Sex, Gender & Androgyny

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Sex and Gender

Sex is what you are biologically - male or female. Gender is based on behavioural characteristics - masculine or feminine - and the way one identifies themselves.

Sex and gender

Sex is what a person is biologically when they are born - whether they are male or female.
Gender is how a person acts, identifies themselves and what characteristics they take on. These can be masculine or feminine traits.

Sex roles

Sex roles are a society’s or culture’s concept of how a male and how a female should act - in other words, what is expected.
These roles can change over time.
Sex roles can sometimes become rigid, over-generalised, and narrow. They can become stereotypes of how a man or woman should act.

Sex roles cont.

For example, a female might be expected to be a caretaker of her children, while the male is expected to go out and work.
This may not hold true for all cultures and has drastically changed over the last century.

Androgyny

A person who exhibits both masculine and feminine traits in a balanced manner is said to be androgynous.

Seavey et al. (1975)

Seavey et al. (1975) carried out a study examining how people interacted with three-month-old infants based on the child’s sex.
Participants were told no information other than the fact if the infant was a boy or a girl.

Seavey et al. (1975) results

The results demonstrated that people interacted with the infant differently depending on the sex they were told.
For example, gendered toys were given to the infant.
- Trucks and tools were more likely to be given if they were told the infant was a boy.
- A doll was chosen by the adult if they were told the infant was a girl.

A person who exhibits a balanced combination of male and female characteristics is said to be androgynous. Bem (1975) developed a Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) that rated personality traits as being masculine or feminine.

Development of the questionnaire

Bem (1975) created a self-reported questionnaire and asked 50 males and 50 females to rate personality traits (like aggression, passivity, shyness, kindness) as being masculine or feminine.
From this list of traits, a questionnaire was developed that contained the most highly rated masculine, feminine and neutral words.

Scoring traits

These were used to be able to measure how stereotypically feminine or masculine an individual was. Each trait was to be rated on a scale of 1 to 7.
Participants who scored highly for both feminine and masculine traits were said to be physically androgynous.

Androgyny

Androgyny can be advantageous to individuals as they would have a wider set of skills to employ in everyday life. If they only have a high masculine score or a high feminine score, they are able to use fewer skills.

Criticisms of Bem

Critics of Bem’s work cite the fact that it is reductionist - meaning masculine and feminine traits are reduced down to single scores.
It is difficult to fully encapsulate femininity and masculinity in numbers.

Criticisms of Bem cont.

Another criticism would be that, when looking at the study through the lens of today’s norms of gender, it would be outdated.
The traits that were rated were what was desirable in the 1970s. It is difficult to generalise the data to today’s population.

Androgyny - Weisner and Wilson-Mitchell (1990)

A person who exhibits a balanced combination of male and female characteristics is said to be androgynous.

Causes of androgyny

The causes of androgyny have been examined by Weisner and Wilson-Mitchell (1990).
They concluded that androgyny was caused by environmental factors.

Method

They did this by comparing children raised in families that downplayed traditional gender roles to those who put emphasis on traditional gender roles.

Results

Androgyny was higher in the children of families where gender roles were downplayed.
In other words, children were likely to develop masculine and feminine traits in families where it was deemed acceptable to do so.