Lecture 3: Becoming Male or Female (2012)

1. Eric C. Thompson
Semester 2, 2011/2012

2. Enculturation & Socialization
• Enculturation: The process of learning a culture
(system of beliefs and associated practices).
• Socialization: Learning group norms and values from
others.
• Often used interchangably.
– Enculturation emphasizes the influence of a general
cultural system of beliefs.
– Socialization emphasizes the sources of information
(parents, peers, media, etc.).

3. Gender Socialization: 3 Models
Model 1: Model 2:
Direct Teaching/ Indirect Teaching/
Rewards & Punishment Identification & Modeling Behavior
Children identify with
Adults set the agenda, provide
adults/parents of same sex
rewards or punishment
and imitate their behavior

4. Gender Socialization
Model 3 (Maccoby):
Peer-to-Peer Socialization
Children learn gender
roles & behavior from
each other

5. Gender Socialization
Up to age 2
Equal Same-Sex, Cross-Sex Interaction
18 Interactions
9 Same Sex
9 Cross Sex

6. Gender Socialization
Age 3 to 6
Same-Sex 66%, Cross-Sex 33%
18 Interactions
12 Same Sex
6 Cross Sex

7. Gender Socialization
Age 6 to 10
Same-Sex 75%, Cross-Sex 25%*
18 Interactions
14 Same Sex
4 Cross Sex
*These are all rough estimates, based
on the research cited in Maccoby,
pp.15-29

8. From the perspective of an individual (child),
we see how children’s worlds become
segregated as they grow up.
Increasingly, they are learning, playing,
growing in “male” and “female” cultures.

9. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated
Age
Two
Boy’s World
Girl’s World

10. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated
Age
Four
Boy’s World
Girl’s World

11. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated
Age
Six
Boy’s World
Girl’s World

12. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated
Age
Eight
Boy’s World
Girl’s World

13. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated
Age
Ten
Boy’s World
Girl’s World

14. Children Reinforce Segregation, Stereotypes and glad
I’m so
Let’s go play Barbie™
Styles of Play between each other
football finally
dumped
Ken™!
Look at my new
Power Poor
Rangers™ toy! Ken
Only sissy’s Let’s go play
play with dolls. football
Ewwww
Boys … boys
Don’t sit That dress
Boy’s World are so are
with the is so cute,
Girl’s World
mean! yucky!
girls! can I
borrow it?
“Distinctions between males and females are of the group contextual
kind.” Maccoby, p.12
In other words, children grow up in different gendered cultures.

15. Becoming Male or Female*
 Children are active agents
 Social positioning
 Striving to “get gender right”
 Discursive positioning – asserting feminine/masculine
identities (e.g. through clothing)
 Social conditioning
 Social sanctioning; approval or disapproval
 Fixing categories
*Based on Browwyn Davies, 2002 (1989)

16. Socialization Involves Multiple,
Complex Influences (Four Sources)
TV
DIRECT TEACHING GENERAL
CULTURAL
INFLUENCES
MODELING BEHAVIOR
PEER SOCIALIZATION

17. Socialization of Difference (Points to Remember)
 Gender/Sex segregation is almost never absolute (for
example, in the studies cited by Maccoby, a significant
minority of interactions are still cross-gender).
 Within a culture or society, a range of socialization and
identities are always available to different individuals.
 In the peer-to-peer socialization model (and all three
models), messages, attitudes, status relations, etc. from
the culture/society in general play an extremely
important role. They provide the content of
socialization.

18. Falling Back on Biology
 Davies mentions how parents and others revert to
biology (“it must be genetics”), when girls act like girls
and boys act like boys
 Hormones may have some role in sex segregation and
in preference for play-styles.
 But, socialization is far more influential and complex.
 Explaining through biology (“it must be genetics”) is a
cultural simplification – “fixing” categories and
behavior by reference to simple binaries.

19. A Final Thought:
“Partitioning genes from
environment, nature from
nurture, is a scientific dead
end, a bad way of thinking
about human development”
(Fausto-Sterling pg.235).
Bye-bye . . .
See you next
week