Gender and Compensation: Understanding the Impact of Gender and Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Rewards

Children’s understanding of rewards for task completion was examined in the context of gender, and gender-based stereotypes. Eighty-eight children (43 girls, M_overall?=?58.39 months) completed a measure assessing gender-based occupational stereotypes. This measure, along with gender, was used to predict children’s self-reward for undergoing the testing, as well as their reward for a fictional other child having undergone the same procedure. The methodology provided a novel approach for studying reward allocation in children, as it did not require children to divide resources between themselves and another child for completing the same task. An occupation-based stereotype measure was found to predict the self-reward, as well as the reward allocated to the other child. In addition, the participant’s gender predicted self-reward, and an interaction between participant gender and gender of the experimenter contributed to predicting the other child reward. Overall, these findings suggest that gender and gender-based stereotyping have an impact on reward allocation of young children. Implications of these results in the context of reward allocation research among children and adult populations are discussed.     

How Important Is the Digital Divide? The Relation of Computer and Videogame Usage to Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Ability

Researchers interested in the associations of gender with spatial experience and spatial ability have not yet focused on several activities that have become common in the modern digital age. In this study, using a new questionnaire called the Survey of Spatial Representation and Activities (SSRA), we examined spatial experiences with computers and videogames in a sample of nearly 1,300 undergraduate students. Large gender differences, which favored men, were found in computer experience. Although men and women also differed on SAT scores, gender differences in computer experience were still apparent with SAT factored out. Furthermore, men and women with high and low levels of computer experience, who were selected for more intensive study, were found to differ significantly on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Path analyses showed that computer experience substantially mediates the gender difference in spatial ability observed on the MRT. These results collectively suggest that the “Digital Divide” is an important phenomenon and that encouraging women and girls to gain spatial experiences, such as computer usage, might help to bridge the gap in spatial ability between the sexes.     

Age and Gender Differences in Morningness–Eveningness During Adolescence

Morningness–eveningness was assessed in a large sample of adolescents and young adults. Morningness decreased from 12 to 15 years, and then remained on a stable level until about 20 years, when a turn back to morningness occurred. Boys and men were on average more evening-oriented than were girls and women. In detail, significant differences existed at the ages of 16, 18, and 19 years. A quadratic function explained more variance than a linear regression. Composite Scale of Morningness scores are related to puberty scores in boys and girls, and when combining data (i.e., higher pubertal development was related to eveningness).     

Gender Differences in Elaborative Parent–Child Emotion and Play Narratives

Reminiscing about the past is an everyday activity that has implications for children’s developing memory and socioemotional skills. However, little research has systematically examined how mothers and fathers may differentially elaborate and engage their daughters and sons in reminiscing. In this study, we asked 42 broadly middle-class, highly educated U.S., mostly Caucasian mothers and fathers from the same families, living in the southeastern U.S., to reminisce about a happy, sad, peer conflict, parental conflict, playground and special outing experience with their 4-year-old child. Narratives were coded for parental styles of cognitive elaboration and joint engagement. Results indicated that mothers are both more elaborative and engaged with children than fathers are, especially about negative emotional and positive play experiences. Thus, mothers appear to be helping children recount and understand their personal past more than fathers, and specifically, in working through difficult emotions that may facilitate emotion regulation skills.     

Instrumental Borders of Gender and Religious Conversion in the Balkans∗

Abstract

In this paper I look at religious identifications and affiliations in the Balkans as instrumental political resources for ascertaining hierarchical relations among social groups and individuals, with extensive use of gendered metaphors, referring to different categories of people as either effeminate or truly manly, and actual women often used as a currency of exchange.     

Gender,Affiliation, and Control in Physician–Patient Encounters

This study investigates the effects of physician gender and communication styles on participant responses to physicians. Participants were 146 mostly low-income students (50% Caucasian, 50% African-American) who each viewed one of four videotapes of physicians varying in communication style (affiliative, controlling) and gender (male, female). The affiliative communication style evoked the greatest levels of participant satisfaction, trust, self-disclosure, and compliance. Physician gender did not significantly affect these variables. Participants' recall of medical information showed an interaction: When the physician was male, participants recalled more when he was controlling than when he was affiliative; when the physician was female, communication style did not affect participant recall. Results suggest that physician communication style is more important than gender in determining patient response.     

Children’s Gender Identity in Lesbian and Heterosexual Two-Parent Families

This study compared gender identity, anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement, and psychosocial adjustment of children in lesbian and heterosexual families; it was furthermore assessed whether associations between these aspects differed between family types. Data were obtained in the Netherlands from children in 63 lesbian families and 68 heterosexual families. All children were between 8 and 12 years old. Children in lesbian families felt less parental pressure to conform to gender stereotypes, were less likely to experience their own gender as superior and were more likely to be uncertain about future heterosexual romantic involvement. No differences were found on psychosocial adjustment. Gender typicality, gender contentedness and anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement were significant predictors of psychosocial adjustment in both family types.     

Peer Processes and Gender Role Development: Changes in Gender Atypicality Related to Negative Peer Treatment and Children??s Friendships

Peer socialization has been proposed to elicit gender norm adherence through: a) rebuke for exhibiting gender nonnormative characteristics and b) engagement in same-sex interactions. However, there is little evidence supporting these assumptions. Accordingly, the current study examined the unique and interactive contributions of negative peer treatment and same-sex and cross-sex friendships to gender conformity over one school year. Children from the upper-Midwest of the USA (196 girls; 170 boys; M _age ?=?9.34?years) participated. Data included peer-ratings of harassment, friendship nominations, and teacher-ratings of gender atypicality. Peer harassment predicted decreased gender atypicality for children with many male friends and increased gender atypicality for boys with many female friends and few male friends. Implications for theories of gender development are discussed.     

Gender differences in personality: Biological and/or psychological?

The results of three empirical studies are reported in which the hypothesis is tested that differences in personality variables between the morphophenotype sexes can be explained by psychological sex-role orientation variables. Furthermore, it was expected that normative sex-role orientations (measured with the SRO-S and the AWS-S Scales) and gender-related self-concepts (femininity, masculinity, and androgyny measured with a modified BSRI) explain more variance in personality variables than morphophenotype sex. Besides these sex-role orientation variables, test and questionnaire data on verbal fluency, spatial reasoning, self-concept, anxiety, and aggressiveness were obtained in Study I from 50 young adults and their same-sex parents; in Study II, data on verbal fluency, spatial reasoning, self-concept, anxiety, and neuroticism were obtained from 120 university students; and in Study III, data on anxiety, locus of control, and Machiavellianism were obtained from 226 university students. The results confirm both hypotheses for the two aspects of intelligence studied, domain-specific self-concepts, different aspects of anxiety and aggressiveness, neuroticism, powerful others' externality in locus of control, and Machiavellianism. For all these personality variables the effect sizes of the psychological gender variables were larger than those of morphophenotype sex and reached medium to large values.     

Gender Differences in Personality and Interests: When,Where, and Why?

How big are gender differences in personality and interests, and how stable are these differences across cultures and over time? To answer these questions, I summarize data from two meta-analyses and three cross-cultural studies on gender differences in personality and interests. Results show that gender differences in Big Five personality traits are ‘small’ to ‘moderate,’ with the largest differences occurring for agreeableness and neuroticism (respective ds = 0.40 and 0.34; women higher than men). In contrast, gender differences on the people–things dimension of interests are ‘very large’ (d = 1.18), with women more people-oriented and less thing-oriented than men. Gender differences in personality tend to be larger in gender-egalitarian societies than in gender-inegalitarian societies, a finding that contradicts social role theory but is consistent with evolutionary, attributional, and social comparison theories. In contrast, gender differences in interests appear to be consistent across cultures and over time, a finding that suggests possible biologic influences.     

Differences in Multidimensional Poverty According to Householders’ Gender and Age in South Korea

This study examines multidimensional poverty according to householders’ gender and age in South Korea. Using the counting approach, multidimensional poverty was measured on six dimensions: money, health, housing, employment, social protection, and social relations. The results indicate that the monetary dimension does not cover other deprived dimensions. In terms of poverty rate, female-headed households are more deprived on all six dimensions. The headcount ratio and adjusted headcount ratio gradually decrease as the cutoff value of multidimensional poverty increases. The decreasing tendency is more moderate for female-headed households than for male-headed households, indicating that female-headed households face more weighted poverty dimensions. Our study found that the poverty dimension demonstrates different patterns according to householders’ age. For the older group, health is the second most contributing factor, and for the younger group housing and social protection contributed more to multidimensional poverty than for the older group.

     

Engendering Culture: The Relationship of Gender Identity and Pressure for Gender Conformity with Adolescents’ Interests in the Arts and Literature

Research indicates that women are more interested in highbrow culture (i.e., the arts—art, music, and theatre—and literature) than men are. Current explanations for women’s higher involvement in highbrow cultural activities primarily focus on adults; overemphasize class-, work- and cultural capital-related explanations; and do not uncover the identity-related and interactional mechanisms behind the gendering of taste during socialization. In the present paper we use gender identity theory and a “doing gender” perspective to understand cultural taste differences between male and female adolescents. Using multilevel analyses on a random sample of 5227 Flemish 7th graders (M _age = 12.18) who completed a survey in their classrooms, we find that higher gender typicality (i.e., identification as a typical male or female) and higher pressure to conform to gender stereotypes are associated with slightly higher interests in arts-, theatre-, and literature-related activities for young women, but with much lower highbrow interests for young men. This difference indicates that identity-related processes and interactional conformity pressures are important mechanisms reinforcing the gendering of cultural tastes. Implications for research on gender, class, and cultural capital, as well as potential ways to make schools safe environments for the expression of gender non-stereotypical cultural tastes, are discussed.     

Gender and limb differences in healthy elite dancers: passé kinematics

Symmetry of skill development is emphasized in dance training, and many movements are well learned by both genders. The authors conducted a 2-dimensional kinematic analysis of a complex dance movement, the passé, in 12 healthy professional male and female dancers to determine whether there are differences between genders or limbs during the performance of that task. Only peak hip angular displacement differed in men and women. No differences were found between limbs in any of the dependent variables. Dancers displayed consistent temporal and spatial proximal-to-distal sequencing of movement coordination. Despite an indication of limb preference, as defined by gesture or stance limb, there were no differences in proficiency.     

Gender Differences in Single Parents’ Living Arrangements and Child Care Time

Although seemingly identical in their circumstances, research has found single fathers to engage less in child care than single mothers. Guided by both a structuralist and a “doing gender” perspective, we examine gender differences in single parents’ child care time and whether the presence and gender of coresident adult kin moderate this association. Our sample drawn from the 2003–2013 American Time Use Survey (N?=?10,985) consists of non-cohabiting single parents aged 18 to 64 who live with at least one own child under age 18. We first found that single fathers spent slightly less time in all types of child care except play than single mothers. Either coresident adult female kin or adult male kin, or both predicted single parents’ spending less time in child care activities, particularly management. Living only with adult male kin also predicted single parents’ lower time spent in teaching. Lastly, gender differences in single parents’ child care time were larger in any child care, play, and teaching when living with both adult female kin and male kin than when living without any kin. The presence of both female kin and male kin may relieve the parent of tasks gender-appropriate to the related household members. Additional research about the contexts of gender differences in single parents’ child care enriches our understanding of parenting by men and women.     

A Review of “Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents”

Abstract

The New Hypnosis in Family Therapy, by Daniel L. Araoz&;Esther Negley-Parker. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1988, 304 pages, $30.00

The Family Interpreted, by Deborah Anne Leupnitz. New York: Basic Books, 352 pages, $22.95.

Family Evaluation, by Michael Kerr&;Murray Bowen. New York: W. W. Norton, 416 pages, $29.95

Family Therapy Techniques for Problem Behaviors of Children and Teenagers, by Charles E. Schaefer, James M. Briesmeister&;Maureen E. Fitton. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 482 pages, $28.95

Family of Origin Therapy, edited by Alan J. Hovestadt&;Marshal Fine. Rockville, MD: Aspen Publications, 1987, 106 pages, $29.67

Siblings in Therapy: Life Span and Clinical Issues, edited by Michael D. Kahn&;Karen Gail Lewis. New York: W. W Norton, 1988, 469 pages, $34.95

A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development, by John Bowlby. New York: Basic Books, 1988, 205 pages, $16.95

Developing Ericksonian Therapy: State of the Art, edited by Jeffrey K. Zeig&;Stephen R. Lankton. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1988, 523 pages, $50.00

Journey with Grandpa: Our Family's Struggle with Alzheimer's Disease, by Rosalie Walsh Honel. Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 243 pages, $16.95

The Divorce Decision: What It Can Mean for Your Children, Your Finances, Your Emotions, Your Relationships, Your Future, by Gary Richmond. Waco, TX: Word Book Publishers, 1988, 215 pages, $8.99     

Gender differences in global-local perception? Evidence from orientation and shape judgments

Direct examinations of gender differences in global-local processing are sparse, and the results are inconsistent. We examined this issue with a visuospatial judgment task and with a shape judgment task. Women and men were presented with hierarchical stimuli that varied in closure (open or closed shape) or in line orientation (oblique or horizontal/vertical) at the global or local level. The task was to classify the stimuli on the basis of the variation at the global level (global classification) or at the local level (local classification). Women’s classification by closure (global or local) was more accurate than men’s for stimuli that varied in closure on both levels, suggesting a female advantage in discriminating shape properties. No gender differences were observed in global-local processing bias. Women and men exhibited a global advantage, and they did not differ in their speed of global or local classification, with only one exception. Women were slower than men in local classification by orientation when the to-be-classified lines were embedded in a global line with a different orientation. This finding suggests that women are more distracted than men by misleading global oriented context when performing local orientation judgments, perhaps because women and men differ in their ability to use cognitive schemes to compensate for the distracting effects of the global context. Our findings further suggest that whether or not gender differences arise depends not only on the nature of the visual task but also on the visual context.     

Perceived Parental Control and Parent–Child Relational Qualities in Early Adolescents In Hong Kong: Parent Gender, Child Gender and Grade Differences

This study examined parent gender, child gender and grade differences in perceived parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities in early adolescents in Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China. Utilizing a longitudinal research design, 2,559 Chinese secondary school students responded to instruments assessing perceived parental behavioral control, parental psychological control, and parent–child relational qualities over three consecutive years. Results showed that there were parent gender and child gender differences in parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities, but interaction effects of parent gender and child gender were also found. These findings strongly challenge the traditional Chinese cultural belief of “strict fathers, kind mothers”. Results also consistently showed that the levels of perceived parental behavioral control and parent–child relational qualities gradually declined from grades 7 to 9 in early adolescent years in the Chinese culture.     

Caught Between East and West? Portrayals of Gender in Bulgarian Television Advertisements

This study conducted a content analysis of Bulgarian television advertisements in 2004 to examine the prevailing portrayals of gender in the media environment of the postcommunist, consumer-based Bulgarian society. The study addressed the research questions of how gender was depicted in Bulgarian advertising and what possible social implications these gender portrayals can be for explaining gender relations in postcommunist societies. In examining a sample of 127 ads, the study found that content was highly stereotyped, portraying women in depending roles and in sexually suggestive appearance, similar to results from other European studies. Observations are made about the differences between the current study and previous sex roles studies, recognizing the specific cultural environment in Bulgaria.     

Predictors of Change in Feminist Activism Through Women’s and Gender Studies

Predictors of change in feminist activism were studied in a group of 519 women and 143 men enrolled in 48 women’s and gender studies (WGS) classes on six college campuses in a large Midwestern urban area. Over the semester-long classes, students increased their feminist activist behaviors and intention to engage in future activism. Although women had greater activist behaviors and intentions than men, increases were similar for women and men across time. African American and Euro American students increased to a similar extent and more so than Asian American students. Predictors of change included student initial gender attitudes, changes in attitudes over time, and feelings of empowerment gained from the class. Feelings of distress and anger were unrelated to activism. Both awareness of sexism and gender egalitarianism were predictive of changes in activist intentions, whereas only awareness of sexism predicted changes in activist behaviors. Empowerment mediated the relation between attitudes and activism. Pedagogical and methodological implications are discussed.     

Gender Voices in Hong Kong English Textbooks—Some Past and Current Practices

This paper seeks to investigate whether recent improvements in the status of women in Hong Kong are reflected in patterns of gender representation in Hong Kong secondary English textbooks. A comparison of ten recently published books which are currently in use with ten published in the late 1980s/early 1990s and no longer in use revealed that women appeared more frequently in the former, and that greater use was made of gender-inclusive pronouns and the neutral address title Ms. Nevertheless some writers, it was found, continue to perpetuate the stereotyped image of women as weaker than men, and as operating primarily within domestic rather than social domains. The “male-first” phenomenon and the visual under-representation of women are still prevalent in recent textbooks.