Gender Identity and Gender Roles

By James Kateregga

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Sex and Gender

 Sex: An aspect of one’s biological makeup that

depends on whether one is born with distinct male
or female genitals and a genetic program that
releases either male or female hormones to
stimulate the development of one’s reproductive
system.
 Gender: One’s sense of being male or female and
playing masculine or feminine roles in ways defined
as appropriate by one’s culture and society.
 Gender Roles Across Cultures

In virtually all cultures:

 Women are expected to focus on child-raising.
 Men tend to have more power.
 Male children are valued over female children.
 And ????????????
 Becoming a man or woman
 Gender identity – your personal sense of self
as a man (boy) or a woman (girl).
 Gender role stereotypes – oversimplified, rigid
beliefs that all members of a sex have distinct
behavioral psychological and emotional
characteristics.

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 Masculine, Feminine
or Androgynous?

 Our culture have defined masculine and

feminine as polar opposites (e.g., m = loud/
aggressive/brave; f = quiet/passive/timid)
 The Bem Sex Role Inventory categorizes
people as:
– Having mostly “masculine” traits
– Having mostly “feminine” traits
– Having a pretty even mix of each = Androgyny
– Not fitting these stereotypes = Undifferentiated
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 Biological influences
on gender identity

 Chromosomal sex + hormonal sex =

anatomical sex (genitals, reproductive
structures and the brain)
 Each ovum (egg) and each sperm has only half
of the normal genetic material for a human cell;
after conception the zygote contains the full
complement of 23 pairs of chromosomes.
 The genetic blueprint for females is “XX” and
the genetic blueprint for males is “XY.”
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 The role of hormones

 During the first 6 weeks of development the

embryo is genetically male or female but its
anatomy is sex neutral = undifferentiated.
 Before sexual differentiation, the embryo
contains gonads that can develop into either
testes or ovaries, and a set of “male” tissue
(Wolffian duct system) and a set of “female”
tissue (Mullerian duct system).
 External genitalia are “bipotential.”
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 Sexual
differentiation

Prior to week 7

Differentiation in
progress

Fully differentiated

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 Becoming anatomically “normal”
 Normally, the Y chromosome initiates changes in the
embryo that begin the production of testosterone,
which will masculinize the embryo. Without
testosterone, the male pathway cannot develop and
the organs will feminize.
 Male development – gonads > testes; Wolffian ducts
> internal male reproductive structures.
 Female development – gonads > ovaries; Mullerian
ducts > internal female reproductive structures.
 External genitalia take on the male form in the
presence of testosterone; without it, the female.
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 Sexual differentiation of the brain
 Sex differences in the brain are small but
significant in a few ways. Testosterone appears
to play a role.
 Gender identity, sexual orientation and some
sexual behaviors are governed by small areas of
the hypothalamus.
 Both animal and human studies continue to shed
light on other sex differences in behavior and
cognition.
 In general, we are more the same than different.
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 Variations:
Intersexed individuals
 Prenatal irregularities in either chromosomes
or hormones can lead to development of
ambiguous genitalia. These individuals are
called “intersexuals.”
 In the not-so-distant past, doctors were quick
to assign a sex based upon what the genitals
looked most like or availability of surgery to
create more female-looking genitals, but the
idea that gender identity may be set in the
brain prenatally was not considered.
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 A failed experiment

 1960s - It was believed that children were born

psychosexually neutral.
 A normal boy suffered a circumcision accident
that left him without a penis. Psychologist John
Money sought to use this child to prove his
theory that if a child is raised as a girl, it will
develop a female gender identity.
 The child never felt female, however, and
reclaimed his manhood in adolescence.
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 Chromosome variations

 1 in 426 people is born with an unusual sex

chromosome combination (70 known types).
 Klinefelter’s syndrome – XXY or XXXXY
– 1 in 500 live births has;
• Tall, long arms, poor muscular development,
enlarged breasts and hips, a small penis,
shrunken testes and low sexual desire. They are
often confused about their gender identity.

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 Other chromosome variations
 Turner’s syndrome – X0
– 1 in 2,000-3,000 live births
– Ovaries never develop properly > absence of
ovarian hormones.
– They do not menstruate or develop adult breasts
and are usually infertile.
– Usually short, and with skeletal abnormalities.
 Stella Walsh – some body cells were XX and
some were XY. She lived as a woman but had
nonfunctional male organs. World class athlete.
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 Hormonal variations
 Hermaphroditism – having both male and
female reproductive systems due to failure of
primitive gonads to differentiate.
– 1 in 65,000 births; usually genetic females
– Often have one ovary and Fallopian tube on one
side and one vas deferens and a teste on the
other, usually with a uterus in between
– Ambiguous external genitalia
– 2/3 are raised as boys but at puberty develop
breasts and begin to menstruate

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 Other hormonal variations
 Pseudohermaphroditism – having either testes
or ovaries (matching the genetic sex) but with
either ambiguous genitalia or genitalia of the
other sex.
– Many have early problems with gender identity but
most have a heterosexual orientation as adults.
– Hormonal and surgical treatments partially correct
the appearance of the genitals.
– Adrenogenital syndrome – 1 in 20,000 births;
An XX embryo’s adrenal glands secrete too much
masculinizing hormone > masculine genitalia.
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 Pseudohermaphroditism, cont’d.
– Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AGS) – 1 in
20,000 births; XY testes secrete testosterone but embryonic
tissues fail to respond.
– Female internal structures do not develop because the
Mullerian duct inhibiting substance is correctly “read” by the
embryo.
– External genitals generally appear very feminine. Testes do
not descend.
– DHT Deficiency type AGS – 38 boys in the Dominican
Republic; 18 raised as girls until puberty and then adopted
a male identity; this culture could accept a change from
female to male and called them quevote (“penis at twelve”)
boys.
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 Gender and sex
as social constructs
 In our culture in Uganda and world over, we are
committed to the idea of persons being either male
or female; we accept no third sex, anatomically or
socially.
 Gender is a social construction of femininity and
masculinity; differences in temperament and
behavior we expect beyond anatomical differences.
 Awareness of intersexed individuals helps us see
that sex is not dichotomous
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 Gender Identity “Disorder” (GID)
 Gender dysphoria – when gender identity does
not match anatomical sex; the person feels
trapped inside the wrong body.
– Awareness often occurs in childhood, with boys
outnumbering girls 7:1 prior to adolescence.
– Adults with this condition are referred to as
transsexuals
– Male-to-female transsexuals outnumber female-to-
male transsexuals 2:1.
– Most are heterosexual in relationship to their gender
identity.
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 Transsexualism
 Differs from transvestism (cross-dressing for
sexual arousal); GID is a gender identity issue.
 Causes are not well understood but male-to-
female transsexuals have a hypothalamus more
similar to a female’s than to a male’s.
 Parent-child interactions may also play a role.
 Sex reassignment surgery follows a long period
of psychotherapy and living as the other sex.
 Psychotherapy alone does not “cure” GID.
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 Transgenderism: Living as the
Other Sex

 10-15% of the population

 Live the other gender’s role, full/part-time
 Happy as their biological sex, but
psychosocially pleasured dressing as the
other sex
 Relaxing and peaceful to cross-dress
– Billy Tipton
 Some of the theories of gender
identity
 Freud’s psychodynamic theory – founded on
Victorian ideas of morality and sex roles.
– Libido = conscious and unconscious sexual desire
– Libido develops as it shifts focus from oral > anal >
phallic > latency > genital areas
– Problems in libidinal development will manifest in
adulthood in a variety of ways
– Oedipus complex in boys; Electra Complex and
penis envy in girls
– Identification with the same sex parent is the
ultimate developmental goal
22 King, Human Sexuality Today, 5/e © 2005 by Prentice Hall
 Social Learning Theory

 Operant conditioning – we increase behavior

which gets rewarded (reinforced) and we
decrease behavior which gets punished.
 Boys are reinforced for acting in a masculine
manner; girls for acting in a feminine manner.
 We also learn our gender roles by imitating
models of our own sex.
– Do daddies wash dishes?
– Do mommies fix the plumbing?
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 Cognitive-Developmental Theory

 Infants are “information seekers.”

– They watch, imitate, and try things out
 A need to understand causes children to want
to learn about gender.
 Gender constancy – understanding that one’s
sex will not change despite a change in
hairstyle, wardrobe or activity.
– Generally acquired by age 6 or 7

24 King, Human Sexuality Today, 5/e © 2005 by Prentice Hall