ascribed to men in general (Eagly et al., 2000). Cultural expectations promote conformity to gender roles and influence how people think about themselves and their perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Indeed, gender stereotypes often become the rationalizations that justify differential sex role distributions (Williams & Best, 1982/1990).

Critics of social role theory point out that physical sex differences are not the entire story. Social role theory fails to explain why the two social struc tures, sexual division oflabor and gender hierarchy, are common in most cul tural groups. Furthermore, the mechanisms are not identified by which social structures influence individuals and groups within various cultural settings.

One support for social role theory comes from Van Leeuwen's (1978) eco logical model ofsex differences in behavior. She proposes that in sedentary,

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high-food-accumulating societies training for males and females differs greatly and females are trained to be nurturant and compliant. Inversely, in low-food-accumulating societies (e.g., hunting societies), there is little divi sion oflabor by sex with both men and women contributing to subsistence. Thus, there is no need to train either females or males to be nurturant and compliant. Cross-cultural variations in gender-related variables are most likely a product of socialization practices that vary in their degrees of com pliance training.

Social Learning Theory

In the 1960s, Sears and his colleagues (Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957; Sears, Rau, & Alpert, 1965) revised Freud's notions of sex role develop ment to be consistent with learning theory's principles of reinforcement and modeling. Accordingly, sex-typed behaviors resulted from differential parenting behaviors, warmth and emotional support from mothers, and control and discipline from fathers. Bandura (Bandura, 1969; Bussey & Bandura, 1984) and Mischel (1970) expanded the cognitive aspects ofsocial learning theory by emphasizing the role of modeling and expectations in the differential treatment of boys and girls.

Because observational learning is a powerful process, modeling is important in the development of sex-typing. Gender stereotypes can be passed from parent to child, from one generation to the next, and from one child to another (Endendijik et al., 2013; Hayenga & Hayenga, 1993). Girls are systematically exposed to fewer same-sex models with power and prestige than are boys, a process that certainly affects the development of stereotypes.

While there is substantial cross-cultural evidence that social learning is an important part of gender role learning, by itself, social learning is not a sufficient explanation. Cross-culturally, there is wide variation in the differ ential treatment of boys and girls, which is not consistently tied to differ ential behaviors (Bronstein, 1984; Lamb, Frodi, Hwand, Frodi, & Steinberg, 1982; Russell & Russell, 1987). Task assignment and role models in chil dren's cultural context provide differential learning opportunities for boys and girls and encourage distinct behaviors. Indeed, childhood culture and peer group socialization may be a more important carrier of social change than are parents.

Cognitive Stage Theories

Even though Piaget used biological concepts, he did not believe that the invariant stages of cognitive development were wired into the genetic code. Children interacted with their environments demonstrating increasingly

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more sophisticated ways of thinking. Development was an active construc tion process in which children developed schemes, or action structures, to deal with their environments (Ginsberg & Opper, 1969). The environment influenced development through children's physical experience (manipula tions of objects) and social interactions (Ginsberg & Opper, 1969).

Building on Piaget's ideas, Kohlberg (1966) developed a cognitively ori ented theory of gender development. Children seek out information and experiences that are appropriate for their own sex, and their understand ing of gender develops through a series of stages from gender identity or labeling (achieved by 2½ years), through gender stability (by 3½ years), and finally gender consistency or constancy (by 4½ to 5). The impact of external forces and experiences on children's developing gender-role orientation is governed by the child's emerging cognitive structure.

The Munroes (Munroe, Shimmin, & Munroe, 1984) tested cognitive developmental theory in a cross-cultural study with children in Ameri can Samoa, Belize, Kenya, and Nepal. They expected that gender classi fication would be more salient for children in cultures that emphasized sex-differentiated socialization practices (e.g., Kenya, Nepal). Because the latter stages of gender understanding depend on cognitive structural fac tors, they were expected to be less influenced by culture and should appear at approximately the same time for all groups. They found that contrary to expectations, the culture-specific predictions were not confirmed, but find ings did support cognitive development theory in cross-cultural context.

While gender development researchers recognize the importance of cognitive factors, it has been difficult to demonstrate an antecedent rela tionship between the stages of gender identity and sex-typed behaviors (Bussey, 1983). Children appear to learn sex-appropriate behaviors before they can translate these behaviors into words. Golombok and colleagues (Golombok, Rust, Zervoulis, Golding, & Hines, 2012) actually found con tinuity in sex-typed behavior from age 3 to 13 for both boys and girls. Fur thermore, there appears to be a two-process model for boys (acceptance of masculine behavior, rejection of feminine behavior) and a one-process model for girls (acceptance of same-sex behavior only). It would be inter esting to see whether these same gender identity acquisition processes are found across different cultural groups.

Gender Schema Theories

Schema theorists assume that individuals develop notions about gen der, and these ideas organize and bias their behavior, thinking, and atten tion to information in their environments (Martin & Halverson, 1981). Environmental information about what it means to be male or female stimulates the creation of gender schemas or theories, which in turn

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facilitate gender-related processing of newly incoming information (Mar tin, 2000). As a result, children come to see themselves and others in terms of gender distinctions-boys-girls, females-males, masculinity-femininity, women-men. Gender stereotypes are used to evaluate the appropriateness of behaviors.

The cognitive-developmental approach to gender proposes a multidi mensional model (Huston, 1983; Ruble & Martin, 1998) of gender-related constructs from gender identity, gender stereotypes, gender scripts, self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity, and expectations about others' gender appropriate behaviors. Interrelationships among these con structs have been hypothesized, but only a few have been tested develop mentally or cross-culturally, and even fewer have been related to gendered behaviors (e.g., interaction styles, segregation of play groups, Maccoby, 1998; gendered appearance rigidity, gender identity, Halim et al., 2014).

Differences in Male and Female Gender-Related Behaviors

Research across cultures has shown consistent patterns of differences in the behaviors of males and females in four areas: nurturance, aggression, proximity to adults, and self-esteem. These will be reviewed briefly.

Nurturance

In the classic Six Culture Study, Edwards and Whiting (1980) found that between ages 5 and 12, gender differences in nurturance were most consist ent in behavior directed toward infants and toddlers rather than in behav ior directed toward mothers and older children. Because infants elicit more nurturant behavior than do older children, girls who spent more time with infants displayed more nurturance than boys who did not interact as much with infants.

These findings are consistent with Barry et aI:s (1957) findings across 110 cultures that found that compared with boys, girls were socialized to be more nurturant (82% of cultures), obedient (35% of cultures), and respon sible (61% of cultures). Boys, on the other hand, were socialized to be more achieving (87% of cultures) and self-reliant (85% of cultures) than girls. In 108 cultures, Welch, Page, and Martin (1981) found more pressure for boys to conform to their roles than girls who also had greater role variability,

Aggression

Cross-culturally, prepubertal boys have consistently shown higher levels ofaggression, competitiveness, dominance-seeking, and rough-and-tumble play than girls (Ember, 1981; Hay et al., 2011; Munroe et al., 2000). When

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examining data from the Six Culture Study and additional African sam ples, Whiting and Edwards (1988) found sex differences in aggression and dominance, but contrary to their earlier findings, aggression showed no decrease with age and was more physical among the oldest boys. In playground observations in Ethiopia, Switzerland, and the USA ( Omark, Omark, & Edelman, 1975), boys were more aggressive than girls, and simi lar patterns were found in four !Kung Bushmen villages of Africa's Kalahari Desert and in London (Blurton Jones & Kanner, 1973). A meta-analysis of studies in 12 countries revealed that boys exhibit more frequent direct aggression than girls, although there were no significant gender differences in displays of indirect aggression (Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little, 2008).

Mothers in the Six Culture Study generally react similarly to boys' and girls' aggression, but there was some differential aggression training in Okinawa and the United States suggesting the father's role in socializing boys' aggression (Minturn & Lambert, 1964). In Western European coun tries, there are gender differences in the forms of aggression. Initially, males are more restrained but when they act, they are more violent (Ramirez, 1993) than females who are more emotional and use shouting and verbal attacks (Burbank, 1987).

Proximity to Adults and Activity

Observing 5-7-year-olds at play in eight cultures (Australian Aboriginal, Balinese, Ceylonese, Japanese, Kikuyu, Navajo, Punjabi, Taiwanese), Freed man (1976) determined that boys ran in larger groups, covered more phys ical space, and engaged in more physical and unpredictable activities than girls who were involved in more conversations and games with repeated activities. Usually, girls are found closer to home (Draper, 1975; Munroe & Munroe, 1971; Whiting & Edwards, 1973). Boys interact more with other boys and girls interact more with adults (Blurton Jones & Konner, 1973; Omark et al., 1975; Whiting & Edwards, 1973). Both task assignment (Whiting & Edwards, 1973) and behavioral preferences may contribute to these gender differences (Draper, 1975).

Self-Esteem

Even though gender role attributions are similar, girls seem less sat isfied with being girls than boys are with being boys (Burns & Hamel, 1986), and boys perceive themselves to be more competent than girls (van Dongen-Melman, Koot, & Verhulst, 1993). Girls may report slightly lower self-esteem than boys, but the difference is often not significant (Farru gia, Chen, Greenberger, Dmitrieva, Macek, 2004; Kling, Hyde, Showers, Carolin, & Buswell, 1999). Adolescent girls in Nepal, the Philippines, and

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Australia had lower opinions of their physical and mathematical abilities than boys, but girls in Australia and Nigeria felt more competent in reading (Watkins & Akande, 1992). Nigerian boys believed they were more intelli gent than did girls (Olowu, 1985).

Childhood Disorders

Along with differences in usual social behaviors, childhood disorders also show distinct gender differences in prevalence rates. For example, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is more prevalent in boys, with boys manifesting symptoms of hyperactivity, inattention, impul sivity, and externalizing problems more often than girls (Gershon, 2002). Autism is also predominantly diagnosed in boys, although the specific bio logical bases underlying this male sex bias are still unclear (Becker, 2012). Conduct disorder is yet another childhood disorder with higher prevalence in the male population (Maughan et al., 2004). Although more boys are diagnosed with childhood disorders than girls, girls are more likely to expe rience depression in adolescence (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001). Similarly, eat ing disorders are also more commonly found in adolescent girls than boys (Micali, Ploubidis, De Stavola, Simonoff, & Treasure, 2013). Differences in these disorders could be considered more extreme manifestations of the gender differences seen in children's social behaviors.

In summary, differences between girls and boys in nurturance, aggres sion, and mobility are robust and consistently found across cultures (Ember, 1981), but self-esteem differences are less consistent. These gender differences in social behaviors are also reflected in the unhealthy behaviors they display. Culture shapes children's social behaviors by determining the company they keep and the activities that engage their time. Such expe riences can minimize, maximize, or even eliminate gender differences in social behaviors.

GENDER ROLES AND STEREOTYPES

Gender roles and behaviors develop within the context of cultural stere otypes about male-female differences. In the United States, children as young as 19 months of age begin using gender labels to stereotype objects as masculine or feminine (Zosuls et al., 2009), and by age 3 to 4, children use stereotypic labels accurately with toys, activities, and occupations (Guttentag & Longfellow, 1977).

Italian children associated toys representing domestic activities with a female silhouette while they connected toys representing technology, war fare, locomotion, and construction to a male silhouette (De Caroli & Sag one, 2007). In Africa, similar gender stereotyping of toys is found where

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girls play with dolls and boys construct vehicles and weapons (Bloch & Adler, 1994). By age 4 to 5, Sri Lankan village children exhibit gender differ ences in play, similar to those found with British children (Prossner, Hutt, Hutt, Mahindadasa, & Goonetilleke, 1986). Boys display more negative behaviors and more fantasy object play, while girls show more fantasy per son play. Although cultural factors may determine the content of children's play, only a few behaviors show culturally specific forms.

Development of Sex-Trait Stereotypes

Children in the United States acquire knowledge of sex-trait stereotypes somewhat later than stereotypic knowledge of toys and occupations (Best et al., 1977; Williams & Best, 1982/1990). Using the Sex Stereotype Meas ure II (SSM II) to assess children's knowledge of adult-defined stereotypes, research with European American children revealed a consistent pattern of increasing knowledge from kindergarten through high school, similar to a typical learning curve. Stereotype knowledge increases dramatically in the early elementary school years and scores plateau in the junior high years. African American children's scores also increase with age but are lower than those of the European American children, reflecting subcultural vari ation in stereotype knowledge.

Stereotypes are more differentiated in the early years and become more flexible from age 5 to 11 (Banse, Gawronski, Rebetez, Gutt, & Morton, 2010; Biernat, 1991). Children show a growing recognition of the similarities between the sexes that may lead to the incorporation ofgender-incongruent information into their gender stereotypes and self-construals (Hanover, 2000).

Cross-Cultural Findings

Williams and Best and their colleagues (1982/1990) administered the SSM II to 5-, 8-, and 11-year-olds in 25 countries. Across all countries, the percentage of stereotyped responses rose from around 60% at age 5 to around 70% at age 8. Strong, aggressive, cruel, coarse, and adventurous were consistently associated with men at both age levels, and weak, appreciative, softhearted, gentle, and meek were consistently associated with women.

Male and female stereotype scores were unusually high in Pakistan and relatively high in New Zealand and England. Scores were atypically low in Brazil, Taiwan, Germany, and France. Although between countries there was variation in the rate of learning, there was a general developmental pattern in which stereotype acquisition begins prior to age 5, accelerates during the early school years, and reaches adult levels during the adoles cent years.

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Girls and boys learned the stereotypes at the same rate, but there was a tendency for male-stereotype traits to be learned somewhat earlier than female traits. In 17 of the 24 countries studied, male stereotype items were better known than female items. Germany was the only country where there was a clear tendency for the female stereotype to be better known than the male. In contrast, female stereotype items were learned earlier than male items in Latin/Catholic cultures (Brazil, Chile, Portugal, Vene zuela) where the adult-defined female stereotype is more positive than the male (Neto, Williams, & Widner, 1991; Tarrier & Gomes, 1981).

In predominantly Muslim countries, five-year-olds associate traits with the two sexes in a more highly differentiated manner and they learn the ste reotypes, particularly the male items, at an earlier age than in non-Muslim countries. Initially, children in predominantly Christian countries are slower in learning the stereotypes, perhaps reflecting the less-differentiated nature of the adult stereotypes, particularly in Catholic countries.

Using a combined measure of traits and roles, Albert and Porter (1986) examined the gender stereotypes of 4-6-year-olds in the United States and South Africa and found stereotyping increased with age. South African children stereotyped the male role more than did American children, but there were no country differences for the female role. South African chil dren from liberal Christian and Jewish backgrounds stereotyped less than children from more conservative religious groups. In the United States reli gious background was not a factor.

Looking at older children, 11 to 18 years of age, Intons-Peterson (1988) found that compared with American children, Swedish children attrib uted more instrumental qualities to women. Stereotypes of women and men were more similar in Sweden than in the United States, perhaps reflecting the egalitarian Swedish culture. Surprisingly, in Sweden ideal occupational choices differed by gender with young Swedish women reporting interests in service occupations, such as flight attendant, hos pital worker, nanny, and young Swedish men reporting interests in busi ness occupations. In contrast, ideal occupations for the sexes overlapped in the United States with both groups listing doctor/dentist/attorney, and business executive as their top choices. Given the similarities found across diverse countries with the differing measures used, sex stereotypes appeared to be universal with culture modifying rate of learning and minor aspects of content.

Conclusions and Future Challenges

Gender differences have fascinated social scientists for decades, and with the growing interest in culture, questions regarding the joint effects of these variables should continue to intrigue researchers for years to come. It

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is remarkable to see that pancultural similarities in sex and gender greatly outweigh the cultural differences that are found. Indeed, the ways in which male-female relationships are organized are remarkably similar across social groups. With the many technological advances that have shrunk the world, longitudinal studies within societies undergoing rapid socioeco nomic development should address concomitant changes in gender roles and behaviors.

In spite of the fact that females and males are biologically more similar than different, persons in traditional or modern, industrialized societies can expect to live qualitatively different lives based upon their sex. The relatively minor biological differences between the sexes can be expanded or reduced by cultural practices and socialization, resulting in gender differences in roles and behaviors that are generally modest but in some cases culturally important. Furthermore, few researchers have studied the relationship between cultural practices, such as initiation rites-a typical anthropological topic-and the development of the individual-a topic usually confined to the psychological domain.

The range of variation and diversity in familial and peer relation ships seen across cultural groups provides an exceptional opportunity for examining gender-related social development. Future studies across cultural groups should investigate how social relationships and behav iors change with age and identify the mechanisms that contribute to the development of gendered behaviors. Cross-cultural researchers have only begun to explore these social and behavioral issues with children in other societies.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

Although gender has traditionally been studied as a dichotomous variable, an increasing number of individuals in some Western countries are identifying as transgender, agender, pangender, and so on. How will this shift impact the way gender is studied cross-culturally, considering different cultures may accept and utilize such identities at different times?

2. What are the best ways to support children and adolescents engaged in gender roles that may be considered nontraditional in their respective cultures (i.e., boy babysitters in Western middle-class culture)?

3. There have already been significant changes in the gender division of labor as the global economy has evolved. In what ways will future global economic changes impact the gender division of labor and thus gender roles?

4. While the five theories of sex role development discussed in this chapter offer strong theoretical perspectives, what other variables of sex role development remain to be addressed?

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