Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based
WEEK 2: GENDER AWARENESS
SEX VS GENDER
SEX
It refers to the categories of being a male or female
needed for biological reproduction.
It’s biologically determined and constant across
time and across different societies and culture.
MALE
• Penis and testicles
• Androgen and testosterone
• XY Chromosomes
FEMALE
• Vagina and ovaries
• Estrogen and progesterone
• XX Chromosomes
• Gender
GENDER
It is differentiated by social roles, behaviors,
capacities, intellectual, emotional and social
characteristics attributed by a given culture.
It is socially determined and can be learned over
time and changes too.
• ROLES – assigned by society to males and
females
• ACTIVITIES – deemed by society as
appropriate.
• BEHAVIORS – expected for male and
females.
• CHARACTERISTICS – expected males and
females.
GENDERBREAD PERSON
SEX
Biological and physical traits that indicate biological
sex such as genitalia, gonads and hormones.
• Intersex, male, and female.
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Each person’s capacity for profound emotional,
affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate
and sexual relations with
• HETEROSEXUAL – into opposite gender.
• HOMOSEXUAL – into same gender.
• BISEXUAL – into both genders.
• PANSEXUAL – into any gender.
• ASEXUAL – not into any gender.
GENDER IDENTITY
Refers to each person’s deeply felt internal and
individual experience of gender, which may or may
not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.
• CISGENDER – gender identity and biological
sex assigned at birth.
• GENDER FLUID – a person who always feel
like a mix of two traditional genders (man
and woman)
• TRANSGENDER – a gender identity doesn’t
not align or different sex assigned at birth.
• AGENDER – a person without gender identity
or doesn’t identify with a particular gender.
GENDER EXPRESSION
The way in which a person expresses gender identity
typically through their appearance, dress, and
behavior.
• FEMININE, ANDROGYNOUS, AND MASCULINE.
WEEEK 3: GENDER DEVELOPMENT
CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS:
a. CULTURE - the distinctive patterns of ideas,
beliefs, and norms which characterize the way of
life and relations of a society or group within a
society culturally determined gender ideologies
define rights and responsibilities and what
appropriate behavior is for women and men. They
also influence access to and control over
resources and participation and decision making.
These gender ideologies often reinforce male
power and the idea of women’s inferiority.
b. GENDER ANALYSIS - the systematic gathering
and examination of information on gender
differences and social relations in order to identify,
understand and redress inequities based on
gender.
c. GENDER DISCRIMINATION - the systematic,
unfavorable treatment of individuals on the basis
of their gender, which denies them rights,
opportunities or resources. Across the world,
women are treated unequally and less value is
placed on their lives because of their gender.
Women's differential access to power and control
of resources is central to this discrimination in all
institutional spheres, i.e. the household,
community, market and state
ZEDRIC ESTAPE
 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based

d. GENDER DIVISION OF LABOR - the socially
determined ideas and practices which define
what roles and activities are deemed appropriate
for women and men. This results in context-specific
patterns of who does what by gender and how
this is valued.
PRODUCTIVE ROLE
Production of goods and services for exchange rather
than for personal or immediate consumption, usually for a
corresponding fee, salary or economic value
REPRODUCTIVE ROLE
Biological reproduction and tasks usually associated with
it. These are necessary for survival but given no economic
value is given to it
COMMUNITY ROLE
• These measures are seen as relatively long-term
objectives.
h. GENDER PLANNING - the technical and political
processes and procedures necessary to
implement gender-sensitive policy and practice.
This is to ensure gender-sensitive policy outcomes
through a systematic and inclusive process.
i. GENDER RELATIONS - hierarchical relations of
power between women and men that tend to
disadvantage women. Gender relations
constitute and are constituted by a range of
institutions, such as the family, legal systems or the
market.
j. GENDER TRAINING - a facilitated process of
developing awareness and capacity on gender
issues to bring about personal or organizational
change for gender equality.

e. GENDER EQUALITY AND EQUITY - the term k. GENDER VIOLENCE - an act or threat by men or
"gender equity" is often used interchangeably with male-dominated institutions, that inflicts physical,
"gender equality". sexual or psychological harm on a woman or girl
o GENDER EQUALITY denotes women having because of their gender.
the same opportunities in life as men,
including the ability to participate in the l. PATRIARCHY - systemic societal structures that
public sphere. institutionalize male physical, social and
o GENDER EQUITY denotes the equivalence economic power over women.
in life outcomes for women and men,
recognizing their different needs and m. WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT – a bottom up
interests, and requiring a redistribution of process of transforming gender power relations,
power and resources through individuals or group developing
awareness of women’s subordination and building
f. GENDER MAINSTREAMING - an organizational their capacity to challenge it.
strategy to bring a gender perspective to all
aspects of institutions policy and activities, n. WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS – the recognition
through building gender capacity and that women’s rights are human rights and that
accountability. women experience injustices solely because of
their gender.
g. GENDER NEEDS - shared and prioritized needs
identified by women that arise from their common
experiences as a gender. Strategic gender needs
are those needs identified by women that require
strategies for challenging male dominance and
privilege. These needs may relate to inequalities in
the gender division of labor, in ownership and
control of resources, in participation and decision-
making, or to experiences of domestic and other
sexual violence.

GENDER NEEDS

PRACTICAL GENDER NEEDS (PGN):

• Related to immediate needs of living, such as

food, drinking water, health care and medical
support.

STRATEGIC GENDER NEEDS (SGN):

• Related to gender divisions of labor, equal

wages, resources and education, and women's
control over their bodies.
• Necessary to encompass social and political
reforms for ensuring power and control, legal
rights, reduce domestic violence, .

GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES ZEDRIC ESTAPE

 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based
WEEK 4-5: THEORIES OF GENDER
DEVELOPMENT
Gender develops through a combination of biological
and social factors which emerges at age 2 or 3 and is
reinforced at puberty.
1. FREUDIAN
i. SIGMUND FREUD was one of the first to offer
an explanation for the development of
gender. He believed that life was built
around tension and pleasure. He also
believed that all tension was due to the
build-up of libido (sexual energy) and that all
pleasure came from its discharge.
ii. He stressed that the first five years of life are
crucial to the formation of adult personality.
The id must be controlled in order to satisfy
social demands; this sets up a conflict
between frustrated wishes and social norms.
iii. The ego and superego develop in order to
exercise this control and direct the need for
gratification into socially acceptable
channels. GRATIFICATION centers in different
areas of the body at different stages of
growth, making the conflict at each stage
psychosexual.
iv. Each of the psychosexual stages (oral, anal,
phallic, latency, genital) is associated with a
particular conflict that must be resolved
before the individual can successfully
advance to the next stage.
v. The resolution of each of these conflicts
requires the expenditure of sexual energy
and the more energy that is expended at a
particular stage, the more the important
characteristics of that stage remain with the
individual as he/she matures psychologically.
Gender develops through a combination of biological
and social factors which emerges at age 2 or 3 and is
reinforced at puberty. Once established, it is generally
permanent.
A major step occurs when children first becomes aware of
anatomical differences between sexes (at age 2 or 3),
usually from the observation of siblings or peers. This is
followed by an awareness of cultural differences between
males and females, and identification with the parent of
the same sex.
ORAL STAGE
• birth to 1 year.
• libido is centered around the baby's mouth
• the first psychosexual attachment of the
individual will be the mother.
• once the psychosexual attachment recognizes
the existence of the father, the child identifies
with him.
• However, as the sexual wishes of the child
intensifies, the child becomes possessive of the
mother and wishes the father out of the picture.
• this event starts the Oedipus and Electra
Complex in the next two stages.
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES
ANAL STAGE
• 1 to 3 years.
• the child is now fully aware that they are a
person in their own right and that their wishes
can bring them into conflict with the demands of
the outside world.
• this type of conflict tends to come to a head in
potty training, in which adults impose restrictions
on when and where the child can defecate.
• the nature of this first conflict with authority can
determine the child's future relationship with all
forms of authority.
PHALLIC STAGE
• 3 to 6 years.
• the child becomes aware of anatomical sex
differences, which sets in motion the conflict
between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry,
jealousy and fear which Freud called the
Oedipus complex (in boys) and the Electra
complex (in girls)
• this is resolved through the process of
identification, which involves the child adopting
the characteristics (values, attitudes, and
behaviors)of the same sex parent.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
• this complex arises because the boy develops
sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother. He
wants to possess his mother exclusively and get
rid of his father to enable him to do so.
• irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were
to find out about all this, his father would take
away what he loves the most (his penis, thru
chopping). This is called CASTRATION ANXIETY.
• the little boy then sets out to resolve this problem
by imitating, copying and joining in masculine
dad-type behaviors (thru identification), thus
resolving the Oedipus complex.
• the consequence of this is that the boy takes on
the male gender role and adopts an ego ideal
and values that become the superego.
ELECTRA COMPLEX
• the girl desires the father but realizes that she
does not have a penis. This leads to the
development of penis envy and the wish to be a
boy.
• the girl resolves this by repressing her desire for
her father and substituting the wish for a penis
with the wish for a baby.
• the girl blames her mother for her 'castrated
state,' and this creates great tension.
• the girl then represses her feelings (to remove
the tension) and identifies with the mother to
take on the female gender role.
LATENCY STAGE
• 6 to puberty
• During this stage, sexual feelings or desires stay
dormant or repressed as the ego and superego
develop
• Friendships and connections are the most valued
thing.
ZEDRIC ESTAPE
 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based
GENITAL STAGE
• Puberty to death
• Conscious sexual desire
• During this stage, the libido, or sexual energy, is
focused on the genital area.
FREUD OFTEN HAD DIFFICULTY OF INCORPORATING FEMALE
DESIRE INTO HIS THEORIES, LEADING TO HIS FAMOUS,
UNANSWERED QUESTION: "WHAT DOES A WOMAN WANT?"
• TO EXPLAIN WOMEN, Freud argued that young girls
followed more or less the same psychosexual
development as boys.
• This has often been criticized by feminists, who
argue that Freud based his theories on the
assumption that "anatomy is destiny".
• One respected feminist theory is that of NANCY
CHODOROW, for whom the central factor in
gender identity acquisition is the mother's role as
primary caregiver, which leads to a greater
sense of interrelatedness in girls, who identify with
the mother and go on to reproduce the same
patterns of mothering in their own adult lives.
2. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
i. SOCIAL LEARNING/COGNITIVE THEORY is
based on outward motivational factors that
argue that is children receive positive
reinforcement they are motivated to continue a
particular behavior. If they receive punishment or
other indicators of disapproval, they are more
motivated to stop that behavior.
ii. IN TERMS OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT,
children receive praise if they engage in
culturally appropriate gender displays and
punishment if they do not.
iii. FOR EXAMPLE, when aggressiveness in boys is met
with acceptance, or a "boys will be boys"
attitude, but a girl's aggressiveness earns them a
little attention, the two children learn different
meanings for aggressiveness as it relates to their
gender development. Thus, boys may continue
being aggressive while girls may drop it out of
their repertoire.
iv. The main way that gender behaviors are learned
is through the PROCESS OF OBSERVATIONAL
LEARNING. Children observe the people around
them behaving in various ways, some of which
relate to gender.
v. They pay attention to some of these people and
encode their behavior. At a later time they may
imitate the behavior they have observed. They
may do this regardless of whether the behavior is
"GENDER APPROPRIATE" or not but there are a
number of processes that make it more likely that
a child will reproduce the behavior that its
society deems appropriate for its sex.
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES
BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER/SAUL MCLEOD,
PUBLISHED 2014
i. SEX refers to biological differences between
males and females.
ii. FOR EXAMPLE, chromosomes (female XX,
male XY), reproductive organs (ovaries,
testes), hormones (oestrogen, testosterone).
iii. A person's sex does not change from birth,
but their gender can.
iv. In the past people tend to have very clear
ideas about what was appropriate to each
sex and anyone behaving differently was
regarded as deviant.
v. Today we accept a lot more diversity and
see gender as a continuum (i.e. scale) rather
than two categories.
vi. GENDER is determined by two biological
factors: hormones and chromosomes.
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH suggests there is no distinction
between sex and gender, thus biological sex creates
gendered behavior.
GENDER is determined by two biological factors:
hormones and chromosomes.
i. HORMONES are chemical substances
secreted by glands throughout the body and
carried in the bloodstream.
ii. The same sex hormones occur in both men
and women, but differ in amounts and in the
effect that they have upon different parts of
the body.
iii. Testosterone is a sex hormone, which is more
present in males than females, and affects
development and behavior both before and
after birth.
iv. Testosterone, when released in the womb,
causes the development of male sex organs
(at 7 weeks) and acts upon the
hypothalamus which results in the
masculinization of the brain.
v. Testosterone can cause typically male
behaviors such as aggression,
competitiveness, visuospatial abilities, higher
sexual drive etc.
vi. At the same time testosterone acts on the
developing brain.
vii. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, left
and right.
viii. In all humans the left side of the brain is more
specialized for language skills and the right
for non-verbal and spatial skills.
HORMONES
Chemical substances secreted by glands throughout the
body and carried in the bloodstream.
Occur in both men and women, but differ in amounts
and in the effect that they have upon different parts of
the body.
ZEDRIC ESTAPE
 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based
YOUNG (1966) changed the sexual behavior of both
male and female rats by manipulating the amount of
male and female hormones that the rats received during
their early development.
They displayed "reversed" sexual behavior and the effects
were unchangeable.
A number of nonreproductive behaviors in rats are also
affected by testosterone exposure around birth. These
included exploratory behavior, aggression and play.
i. This is because the physiologies (e.g. brain) of
humans and animals species are not
identical.
ii. Also, the social and cultural variables within a
human population are more complex when
compared to social interactions between
rats.
iii. HINES (1982) studied female babies born to
mothers who had been given injections of
male hormones during pregnancy to prevent
miscarriage.
iv. They were found to be more aggressive than
normal female children.
v. Hines concluded that the extra testosterone
in the womb had affected later behavior.
SRY GENE (SEX-DETERMINING REGION Y GENE)
At about 6 weeks, the SRY gene on the Y chromosome
causes the gonads (sex organs)of the embryo to develop
as testes.
• If the embryo has no Y chromosome, it will not
have the SRY gene, without the SRY gene, the
gonads will develop as ovaries.
• Sometimes the SRY gene is missing from the Y
chromosome, or doesn't activate. The foetus
grows, isborn, and lives as a littlegirl, and later as
awoman, but her chromosomes are XY.
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES
KOOPMANET AL.(1991) found that mice that were
genetically female developed into male mice if the SRY
gene was implanted.
One of the most controversial uses of this discovery was as
means for gender verification at the Olympic games,
under a system implemented by the Internation Olympic
Committee in 1992. Athletes with SRY gene were not
permitted to participate as females.
TURNER’S SYNDROME (XO)
Occurs when females develop with only one X
chromosome on chromosome 23 (1 in 5000 chance).
• The absence of the second X chromosome
results in a child with a female external
appearance but whose ovaries have failed to
develop.
• IN ADDITION TO PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES, there are
differences in cognitive skills and behavior
compared with typical chromosome patterns.
• The affected individuals have higher than
average verbal ability but lower than average
spatial ability, visual memory and mathematical
skills.
• The physical characteristics of individuals with
Turner's syndrome include lack of maturation at
puberty and webbing of the neck .
• They also have difficulty in social adjustmentat
school and generally have poor relationships with
their peers.
KLINEFELTER’S SYNDROME (XXY)
Affects 1 in every 750 males. In addition, to having a Y
chromosome, these men also have an additional X on
the 23rd chromosome, leading to the arrangement XXY.
• Physically, the effect of the additional X
chromosome causes less bodyhair and under
developed genitals.
• The syndrome becomes noticeable in childhood,
as the boy has poor language skills.
• At three years of age,the child may still not talk.
At school,their poor language skills affect their
reading ability.
• When they are babies, their temperament is
described as passive and cooperative. This
calmness and shyness remain with them
throughout their lives.
• This suggests that level of aggression have a
biological rather than environmental
component.
EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS OF
GENDER
As the EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH is a biological one, it
suggest that aspects of human behaviour have been
coded by our genes because they were or are adaptive.
A central claim of evolutionary psychology is that the
brain evolved to solve problems encountered by our
hunter-gatherer ancestors during the upper Pleistocene
period over 10,000yearsago.
The evolutionary approach argues that gender role
division appears as an adaptation to the challenges faced
by the ancestral humans in the EEA(the environment of
evolutionary adaptation).
ZEDRIC ESTAPE
 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based
CRITICAL EVALUATION
• DETERMINISTIC APPROACH which implies that men
and women have little choice or control over their
behaviours:
o women are natural 'nurturers' and
o men are naturally aggressive and
competitive.
• The in modern society equal opportunities
policies are doomed to fail as men are 'naturally'
more competitive, risk taking and likely to
progress up the career ladder.
BIOSOCIAL APPROACH TO GENDER
• THE BIOSOCIAL APPROACH (MONEY & EHRHARDT,
1972) is an interactionist approach whereby
nature and nurture both play a role in gender
development.
• JOHN MONEY'S(1972) theory was that once a
biological male or female is born, social labeling
and differential treatment of boys and girls
interact with biological factors to steer
development. This theory was an attempt to
integrate the influences of nature and nurture.
GENDER ROLE PREFERENCES DETERMINED BY A SERIES OF
CRITICAL EVENTS:
PRENATAL: exposure to hormones in the womb
(determined by chromosomes). It states that biology
caused by genetics, XY for a boy and XX for a girl will give
them physical sex.
POSTNATAL: Parents and others label and react towards
a child on the basis of his or her genitals.
• Parents and other people label and begin to
react to the child based on his or her genitals. It is
when their sex has been labelled through
external genitals, they gender development will
begin.
• The SOCIAL LABELLING of a baby as a boy or girl
leads to a different treatment which produce the
child sense of gender identity.
• Western Societies view gender as having two
categories, masculine and feminine, and see
man and women as different species.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
RUBINET AL, 1974, interviewed 30 parents and asked them
to use adjective pairs to describe their babies. Although
there were no measurable differences in size between the
babies, parents consistently described boy babies as
better coordinated, stronger and more alert than
daughters. This shows that parents label their babies
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES
i. SHAYWITZ ET AL (1995) used MRI scans to
examine brain while men and women
carried out language tasks, found out that
women used both hemispheres, and only the
left hemisphere is used by men.
ii. It appears that in males brain hemispheres
work more independently than in females,
and testosterone influences this lateralization.
iii. Empirical Evidence. The effects of
testosterone have been confirmed in animal
studies. QUADANGO ET AL. (1977) found
that female monkeys who were deliberately
exposed to testosterone during prenatal
development later engaged in more rough
and tumble play than other females.
i. YOUNG believed that the exposure had
changed the sexually dimorphic nucleus
(SDN) in the brain, as male rats had a larger
SDN than females.
ii. The results have proven to be highly
replicable.
iii. Critical Evaluation. Because this study was
conducted in a lab it has low ecological
validity.
iv. FOR EXAMPLE, in the lab hormones are
injected in one single high dose.
v. Whereas in real life, hormones tend to be
released by the body in pulses, in a
graduated fashion.
vi. Therefore, the results might not be
generalizable outside of the lab, to a more
naturalistic setting.
• The normal human body contains 23 pairs of
chromosomes.
• A CHROMOSOME is a long thin structure
containing thousands of genes, which are
biochemical units of heredity and govern the
development of every human being.
• Each pair of chromosomes controls different
aspects of development, and biological sex is
determined by the 23rd chromosome pair.
• Chromosomes physically resemble the letters X
and Y. Males = XY Females = XX.
ATYPICAL CHROMOSOMES
Individuals with a typical chromosomes develop
differently than individuals with typical chromosomes-
socially, physically and cognitively.
Studying people with a typical sex chromosomes and
comparing their development with that of people with
typical sex chromosomes able to establish which types of
behaviour are genetic(e.g.Determined by chromosomes)
ZEDRIC ESTAPE
 Gender & Development | Prelims
2nd Semester | Lecture Based

3. GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

Schema – schemata – meaning is network of connections

i. SANDRA BEM IN 1981 formally introduced the Gender

Schema Theory, explaining how individuals become
gendered in society, and how sexlinked characteristics are
maintained and transmitted to other members of a
culture.

Gender-associated information is predominantly

transmuted through society by way of schemata, or
networks of information that allow for some information to
be more easily assimilated than others.

This theory of gender development says that gender is a

product of the norms of one's culture. It suggests that
people process information, in part, based on gender-
typed knowledge. It proposes that children create
cognitive schema or gender that they derive from the
norms of their culture.

It is a theory of process, focusing on the way people

process and utilize the information their culture provides
about masculinity and femininity. Bem suggests that
people fall into one of four gender categories.

FOUR GENDER CATEGORIES

1. SEX-TYPED INDIVIDUALS - identify with the

gender that corresponds to their physical
sex. These individuals process and integrate
information according to their schema for
their gender.
2. CROSS-SEX TYPED INDIVIDUALS - process
and integrate information according to their
schema for the opposite gender.
3. ANDROGYNOUS INDIVIDUALS - process and
integrate information based on their schema
for both genders.
4. UNDIFFERENTIATED INDIVIDUALS - have
difficulty processing information based on
any gender schema.

GENDER & DEVELOPMENT TRANSES ZEDRIC ESTAPE