Gender role and identity

GENDER ROLE THEORIES

How do children discern their gender? How does a little girl know she is female? How does a little boy know he is male? There are numerous theories out there that attempt to explain this occurrence. Among them is Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory. He proposes that children learn gender roles via socialization. They select role models in nurturing and powerful adults and peers to imitate. One of which is typically a same sex parent. The child is then rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior. A mother praises her daughter for her interest in styling her hair. A little boy who refuses to cry when hurt is commended by his father for “acting like a man.”
Another gender role theory known as gender-schema theory uses a cognitive approach to gender identification. It proposes that before children even engage in gender-type behavior, they cognitively gather knowledge about what it means to be male or female in that particular culture. They see how little boys play with trucks, trains, and soldiers and little girls play with dolls and dress-up. It is only through observing the appropriate gender type behavior do they engage in what they process to be appropriate.

In quest to further my understanding of gender-role theories, I came across an article that caught my attention. It was an article called David Reimer: the boy who was raised as a girl. It talks about a boy who by a medical mishap lost his penis at seven months old. It was then decided, with the suggestion of a psychologist, that the child be raised as a girl. She was clothed in dresses. She had long hair with ribbons and given “girl” toys. When she was 15 years old and was finally told the truth, she was relieved and “insisted on immediately resuming a male identity.” This article ended with the following phrase: “Dr. Milton Diamond commented that "if all these combined medical, surgical, and social efforts could not succeed in making that child accept a female gender identity, then maybe we really have to think that there is something important in the individual's biological makeup; that we don't come to this world neutral; that we come to this world with some degree of maleness and femaleness which will transcend whatever the society wants to put into it."

I agree to the statement above wholeheartedly. But I have to admit, there much be something more to it too. Even David Reimer, who always knew that he was male, must have engaged in one of the gender theories above in order for him to be a successful male at 15 years old (and after).


NASSPE. 2009. National Association for single sex public education. 29 April 2009 http://www.singlesexschools.org/reimer.html