GEE2: GENDER

AND SOCIETY
THEORIES OF
JONATHAN P.
ESPINOSA
INSTRUCTOR

GENDER
DEVELOPMENT
 ◦ Course Orientation
◦ A. Interpreting Societies
◦ B. The Birth of Gender-Related Issues
◦ C. Theories of Gender Development
◦ D. Worldviews on Gender
◦ E. SOGIE: Concepts and Issues
What we ◦ Midterm Examination

already  F. Feminism & Gender-Based Coalition

discussed…  G. National & International Policies on
Gender
 H. Gender-Related Violence
 I. Gender Sensitivity & Responsiveness
 Final Exam
 Distinguish and discuss
different theories of gender
development;
In this lesson,
we hope to… Establish and value the
complementary role of
“nature” and “nurture” on
gender development.
 RETHINK

Was there any

influential person in
What aspects of them
your life during your
did you imitate?
childhood? Who are
they? Why?
 AGENCY - The capacity of an individual to actively and independently
choose and to affect change; free will or self-determination

School Peers Government Workplace

Family
Social/
Religious Mainstream
Church Digital
Institution Media
Media

Agents of Socialization
IF (PREMISE): Gender refers to the meaning a culture or a society attaches to being female or male.
 But…Why?
Through the socialization process, gender becomes part of our personalities (gender identity) and our actions
(gender roles). All the major agents of socialization—family, peer groups, schools, and the mass media—
reinforce cultural definitions of what is feminine and masculine.

Gender Gender Gender

• If: Gender is socially • And: Gender • Then: Gender
constructed. identity is a deeply- identity is not
felt self- socially constructed.
identification.

NOTE: AN INCOHERENT POSITION (Skalko, 2020)

1. Gender is culturally relative.
2. Any society that defines gender as identical with
biological sex must be right.
3. Transgenderism does not exist in all places.
4. Gender is not unchanging.
Nature Nurture

Does physical How is being male or Is gender learned

characteristics of female expressed in through observation
individuals affect people’s and modeling?
gender? understandings of
themselves as -Albert Bandura
-(Margaret Mead) masculine or
feminine?
-Sociobiology
-Lawrence Kohlberg
-Cognitive Biology -Sandra Bem
-Jean Piaget

IF (PREMISE): Gender refers to the meaning a culture or a society attaches to being female or male.
 Binary
Biological Theory Man or Woman
POINT:
-Sex and gender are not exclusive.
-Gender issues cannot be divorced from biological facts.
(Example: Maternal role during child’s infancy.) Non-Binary
Spectrum

Man Genderqueer Woman

NOTE:
• Arguments against gender equality are based on biology. Evolutionary
approaches from animals and insects favored by sociobiology are often the bases.
Much evidence, including the work by Margaret Mead, refutes these arguments.

• Sex hormones shape the development of the brain and sex organs and determine
how these organs will be activated. Hormones play important roles in behavior but
do not cause male aggression. The belief that there is a hormonally based
motherhood instinct is not supported.
Cognitive Theory
POINT:
-Most closely associated with
psychologists Lawrence Kohlberg
(1966) and Sandra Bem (1983, 1993),
cognitive theory embraces a much
more active view of children than
proponents of social learning.

-Cognitive theorists focus on the

ways that children actively seek to
understand themselves and their
worlds.

A B C
Social
Learning
Theory
◦POINT:
◦-Social learning theory
asserts that gender roles are
learned through the
reinforcements – positive
and negative – children
receive for engaging in
gender appropriate
◦and gender-inappropriate
behavior.

◦-Reinforcements, whether
experienced directly in the
form of rewards and
punishments or vicariously
through observation, are the
primary means through which
children take on gender-
appropriate behaviors.
 REVIEW:
Biological theory
Cognitive theory
Social Learning Theory

Sociological explanations for
gender differences are rooted in
the nurture side of this
question.
Remember…
Gender is not a social construct.
Rather, gender is divinely
Gender development is an
instituted, and it's an essential
interplay between nature and
aspect of personal identity that
nurture. It must not be viewed
follows from biological reality.
as “nature vs. nurture.”
-Adam Groza
 REFLECT
To what, to where, or to whom
should you base your identity as a
man or as a woman? Why?

Feelings? Science? Bible? Religious

Truth?
Texts?
Culture? God? gods / Qur’an
goddesses?