The social explanation for gender differences: nurture

In psychology we think about human behavior and psyche. What makes us act masculine or feminine? Is this determined by biological factors within our body or is it caused by social factors? In this article we approach gender differences from a sociological angle. Sociology explains individual behavior of people based on group characteristics. Male or female behavior would therefore arise from the social influence that people exert on each other.

Socialization

People form their identity from birth in processes of socialization. This is a process in which people are made members of society as well as members of their specific environment in region, neighborhood, occupation, social class and gender.

In this process, a child learns the language, behavior and social skills that are common in society and the environment in question and adapts to the behavioral expectations therein by learning and adopting norms and beliefs .

Cognitive factors

Gender identity is learned at a very young age. Both social (environmental) and cognitive factors play a role in this. The social learning theory emphasizes the learning and socialization process that children undergo:

Because they are always told that they are a boy or a girl, and because they are rewarded or punished for behaving in accordance with or deviating from applicable norms for boys and girls’ behavior, children adapt to this .

 

Teaching gender-specific behavior by parents and teachers

Parents, especially fathers, appear to encourage gender-specific play behavior. Moreover, boys are treated more roughly, parents talk and laugh more at their daughters and boys are more likely to be reprimanded when they act pitiful.
Moreover, many parents consciously or unconsciously still have different expectations of their sons than of their daughters, for example in the field of science subjects.

Teachers, friends and acquaintances also play their role in the socialization process. For example, boys in particular encourage their friends to behave in a masculine manner. They do not allow deviant behavior and play is played in strictly separate boys’ and girls’ groups. Young people in adolescence also adequately teach each other how to behave in accordance with norms through bullying and exclusion.

Cognitive processes

Are individuals then just followers who almost unwillingly follow the example of others? It turns out that cognitive processes also play a role. Lawrence Kohlberg (1966): points out that children become aware of their gender at an early age (from about three years old) and from that moment on prefer appropriate behavior: Boys in general seem to behave this way, so then Apparently I behave that way too. This is a self-socialization process:

A child learns to label himself or herself as a boy or girl and then adapts his or her own behavior to this label. The child tries to understand the concept of gender and to behave according to the stereotypical image of his or her gender. The child will derive this image from his or her environment, but also from, for example, the media.

 

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The conscious and unconscious tendency to adapt to stereotypes can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.
Stereotype threat: when women perform worse in an environment with many men due to insecurity. Women who are confident, direct and assertive are held back by their environment because this is not expected of them as women. While these are actually necessary factors to succeed in a competitive business or academic world. In these ways, conscious and unconscious socialization maintain patriarchal relations.

Ideology as a tool of influence

Another stabilizing factor is ideology:

A set of fundamental, politically and socially relevant ideas and ideals, or in a narrower sense as ideas that justify or obscure existing relationships, whether intentionally or not, in favor of certain interests. Examples: aspects of the Christian religion and sociobiological patriarchal ideologies.

These ideologies are largely conveyed in socialization processes. They can only really play a significant role if they are generally accepted. The last stabilizing factor that should be mentioned is the power of certain groups. Example: the ruling political party that strives for a traditional society with women in the role of housewife and mother. Another example: a man who is not interested in a fundamental change in the traditional division of labor between the sexes may try to stop it by not participating. In an indirect sense, this is also an exercise of power.

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