Gender and Development | GAD101
Week 2: Gender Awareness (Sex vs. Gender)
Sex versus Gender
Sex
— refers to the categories of being male and female – needed for the act
of mating to result in biological reproduction
— biologically determined differences between men and women
— constant across time, across different societies and culture
— functions or roles which a male or female assumes because of the ba-
sic physiological or anatomical differences between sexes
— can be performed exclusively by only one of the sexes
— male and female roles are not exchangeable
Male
— penis and testicles
— androgen and testosterone
— XY chromosomes
— underdeveloped breasts
— ovum fertilization
— chromosomes determine the sex of the child
Female
— vagina and ovaries
— estrogen and progesterone
— XX chromosome
— fully developed breasts
— child-bearing
— gestation
— childbirth
— lactation or breastfeeding
Gender
— differentiated social roles, behaviors, capacities, intellectuals, emo-
tional and social characteristics attributed by a given culture to
women and men
— differences between women and men that are socially determined,
learned, changes over time, varies between cultures
— masculine vs. feminine
— roles assigned by society to males and females
— activities deemed by society as appropriate for males and females
— behaviors and characteristics expected of males and females
Gender is a social construct.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY AND EXPRES-
SION, SEX CHARACTERISTICS (SOGIESC)
Sex
— biological
— physical traits that indicate biological sex such as chromosomes, geni-
talia, gonads, hormones, and reproductive organs
— male, female, or intersex
Sexual Orientation
— each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual
attraction to, and intimate and sexual relationships with
— answers the question: “To whom am I attracted?” and “Who do I
love?”
— Heterosexual – attracted to a person of different/opposite gender
identity
— Homosexual – attracted to a person of same gender identity
— Bisexual – attracted to persons of two or more genders attracted to
person of any two or more genders
— Pansexual – attracted to people of all genders and/or do not concern
gender when attracted toward someone
— Asexual – a person who doesn’t have sexual attraction to anyone
Gender Identity
— Cisgender – a person whose gender identity and biological sex as-
signed at birth matched
— Gender Fluid – a person who is gender fluid may always feel like a
mix of the two traditional genders (man and woman)
— Transgender – a person whose gender identity does not align or is
different from the sex assigned at birth
— Agender – a person without gender identity or doesn’t identify with a
particular gender
— refers to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience
of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at
birth
— answers the question: “Who am I?”
Expression
— the way in which a person expresses gender identity, typically through
their appearance, dress, and behavior
— feminine, androgynous, masculine
*SUMMARY*
In general terms, sex refers to the biological differences between
males and females, such as genitalia and genetic differences.
a. Sex refers to the anatomical and physiological characteristics of male-
ness and femaleness. It is a combination of bodily characteristics.
1) Chromosomes
2) Hormones
3) Reproductive organs
4) Secondary sex characteristics
b. Sex is composed of the biological characteristics definite between
male and females. It is natural, you are born with that sex (biological
set up), and it cannot be changed, unless with medical treatment/oper-
ation.
c. It is biologically determined as female or male according to certain
identifiable physical features which are fixed.
d. Sex is biologically and physiologically determined based on an indi-
vidual’s anatomy at birth. It is typically binary, meaning that one’s sex
is either male or female.
DEFINITION OF GENDER
a. Gender is the state of being male or female in relation to the social
and cultural roles that are considered appropriate for men and women.
b. It refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men
such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of
women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed.
c. It refers to the socially determined ideas and practices as to what it
means to female or male. In different societies, there are different set
of rules, norms, customs and practices by which differences between
males and females are translated into socially constructed differences
between women and men, boys and girls. These culturally determined
gender identities define rights and responsibilities and what is “appro-
priate” behavior for women and for men. This often results in the two
genders being valued differently, often reinforcing the idea that
women are inferior and subordinate to men.
d. Gender is a socially constructed definition of women and men; it is
not the same as sex (biological characteristics of women and men).
Gender is determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles
attributed to women and men in society and public and private life.
e. Gender is how a person’s biology is culturally valued and interpreted
into locally accepted ideas of what it is to be woman or man. Gender
and the hierarchical power relations between women and men based
on this are socially constructed and not derived directly form biology.
f. It is a social construct. An individual’s gender is their social identity
resulting from their culture’s conception of masculinity and feminin-
ity. Gender exists in a continuum.
g. Gender is the same as sex.
Historically, the terms “sex” and “gender” have been used inter-
changeably, but their used have been increasingly distinct, and it is impor -
tant to understand the difference between the two.
SEXUALITY
Sexuality is about who you are attracted to sexually and roman-
tically – dating and sexual activity.
Types of Sexuality
1. Straight/Heterosexual – attracted mostly to people of the opposite
sex or gender
2. Gay/Homosexual – attracted mostly to people of the same sex or
gender
3. Lesbian – attracted mostly to people of the same sex or gender (refers
to women)
4. Bisexual – attracted to both men and women
5. Pansexual – attracted to romantic and sexual partners of any gender,
sex, or sexual identity
Gender and Development | GAD101
6. Polysexual - attracted to romantic and sexual partners of many but
not all genders, sexes, or sexual identities
7. Asexual – not really sexually attracted to anyone
GENDER CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
General Concepts about Gender
a. Gender is learned.
b. Gender is collaborative.
c. Gender is not something that individuals have, but something they do.
d. Gender is asymmetrical.
Gender can be divided into a number of different components relating
to ideas of masculinity and femininity:
a. Gender Identity – the sense of ourselves as men, women, and other
gendered beings
b. Gender Presentation – acted behaviors associated with masculinity
and femininity: speech, dress, movement
c. Gender Roles – the social roles expected of men and women in a par-
ticular society
Week 3: Gender Development: Concepts and Definitions
CULTURE
Culture is the distinctive patterns of ideas, beliefs, and norms
which characterize the way of life and relations of a society or group within
a society culturally determined gender ideologies define rights and respon-
sibilities and what “appropriate” behavior is for women and men. They also
influence access to and control over resources and participation and deci -
sion making. These gender ideologies often reinforce male power and the
idea of women’s inferiority.
GENDER ANALYSIS
Gender analysis is the systematic gathering and examination of
information on gender differences and social relations in order to identify,
understand and redress inequities based on gender.
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Gender discrimination is the systematic, unfavorable treatment
of individuals on the basis of their gender which denies them rights, oppor-
tunities or resources. Across the world, women are treated unequally and
less value is placed on their lives because of their gender. Women’s differ -
ential access to power and control of resources is central to this discrimina-
tion in all institutional spheres, i.e. the household, community, market and
state.
Discrimination
— prejudice against a person based on arbitrarily attributed characteris-
tics (gender pay gap, glass ceiling)
GENDER DIVISION OF LABOR
Gender division of labor is the socially determined ideas and
practices which define what roles and activities are deemed appropriate for
women and men. This results in context-specific patterns of who does what
by gender and how this is valued.
Community Roles
a. Productive role – production of goods and services for exchange
rather that for personal or immediate consumption, usually for a cor-
responding fee, salary, or economic value
b. Reproductive role – biological reproduction and tasks usually associ-
ated with it
– these are necessary for survival but given no
economic value is given to it
GENDER EQUALITY AND EQUITY
The term “gender equity” is often used interchangeably with
“gender equality”. Gender equality denotes women having the same oppor-
tunities in life as men, including the ability to participate in the public
sphere. Gender equity denotes the equivalence in life outcomes for women
and men, recognizing their different needs and interests, and requiring a re-
distribution of power and resources.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING
Gender mainstreaming is an organizational strategy to bring a
gender perspective to all aspects of an institution’s policy and activities,
through building gender capacity and accountability.
GENDER NEEDS
Gender needs are shared and prioritized needs identified by
women that arise from their common experiences as a gender. Strategic
gender needs are those needs identified by women that require strategies for
challenging male dominance and privilege. These needs may relate to in-
equalities in the gender division of labor, in ownership and control of re-
sources, in participation and decisionmaking, or to experiences of domestic
and other sexual violence.
Practical Gender Needs (PGN)
— related to immediate needs of living, such as food, drinking water,
health care, and medical support
Strategic Gender Needs (SGN)
— related to gender divisions of labor, equal wages, resources and educa-
tion, and women’s control over their bodies
— necessary to encompass social and political reforms for ensuring
power and control, legal rights, reduce domestic violence
— these measures are seen as relatively long-term objectives
GENDER PLANNING
Gender planning is the technical and political processes and pro-
cedures necessary to implement gender-sensitive policy and practice. This
is to ensure gender-sensitive policy outcomes through a systematic and in -
clusive process.
GENDER RELATIONS
Gender relations are hierarchical relations of power between
women and men that tend to disadvantage women. Gender relations consti-
tute and are constituted by a range of institutions, such as the family, legal
systems or the market.
GENDER TRAINING
Gender training is a facilitated process of developing awareness
and capacity on gender issues to bring about personal or organizational
change for gender equality.
GENDER VIOLOENCE
Gender violence is an act or threat by men or male-dominated
institutions, that inflicts physical, sexual or psychological harm on a woman
or girl because of their gender.
PATRIARCHY
Patriarchy are systemic societal structures that institutionalize
male physical, social and economic power over women.
Matriarchy is the opposite of patriarchy.
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Women empowerment is a ”bottom-up” process of transforming
gender power relations, through individuals or groups developing aware-
ness of women’s subordination and building their capacity to challenge it.
WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS
Women’s human rights is the recognition that women’s rights
are human rights and that women experience injustices solely because of
their gender.
Week 4-5: Theories of Gender Development
Gender develops through a combination of biological and social
factors which emerges at age 2 or 3 and is reinforced at puberty.
FREUDIAN
Sigmund Freud was one of the first to offer an explanation for the de-
velopment of gender. He believed that life was built around tension and
pleasure. He also believed that all tension was due to the build-up of libido
(sexual energy) and that all pleasure came from its discharge.
He stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation
of adult personality. The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social de -
mands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated wishes and social norms.
The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and di-
rect the need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratifica -
tion centers in different areas of the body at different stages of growth,
making the conflict at each stage psychosexual.
Each of the psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) is
associated with a particular conflict that must be resolved before the indi -
vidual can successfully advance to the next stage.
Gender and Development | GAD101
The resolution of each of these conflicts requires the expenditure of
sexual energy and the more energy that is expended at a particular stage, the
more the important characteristics of that stage remain with the individual
as he/she matures psychologically.
Gender develops through a combination of biological and social fac-
tors which emerges at age 2 or 3 and is reinforced at puberty. Once estab -
lished, it is generally permanent.
A major step occurs when children first become aware of anatomical
differences between sexes (at age 2 or 3), usually from the observation of
siblings or peers. This is followed by an awareness of cultural differences
between males and females, and identification with the parent of the same
sex.
Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the forma-
tion of adult personality. The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social
demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated wishes and social norms.
The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and di-
rect the need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratifica -
tion centers in different areas of the body at different stages of growth,
making the conflict at each stage psychosexual.
Oral Stage
— birth to 1 year
— libido is centered around the baby’s mouth
— the first psychosexual attachment of the individual will be the mother
— once the child recognizes the existence of the father, the child identi -
fies with him
— however, as the sexual wishes of the child intensifies, the child be-
comes possessive of the mother and wishes the father out of the pic-
ture
— this event starts the Oedipus and Electra Complex in the next two
stages
Anal Stage
— 1 to 3 years
— the child is now fully aware that they are a person in their own right
and that their wishes can bring them into conflict with the demands of
the outside world
— this type of conflict tends to come to a head in potty training, in which
adults impose restrictions on when and where the child can defecate
— the nature of this first conflict with authority can determine the child's
future relationship with all forms of authority
Phallic Stage
— 3 to 6 years
— the child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in
motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jeal-
ousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus complex (in boys) and
the Electra complex (in girls)
— this is resolved through the process of identification, which involves
the child adopting the characteristics (values, attitudes, and behaviors)
of the same sex parent
Oedipus Complex
— this complex arises because the boy develops sexual (pleasurable) de-
sires for his mother. He wants to possess his mother exclusively and
get rid of his father to enable him to do so.
— irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were to find out about all
this, his father would take away what he loves the most (his penis,
thru chopping). This is called castration anxiety.
— the little boy then sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copy-
ing and joining in masculine dad-type behaviors (thru identification),
thus resolving the Oedipus complex
— the consequence of this is that the boy takes on the male gender role,
and adopts an ego ideal and values that become the superego
Electra Complex
— the girl desires the father, but realizes that she does not have a pe-
nis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be
a boy
— the girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and sub-
stituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby
— the girl blames her mother for her 'castrated state,' and this creates
great tension
— the girl then represses her feelings (to remove the tension) and iden-
tifies with the mother to take on the female gender role
Latency Stage
— 6 years to puberty
— the libido is dormant during this stage, and no further psychosexual
development occurs (latent means hidden)
— sexual impulses are repressed, leading to a period of relative calm
— children’s sexual impulses become suppressed (the libido is dormant),
and no further psychosexual development occurs (latent means hid-
den)
— the focus shifts to other pursuits such as education, social relation-
ships, and other skills necessary for successful adult life
— children focus on developing social and intellectual skills, including
school, friendships, and hobbies, instead of on sexual or romantic in-
terests
— most sexual impulses are repressed during the latent stage, and sexual
energy can be sublimated towards school work, hobbies, and friend-
ships
— much of the child’s energy is channeled into developing new skills
and acquiring new knowledge, and play becomes largely confined to
other children of the same gender
— an example of this stage would be a child who engages in hobbies and
interests rather than sexual activities
Genital Stage
— puberty to adulthood
— the libido re-emerges after its latent period and is directed towards
peers of the other sex, marking the onset of mature adult sexuality
— individuals start to become sexually mature and begin to explore their
sexual feelings and desires more maturely and responsibly
— this period marks the onset of romantic and sexual emotions, leading
to the formation of intimate relationships
— sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure, rather than self-
pleasure, like during the phallic stage
LIMITATIONS OF FREUD’S THEORIES
Freud often had difficulty incorporating female desire into his
theories, leading to his famous, unanswered question: “What does a woman
want?”
To explain women, Freud argued that young girls followed more
or less the same psychosexual development as boys.
This has often been criticized by feminists, who argue that Freud
based his theories on the assumption that “anatomy is destiny”.
One respected feminist theory is that of Nancy Chodorow, for
whom the central factor in gender identity acquisition is the mother's role as
primary caregiver, which leads to a greater sense of interrelatedness in girls,
who identify with the mother and go on to reproduce the same patterns of
mothering in their own adult lives.
Id – instincts; Ego – reality; Superego – morality
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Social learning/cognitive theory is based on outward motivational fac-
tors that argue that is children receive positive reinforcement they are moti-
vated to continue a particular behavior. If they receive punishment or other
indicators of disapproval, they are more motivated to stop that behavior.
In terms of gender development, children receive praise if they engage
in culturally appropriate gender displays and punishment if they do not.
For example, when aggressiveness in boys is met with acceptance, or
a “boys will be boys” attitude, but a girl’s aggressiveness earns them a little
attention, the two children learn different meanings for aggressiveness as it
relates to their gender development. Thus, boys may continue being aggres-
sive while girls may drop it out of their repertoire.
The main way that gender behaviors are learned is through the process
of observational learning. Children observe the people around them behav-
ing in various ways, some of which relate to gender.
They pay attention to some of these people and encode their behavior.
At a later time, they may imitate the behavior they have observed. They
may do this regardless of whether the behavior is “gender appropriate” or
not but there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child
will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for its sex.
BIOLOGICAL THEROIES
Sex
— refers to the biological differences between males and females
— for example, chromosomes (female XX, male XY), reproductive or-
gans (ovaries, testes), hormones (estrogen, testosterone)
Gender and Development | GAD101
Gender
— refers to the cultural differences (by society/culture) of men and
women according to their sex
— a person’s sex does not change from birth, but their gender can
— In the past people tend to have very clear ideas about what was appro-
priate to each sex and anyone behaving differently was regarded as
deviant.
— Today we accept a lot more diversity and see gender as a continuum
(i.e. scale) rather than two categories.
— The biological approach suggests there is no distinction between sex
& gender, thus biological sex creates gendered behavior.
— Gender is determined by two biological factors: hormones and chro-
mosomes.
— Biological approach suggests there is no distinction between sex and
gender, thus biological sex creates gendered behavior.
— Gender is determined by two biological factors: hormones and chro-
mosomes.
Hormones
— chemical substances secreted by glands throughout the body and car-
ried in the bloodstream
— occur in both men and women, but differ in amounts and in the effect
that they have upon different parts of the body
— Hormones are chemical substances secreted by glands throughout the
body and carried in the bloodstream.
— The same sex hormones occur in both men and women, but differ in
amounts and in the effect that they have upon different parts of the
body.
— Testosterone is a sex hormone, which is more present in males than
females, and affects development and behavior both before and after
birth.
— Testosterone, when released in the womb, causes the development of
male sex organs (at 7 weeks) and acts upon the hypothalamus which
results in the masculinization of the brain.
— Testosterone can cause typically male behaviors such as aggression,
competitiveness, visuospatial abilities, higher sexual drive etc.
— At the same time testosterone acts on the developing brain.
— The brain is divided into two hemispheres, left and right.
— In all humans the left side of the brain is more specialized for lan-
guage skills and the right for non-verbal and spatial skills.
— Young (1966) changed the sexual behavior of both male and female
rats by manipulating the amount of male and female hormones that
the rats received during their early development.
— They displayed “reversed” sexual behavior and the effects were un-
changeable.
— A number of nonreproductive behaviors in rats are also affected by
testosterone exposure around birth. These included exploratory behav-
ior, aggression and play.
— This is because the physiologies (e.g. brain) of humans and animal
species are not identical.
— Also, the social and cultural variables within a human population are
more complex when compared to social interactions between rats.
— Hines (1982) studied female babies born to mothers who had been
given injections of male hormones during pregnancy to prevent mis-
carriage.
— They were found to be more aggressive than normal female children.
— Hines concluded that the extra testosterone in the womb had affected
later behavior.
SRY Gene (Sex-determining Region Y gene)
— At about 6 weeks, the SRY gene on the Y chromosome causes the go-
nads (sex organs) of the embryo to develop as testes.
— If the embryo has no Y chromosome, it will not have the SRY gene,
without the SRY gene, the gonads will develop as ovaries.
— Sometimes the SRY gene is missing from the Y chromosome, or
doesn't activate. The fetus grows, is born, and lives as a little girl, and
later as a woman, but her chromosomes are XY.
— Koopman et al. (1991) found that mice that were genetically female
developed into male mice if the SRY gene was implanted.
— One of the most controversial uses of this discovery was as a means
for gender verification at the Olympic Games, under a system imple-
mented by the International Olympic Committee in1992. Athletes
with a SRY gene were not permitted to participate as females.
Turner's Syndrome (XO)
— Occurs when females develop with only one X chromosome on chro-
mosome 23 (1 in 5000 chance).
— The absence of the second X chromosome results in a child with a fe -
male external appearance but whose ovaries have failed to develop.
— In addition to physical differences, there are differences in cognitive
skills and behavior compared with typical chromosome patterns.
— The affected individuals have higher than average verbal ability but
lower than average spatial ability, visual memory and mathematical
skills.
— The physical characteristics of individuals with Turner's syndrome in-
clude lack of maturation at puberty and webbing of the neck.
— They also have difficulty in social adjustment at school and generally
have poor relationships with their peers.
Klinefelter's Syndrome (XXY)
— affects 1 in every 750 males
— In addition to having a Y chromosome, these men also have an addi-
tional X on the 23rd chromosome, leading to the arrangement XXY.
— Physically, the effect of the additional X chromosome causes less
body hair and under-developed genitals.
— The syndrome becomes noticeable in childhood, as the boy has poor
language skills.
— At three years of age, the child may still not talk. At school, their poor
language skills affect their reading ability.
— When they are babies, their temperament is described as passive and
cooperative. This calmness and shyness remain with them throughout
their lives.
— This suggests that level of aggression have a biological rather than en-
vironmental component.
Evolutionary Explanations of Gender
— As the evolutionary approach is a biological one, it suggests that as-
pects of human behavior have been coded by our genes because they
were or are adaptive.
— A central claim of evolutionary psychology is that the brain (and
therefore the mind) evolved to solve problems encountered by our
hunter-gatherer ancestors during the upper Pleistocene period over
10,000 years ago.
— The evolutionary approach argues that gender role division appears as
an adaptation to the challenges faced by the ancestral humans in the
EEA (the environment of evolutionary adaptation).
Critical Evaluation
— Deterministic approach which implies that men and women have little
choice or control over their behaviors: women are natural ‘nurturers’
and men are naturally aggressive and competitive.
— The in modern society equal opportunities policies are doomed to fail
as men are ‘naturally’ more competitive, risk taking and likely to
progress up the career ladder.
Biosocial Approach to Gender
— The biosocial approach (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972) is an interactionist
approach whereby nature and nurture both play a role in gender devel-
opment.
— John Money’s (1972) theory was that once a biological male or fe-
male is born, social labeling and differential treatment of boys and
girls interact with biological factors to steer development. This theory
was an attempt to integrate the influences of nature and nurture.
Prenatal
— exposure to hormones in the womb (determined by chromosomes). It
states that biology caused by genetics, XY for a boy and XX for a girl
will give them physical sex.
Postnatal
— parents and others label and react towards a child on the basis of his
or her genitals
— It is when their sex has been labelled through external genitals, their
gender development will begin.
Gender and Development | GAD101
— The social labeling of a baby as a boy or girl leads to different treat-
ment which produce the child/s sense of gender identity.
— Western societies view gender as having two categories, masculine
and feminine, and see men and women as different species.
Empirical Evidence
Rubin et al, 1974, interviewed 30 parents and asked them to use ad-
jective pairs to describe their babies. Although there were no measurable
differences in size between the babies, parents consistently described boy
babies as better coordinated, stronger and more alert than daughters. This
shows that parents label their babies.
1. Sex-typed individuals – identify with the gender that corresponds to
their physical sex. These individuals process and integrate information
according to their schema for their gender.
2. Cross-sex typed individuals – process and integrate information ac-
cording to their schema for the opposite gender
3. Androgynous individuals – process and integrate information based
on their schema for both genders
4. Undifferentiated individuals – have difficulty processing informa-
tion based on any gender schema

— Shaywitz et al (1995) used MRI scans to examine brain while men

and women carried out language tasks, found out that women used
both hemispheres, and only the left hemisphere is used by men.
— It appears that in males brain hemispheres work more independently
than in females, and testosterone influences this lateralization.

Empirical Evidence
The effects of testosterone have been confirmed in animal studies.
Quadango et al. (1977) found that female monkeys who were deliberately
exposed to testosterone during prenatal development later engaged in
rougher and tumble play than other females.

— Young believed that the exposure had changed the sexually dimorphic
nucleus (SDN) in the brain, as male rats had a larger SDN than fe-
males.
— The results have proven to be highly replicable.

Critical Evaluation
— Because this study was conducted in a lab, it has low ecological valid-
ity.
— For example, in the lab hormones are injected in one single high dose.
— Whereas in real life, hormones tend to be released by the body in
pulses, in a graduated fashion.
— Therefore, the results might not be generalizable outside of the lab, to
a more naturalistic setting.
— The normal human body contains 23 pairs of chromosomes.
— A chromosome is a long thin structure containing thousands of genes,
which are biochemical units of heredity and govern the development
of every human being.
— Each pair of chromosomes controls different aspects of development,
and biological sex is determined by the 23rd chromosome pair.
— Chromosomes physically resemble the letters X and Y. Males = XY
Females = XX

Atypical Chromosomes
— Individuals with atypical chromosomes develop differently than indi-
viduals with typical chromosomes – socially, physically and cogni-
tively.
— Studying people with atypical sex chromosomes and comparing their
development with that of people with typical sex chromosomes able
to establish which types of behavior are genetic (e.g. determined by
chromosomes)

GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

Sandra Bem in 1981 formally introduced the Gender Schema Theory,
explaining how individuals become gendered in society, and how sexlinked
characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a cul-
ture.
Gender-associated information is predominantly transmuted through
society by way of schemata, or networks of information that allow for some
information to be more easily assimilated than others.
This theory of gender development says that gender is a product of the
norms of one’s culture. It suggests that people process information, in part,
based on gender-typed knowledge. It proposes that children create cognitive
schema or gender that they derive from the norms of their culture
It is a theory of process, focusing on the way people process and uti -
lize the information their culture provides about masculinity and femininity.
Bem suggests that people fall into one of four gender categories.

Cognitive Development Theory + Social Learning Theory = Gender

Schema Theory

Four Gender Categories