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 GENDER ROLES AND
STEREOTYPES
• GENDER – one of the most basic status
characteristics
• GENDER ROLE – norms or expectations
that define how one SHOULD BEHAVE
• STEREOTYPE – GENERALIZATION that
distinguishes people (men from women)
• Heterosexuality is an important part of
gender roles
 Gender roles and
ethnicity
• Gender stereotypes vary among
ethnic groups
• Gender roles are a product of culture
 Gender roles and
ethnicity
1. AFRICAN AMERICANS 2. LATINOS
• women – economic • ACCULTURATION –
function and a strong bond incorporating the beliefs and
between mother and child customs of a new culture
• Mexican heritage and anglo
• Men – pain
components
• Men hold more positive • Family is the central focus
attitudes about women • Boys – greater freedom;
working and more encouraged in sexual exploits,
conservative regarding not expected in household
gender role issues works
• Girls – passive, obedient,
virginal, stays at home
• Machismo and marianismo
 Gender roles and
ethnicity
3. ASIAN AMERICANS
• Emphasis on achievement
and importance of
educations
• More value on family and
group interdependence
• Women have a higher level
or education
• Family – emotional
nurturance
• Men lack in sexuality
• Women as exotic sex toy
4. AMERICAN INDIANS
• Egalitarian gender roles
• two-spirit  homosexuals,
transsexuals, transvestites;
inaccurate terming
• “manly hearted woman” –
independent and
aggressive
• “warrior woman”
 Gender Schema Theory
• Set of ideas regarding behavior,
personality, appearance, etc that we
associate with males and females
• dichotomize information
• Distort information
 Socialization
• Ways in which society conveys the
expectations for the behavior of an
individual
• Occurs especially in childhood
• Parents, teachers, mentors, peer
group, media contribute to their
socialization
 MALE-FEMALE
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DIFFERENCES
• Aggressiveness
• Style of Communicating
• Studies of SELF-DISCLOSURE
• Females – emotional expressiveness;
males – emotional repressiveness
and avoidance of self-disclosure
 MALE-FEMALE DIFERENCE
IN SEXUALITY
1. Masturbation 2. Attitudes about
• Virtually all men said Casual sex
that they masturbate • “one night stand” – no
before age 20 (most emotions involved
between 13 and 15) • men – more
• Women – 25, 30, 35, approving; women –
etc disapproving
• conflict in
relationships between
men and women
 MALE-FEMALE DIFERENCE
IN SEXUALITY
3. Arousal to Erotica
• most erotic material are for
men; assumption that
women are not interested
• Stereotype that men are
turned on by “raw sex”,
women by romance
• penile strain gauge (penis
meter) and
Photoplethysmograph
(photo meter)
– 1. explicit heterosexual
sex is the most
arousing for both men
and women
– 2. both men and
women found the
female-initiated,
female-centered tape to
be most arousing
– 3. women were
sometimes not aware of
their own physiological
arousal
• Therefore, men and
women are similar in
responses to erotic
materials but women can
sometimes be unaware of
their physical arousal
 MALE-FEMALE DIFERENCE
IN SEXUALITY
4. Orgasm Consistency 5. Sex Drive
• Men are more • Men (on average)
consistent at having have a stronger sex
orgasms during sex drive than women
• Men think about sex
more often and have
more fantasies than
women do
• Men desire more
sexual partners and
greater number of
intercourse
WHY THE DIFFERENCES?
• Bogus; could be that people report
what is expected of them, shaped by
gender norms
• Bogus pipeline method
• exaggerated
 Biological Factors
ANATOMY
• Male – external and visible;
has a very obvious
response, which is erection
• Female – hidden; does not
have an obvious arousal
response like the male’s
erection – less aware of
arousal
• Therefore, women will less
likely masturbate and less
likely to develop her full
sexual potential
HORMONES
• Testosterone – related to
sex behavior
• Females generally have
lower levels of
testosterone than males
• Therefore, lower level of
sexual behavior such as
masturbation, or a lower
sex drive
 Cultural Factors
• Tighter restrictions on women’s
sexuality than it has on men’s
• Double standard
• Gender Roles
• Marital and family roles
 Other Factors
• Women get pregnant and men do not
• Ineffective techniques of stimulating
the woman
• “erotic dependency” on men
 BEYOND THE YOUNG
ADULTS
• Person centered sex and body
centered sex
• By the time men reach 30, they still look
for sex, but not as much as before;
satisfied with fewer orgasms
• 50, more on emotional component
• Women, sexual awakening much later;
masturbating at around ages 30 – 35;
quicker response and more intense
 TRANSSEXUALISM
• Person who believes that he/she was born with
the body of the other gender
• Gender dysphoria – unhappiness with one’s
gender
• TRANSGENDER – broader term, including
transsexuals as well as those whose gender
identity does not match their physical gender but
does not want surgery; hormones, or even want
to leave their body unaltered
• Male-to-female transsexual (MTF) and Female-to-
male transsexual (FTM)
• Gynephilic – sexually attracted to women
• Androphilic – sexually attracted to men
• In an extreme conflict situation
 The Gender-Reassignment
Process
• Sex change/gender transition/crossing
• 1st: very careful counseling and
psychological evaluation
• 2nd: hormone therapy; MTF estrogen for
life; FTM androgens
• 3rd: real life experience: live as a member
of the new gender for 1 – 2 yrs
• 4th: surgery
• Important experience for transsexuals is
passing
 What Causes
Transsexualism?
BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL
• Critical issue during • Parents treat them as if
prenatal development they were of the opposite
• Atypical development of sex
some brain structure • Male – dress them up as
• If male, the fetus must girls, tell them how cute
both be defeminized and they look
masculinized • Female – giving a gender-
ambiguous name, rough
play, mother is distant,
father is pleasant and
warm
• Gender identity disorder
(GID) – found in children as
young as 2 – 3 years old;
persistent cross-gender
indentification
 Other Issues
• What should be the criteria for
determining a person’s gender?
• Women are not allowed to be part of
clergy
• Amended birth certificate; change of
everything, name, sex, etc. very
complicated
 Criticisms of gender-
reassignment surgery
• No difference in adjustment between
those that have undergone surgery
and those who have not. So no need
for transsexual surgery
• Reduction in depression after sex-
reassignment