The influence of gender and ethnicity on children's peer collaborations

Gender and ethnicity are important aspects of children's everyday social relationships, yet little is known about how these social categories influence children's collaborative interactions. In the present study, 322 White (Caucasian) and South Asian boys and girls (mean age, 7.5 years) collaborated in pairs on easy and difficult versions of a model completion task. As expected, girls were less assertive than boys in conversation, yet this relation held only for all‐Asian pairs (i.e., an Asian boy and girl in conversation). Also consistent with expectations, levels of conversational affiliation were lowest in cross‐ethnic interaction. The influence of gender and ethnicity on conversations did not vary in light of contrasting cognitive demands of the tasks. Results are discussed in relation to work on effective peer collaboration and the potential role of contact in promoting positive ethnic and gender group attitudes.     

Equal performance but distinct behaviors: sex differences in a novel object recognition task and spatial maze in a highly social cichlid fish

Animal Cognition - Sex differences in behavior and cognition can be driven by differential selection pressures from the environment and in the underlying neuromolecular mechanisms of...     

Sexual specificity,rape law reform and the feminist quest for justice

Abstract

Recent rape law reform is most saliently characterised by a turn to gender neutrality in its definition of the crime of rape. The few possible advantages of a gender neutral approach to rape are offset by a series of disadvantages regarding gender justice when viewed from a feminist perspective. Formal gender neutrality does not safeguard against the effective influence of pervasive and enduring symbolic constructions pertaining to male and female sexuality and of a normalised hierarchical binary constructed between the two sexes, in particular where sexual relations are concerned. Such efficacy may impede justice for both male and female victims of rape. The question about the place of sexual difference or rather sexual specificity within feminist theories of justice should be considered anew in light of this critical analysis of gender neutrality in rape law.