Gender & Behavior

MISBAH KHAN
Nursing Lecturer
DION&M, DUHS

BSN, Year III semester VI

 Objective
At the end of this session students will be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding about stereotypes attached to

gender differences.

• Discuss impacts of adhering to traditional gender roles on

behavior.

• Discuss changing gender roles.

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 Introduction

• we’ll explore the concept of gender, how it is different

from sex and how it influences our behavior towards
others.

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Gender
The world health organization(WHO) defines gender as:
• “Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of
women and men, such as norms ,roles and relationships of and
between groups of women and men. It varies from society to
society and can be changed.”

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 Behavior
• “Behavior can be defined as the actions or reactions of a person in
response to external and internal situation”

• To understand the behavior of a person we have to understand what

that person will do if something happens.

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Gender

Sex usually refers to the biological aspects of maleness or

femaleness

Gender implies the psychological, behavioral, social, and

cultural aspects of being male or female (i.e., masculinity or
femininity.)

Gender identity is about how someone expresses his or her

gender.

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 Gender Roles

• Gender roles are the behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that are
designated as either masculine or feminine in a given culture

• Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress,
groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex.

• For example,

• Girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine

ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing.

• Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

• Traits like sensitivity and nurturance are attributed to females and

aggressiveness and dominance are attributed to males (Eagly, 1987;
Friedman & Zebrowitz, 1992).

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• Females are more socially oriented than males.
• Males outperform females on most spatial tasks.
• Females are more irrational than males.
• Males are less sensitive to nonverbal cues than females.
• Females are more emotional than males.

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Gender Typing

• Gender typing is the process that a child goes through to

become aware of his or her gender

• The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

• Example: Kids associate the color pink with girls and the
color blue with boys because when they are younger most
“girl toys” are pink and most “boy toys” are blue.

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 Stereotype

• A stereotype is a widely accepted judgment or bias about a

person or group — even though it’s overly simplified and not
always accurate.

• Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair

treatment because of a person’s gender. This is called

sexism.

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Gender Stereotypes

• Gender stereotype is beliefs about the personal attributes of

females and males.

• Stereotypes are ideas about how people will act, based on the
group to which they belong.

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 Gender Stereotypes
• There are four basic kinds of gender stereotypes:
• Personality Traits — For example, women are often expected to be
accommodating and emotional, while men are usually expected to be
self-confident and aggressive.
• Domestic Behaviors — For example, some people expect that
women will take care of the children, cook, and clean the home,
while men take care of finances, work on the car, and do the home
repairs.
• Occupations — Some people are quick to assume that teachers and
nurses are women, and that pilots, doctors, and engineers are men.
• Physical Appearance — For example, women are expected to be
thin and graceful, while men are expected to be tall and muscular.
Men and women are also expected to dress and groom in ways that
are stereotypical to their gender (men wearing pants and short
hairstyles, women wearing dresses and make-up.
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Extreme gender stereotypes are harmful because
they don’t allow people to fully express themselves
and their emotions.

Example:

• It’s harmful to masculine people to feel that they’re not allowed to cry or
express sensitive emotions.

• It’s harmful to feminine people to feel that they’re not allowed to be

independent or assertive.

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Traditional Gender Roles

Traditional gender roles in relationships exist to divide the work that

needs to be done to support families and society at large.

• The idea is that we leverage our natural skills.

• For example, people view women as more gentle and caring. So, they
become the obvious choice to take on the role of caregiver at home.

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Traditional Gender Roles

• Masculinity: Traits traditionally associated with men

• Aggressiveness, independence, dominance, and competence

• Predisposition for math and science

• Femininity: Traits traditionally associated with women

• Passivity, dependency, sensitivity, and emotionality

• Predisposition for art and literature

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Evolutionary Explanations

• Males supposedly are more sexually active and permissive because they
invest less than females in the process of procreation and can maximize
their reproductive success by seeking many sexual partners

• The gender gap in aggression is also explained in terms of reproductive

fitness

• Evolutionary theorists assert that gender differences in spatial ability

reflect the division of labor in ancestral hunting-and-gathering societies in
which males typically handled the hunting and females the gathering

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Environmental Origins
of Gender Differences

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 Operant Conditioning

• Gender roles are shaped by the power of reward and

punishment—the key processes in operant conditioning

• Parents, teachers, peers, and others often reinforce (usually

with tacit approval) “gender-appropriate” behavior and
respond negatively to “gender-inappropriate” behavior

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 Observational Learning

• Children imitate both males and females, but most children tend to
imitate same-sex role models more than opposite-sex role models

• For Example: Imitation often leads young girls to play with dolls,
dollhouses, and toy stoves, while young boys are more likely to
play with toy trucks, small gas stations, or tool kits

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Self-Socialization

• Self socialization entails three steps:

1. First, children learn to classify themselves as male or female and

to recognize their sex as a permanent quality

2. 2. This self-categorization motivates them to value those

characteristics and behaviors associated with their sex.

3. They strive to bring their behavior in line with what is considered

gender-appropriate in their culture.

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 Sources of Gender-Role
Socialization
• Families
• Schools
• Media

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 Changing Gender Roles

• The new family trends and patterns have been paralleled by changes
in gender roles, especially an expansion of the female role to include
economic provision for a family, and lately also transformation of the
male role with more intense involvement in family responsibilities,
especially care for children

• Gender relations and related values and attitudes have become more
fluid, changing dynamically over the life course in the context of
blurring boundaries of family and work life.

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• The term “transgender” refers to a person whose sex assigned at birth
(i.e. the sex assigned by a physician at birth, usually based on external
genitalia) does not match their gender identity (i.e., one’s a psychological
sense of their gender)
• some people who are transgender will experience “gender
dysphoria,” which refers to psychological distress that results from an
incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender
identity
• People who are transgender may pursue multiple domains of gender
affirmation, including social affirmation (e.g., changing one’s name and
pronouns), legal affirmation (e.g., changing gender markers on one’s
government-issued documents), medical affirmation (e.g., pubertal
suppression or gender-affirming hormones), and/or surgical affirmation
(e.g., vaginoplasty, facial feminization surgery, breast augmentation,
masculine chest reconstruction, etc.). Of note, not all people who are
transgender will desire all domains of gender affirmation, as these are
highly personal and individual decisions. 24
• In the excitement phase , which can last from just a few minutes to more than an
hour, an arousing stimulus begins a sequence that prepares the genitals for sexual
intercourse. In the male, the penis becomes erect when blood flows into it. In the
female, the clitoris swells because of an increase in the blood supply to that area,
and the vagina becomes lubricated. Women may also experience a “sex flush,” a
red rash that typically spreads over the chest and throat.
• Next comes the plateau phase, the body’s preparation for orgasm. During this
stage, the maximum level of sexual arousal is attained as the penis and clitoris
swell with blood. Women’s breasts and vaginas expand, heartbeat and blood
pressure rise, and breathing rate increases. Muscle tension becomes greater as
the body prepares itself for the next stage, orgasm.
• Orgasm beyond saying that it is an intense, highly pleasurable experience, the
biological events that accompany the feeling are fairly straightforward. When the
orgasm stage is reached, rhythmic muscular contractions occur in the genitals
every eighttenths of a second. In the male, the contractions expel semen, a fluid
containing sperm, from the penis—a process known as ejaculation . For women
and men, breathing and heart rates reach their maximum.

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• After orgasm, people move into the last stage of sexual arousal, the
resolution stage. The body returns to its resting state, reversing the
changes brought about by arousal. The genitals resume their unaroused
size and shape; blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate return to
normal.
• Male and female responses differ significantly during the resolution
stage; these differences are depicted in Figure 2. Women are able to cycle
back to the orgasm phase and experience repeated orgasms. Ultimately,
of course, females enter the final resolution stage, and then they return
to their pre-stimulation state.
• In contrast, it generally is thought that men enter a refractory period
during the resolution stage. During the refractory period, men are unable
to develop an erection and therefore are unable to have another orgasm
and ejaculate. The refractory period may last from a few minutes to
several hours; in the elderly, it may continue for several days.

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• Premature Ejaculation, a male is unable to delay orgasm as long as
he wishes. Because “as long as he wishes” is dependent on a man’s—
and his partner’s— attitudes and opinions about how long is
appropriate, this is a difficult disorder to diagnose. Sometimes the
problem can be resolved simply by having a male redefine how long
he wants to delay ejaculation. Premature ejaculation is most often a
psychological problem since there are rarely physical reasons for it.
• Inhibited ejaculation is the opposite problem. In this case, the male
is unable to ejaculate when he wants to, if at all. Sometimes learning
general relaxation techniques is sufficient to allow men to overcome
the difficulty.

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• women experience anorgasmia, or a lack of orgasm. In primary
orgasmic dysfunction, a woman has never experienced orgasm. In
secondary orgasmic dysfunction, a woman has had an orgasm at
some point but no longer does or does so only under certain
conditions—such as during masturbation—but not during sexual
intercourse.
• Inhibited sexual desire occurs when the motivation for sexual activity
is restrained or lacking entirely. When people with inhibited sexual
desire find themselves in circumstances that typically would evoke
sexual feelings, they begin to turn off. Ultimately they may begin to
avoid situations of a sexual nature, thereby forgoing intimacy with
others.

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