Phallic: know male/female genitalia differs- Oedipus Electr

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Chapter 4 Early Childhood Gender Socialization

• Course Number Gender Studies 100
• Women, Men, and Society
• Annette Schonder
• Orange Coast College
• Division of Social Sciences
• Department of Sociology

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Intro
Today, baby boys are in blue and baby girls in
pink. -gt boys are seen as strong -gt girls are
seen as delicate Gendered expectations are
transmitted to children through
socialization. Socialization the process by
which a societys values and norms, including
those pertaining to gender, are taught and
learned. Gender socialization can be very
explicit/rewards and punishment Or,
subtle/modeling, literature, media
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Learning Gender The Process
Children as young as 18 months show preference
for gender-stereotyped toys. 2 aware of own and
others gender 2-3 can identify specific traits
and behaviors in gender-stereotyped ways.
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Learning Gender
Psychoanalytic Theories Freud Identification
Theory Oral Anal Phallic know male/female
genitalia differs-gtOedipus Electra complex-gt
identification takes place /4 yrs Latency Genital
Boys Oedipus Complex sexual
attraction to mother, fears castration by father,
chooses to be like dad rather than a competitor,
sexual attraction to mother is lived vicariously
through the father
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Learning Gender
Girls Electra Complex Penis envy Pulls
away from mother as she too has the deformity.
Shifts her love to her father, as he has the
prized penis, and identifies with her mother to
win him over. A girl learns she can have a penis
in two ways intercourse, symbolically through
birthing/especially birthing a boy. However,
females continue to feel inferior and envious -gt
female personality Read Freud 74/75
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Learning Gender
Freud Scientist began to think about children
having sexuality. Critique Unconscious
processes are impossible to verify Sees gender
as static non-changeable misogynistic phal
locentric Karen Horney rejected penis envy,
but suggested womb envy Erickson Womens
inner reproductive capacity gives them ability to
nurture/care Mens external reproductive function
-gtexternal focus and action oriented
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Learning Gender
Klein primary relation in the development of
gender identity is the mother-child relationship
centering around the breast emotions and
conflicts the breast evokes in children i.e..
Goodness/plentitude, badness/destructiveness Thom
pson, Lacan, Mitchell women do not envy the
organ penis, but the power males have Nancy
Chodorow Feminine personality/connectedness to
others/mothering due to mothers presence during
childhood Masculine personality/emotionally
detached and repressed as the same sex parent is
absent most of the time. Critique ethnocentric
(western division of labor) white middle class
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Learning Gender Social Learning Theory
Backbone of social learning theories is
behaviorism Rewards and punishment Direct
ladies dont sit like that (punitive), what a
little lady (positive) Indirect reinforcement
dad will play with son if he rough houses -gt son
will rough house more Modeling/Imitation Will
imitate those who positively reinforce their
behavior. Critique children seem to model
those more who hold power/not necessarily same
sex person Girls imitate more male models than
boys female models Children copy same sex model
only if the behavior is gender appropriate.-gt
there must be underlying mental processes.
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Cognitive Development Theories
Cognitive Developmental Theories study
underlying mental processes children use to
understand their observations and
experiences. Gender acquisition between 3 and
5 Piaget Sensori motor stage Preoperational
stage 2-6, have rigid categories, is Dr. Kelly a
girl Concrete operational stage can accommodate
new info Formal operational stage understands
the concept of femininity and masculinity Kids
naturally learn gender with mental efforts
-gtchaos is reduced They use schema categories
i.e. male and female as they categorize male and
female. Schemas are accommodated as the child
matures - from simple to complex i.e. a young
girl will say she is a girl because she has a
flower on her shirt. She has observed that boys
dont have flowered shirts. She at this point
can attach a label of gender appropriate (good)
or inappropriate (bad).
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Cognitive Development Theories
Critique Age might be as young as 2 Race, and
social class, culture, parental values Bems
Enculturated Lens Theory of Gender
Formation Lens hidden assumptions about how
the members of a society should look , think,
feel and act. Passed on through social
institutions, from generation to generation 3
gender lenses in US and most Western cultures 1.
Gender polarization males/females
fundamentally different -gt a central organizing
principle for the social life of the society 2.
Androcentrism male is the standard, female
inferior 3. Biological essentialism biology is
destiny
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Cognitive Development Theories
Bem cont. Gender acquisition
enculturation/socialization 1. institutionalized
social practices 2. metamessages bombardment
of implicit lessons about what is important and
valued, and what differences in people are
significant. -gt we become a cultural native -gt
we can no longer distinguish between reality and
what our culture construes as reality Social
change can only occur if the alter/eradicate the
cultural lenses. Need for new lenses i.e.
individual differences
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Growing up feminine or masculine
Until 1980 American parents expressed bias toward
wanting male offspring. Cross culturally bias
towards boys can be seen. Gender stereotyping
may begin in uterus, but is definitely present at
birth. Boys tall, large, athletic, serious,
broad, wide hands Girls small, pretty, fine,
delicate features. (20 year old study found the
same thing) Parents use clothes as a clear
marker of their childs sex-gt elicits sex
specific response in others
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Growing up feminine or masculine
Parent Child Interactions Ongoing
exchange/reciprocal Male infants and toddlers
fussier/active-girls more well behaved Conners
found Girls and boys 3.5 -14 months/few
differences in behavior Mothers of girls were
more sensitive to their children, while the
mothers of boys were more restrictive of their
children. -gt girls more securely attached Fagot
et al. 13-14 month olds kids boy got attention
when they were aggressive, cried, whined or
screamed, but ignored the girls of that
age. Adults paid attention to the girls when they
used gestures or gentle touching.
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Growing up feminine or masculine
Differential interaction More emotion words with
girls Discuss sad with girls and anger with boys
-gtby 6 girls use a greater number of and more
specialized emotion words than boys-gttraining to
be more sensitive/attached boys more detached and
assertive, women are better able to retrieve
positive and negative emotions from the past/men
and women were equal when the event was
non-emotional -Parents more physical play with
boys. -Fathers more physical games/interactions
w. boys more verbal with girls -Fathers seek
physical proximity with girls -Parents believe
girls need more help -mothers teach and question
boys more -Even mothers who were more aware
treated boys and girls differently. mainly
white, middle class, heterosexual studies
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Toys
25 years ago study found girls had toys relating
to domesticity and motherhood. Boys had toys
relating to building, vehicles. Boys had more toy
that were diverse. Boys and girls had equal
instruments. 10 years later not much had
changed. Today Toys are very gendered. Boy
toys tend to encourage exploration, manipulation,
invention, construction, competition, and
aggression. Girl toys rate high on
manipulability, but also creativity, nurturance,
and attractiveness. With few exceptions toys
strongly reinforce gender stereotypes.
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Books

• Children's books 1970 showed males as active
  adventurers and women as passive followers.
• Boys were rewarded for their accomplishments and
  for being smart, girls were rewarded for their
  good looks
• Adult men were shown doing a wide rage of jobs
• Adult women mainly in domestic roles..only in 1/3
  of the books there were no women at all
• 1987 only 12.5 had no women
• They ways they were depicted remained the same

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Books

• 1997 Odean found females in supporting roles and
  very few female characters brave, athletic, or
  independent. She found only six hundred books
  about girls who went against the gender
  stereotype.
• African American authors/illustrators depicted
  females more androgynously
• Nontraditional gender messages are mostly hot
  appreciated by kids-only those who were reared
  differently.

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Early Peer Group Socialization

• Childrens same sex peers are the most powerful
  agents of socialization
• Voluntarily segregate into same sex groups,
  begins 2-3 and grows stronger
• Boys operate in larger groups, are more
  aggressive and competitive, and play more
  organized games.
• Girls smaller groups/cooperative
• Some do borderwork by crossing over
• Some play is sex integrated

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By the Time a Child is 5

• Little boys are taught independence,
  problem-solving abilities, assertiveness, and
  curiosity about their environment-skills that are
  highly valued in our society.
• Little girls are taught dependence, passivity,
  and domesticity-traits that our society devalues.
• Children reinforce this notion of gender