Gender Differences: Biological or Social?

Gender Differences: Biological or Social?

All our lives, we have been told, "boys don't cry" or "girls don't climb trees." I can remember objecting strongly when my mother told me that ladies don't climb trees. I said something to the effect of "They should!" Gender and its roles on society is placed on a child early on in its life and it is something they carry all their lives. In (Raam, 2006), this author subtitles her article on Legos for the boys and Barbies for the girls.

Sex and gender is something that has been confusing and confused by the lay person and the professional for as long as women have not been accepting of their station in life. Sex is the biological portion of who we are and gender is the role we play in the society we live in. In the womb, each baby is supplied with the hormones that will make them male or female (testosterone for boys and estrogen for girls) and their bodies change accordingly. Each is supplied with the brain parts that will lead them through puberty at the right time in their lives and the genitals are formed according to their sex.

Gender is the role and expectation of each in the society they live in. In the modern 21rst century US world, there are many expectations put upon its citizens and how they should act. It starts from birth and most of it is learned. Boys get blue and girls get pink. Boys get sailboats on their onsies and girls get flowers or dolls on theirs. Relatives who buy gifts will get trucks and maybe army men for the boys and get the girl a doll or a teddy bear.

As the children grow, the gender expectations become more obvious. Boys don't cry. Girls don't climb trees. Boys don't play with dolls. Girls take care of little brothers and sisters. A study conducted in 1969 by psychologists Michael Lewis and Susan Goldberg found that mothers treated their young sons and daughters very differently. (Jiang and Watkins, 1998). They held their daughters closer to them and touched them more. Separate mother and child from a wall and girls will sit there and cry. Boys will try to climb the way.

According to http://www.sc.edu/lancaster/faculty/rashley/wost/syork1.htm:

- Research in 1974 and again in 1995 showed that parents, especially fathers, describe newborn girls as softer, finer-featured, smaller, weaker, and more delicate than boys. (Bryant and Check 65)

- As children get older, parents, especially fathers, reinforce gender roles, by encouraging activities and play with toys that are gender-specific. (Bryant and Check 65)

- Parents talk more to their daughters, give them less autonomy and encourage them to help others, while encouraging boys from an early age to express certain types of emotions but not others, like fearfulness. (Bryant and Check 65)

- With 24-hours of birth, parents describe their sons using adjective such as strong, alert, and coordinated, despite the fact that there are few physiological or behavioral differences