He specializes in adolescent substance use disorders and gender and sexual development, and also practices in related specialty clinics at Hasbro Children's Hospital and Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital.
Rafferty is an advocate in his local community and on a national level through work with the American Academy of Pediatrics on issues including the emotional health of young men, access to care for LGBTQ youth, and prevention of childhood homelessness.
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Gender Identity Development in Children. Page Content. What's the difference between gender and sex? How does gender identity develop in children? However, these studies did not account for extrinsic risks. Moreover, the assumption that competition is inversely related to extrinsic risks does not hold for humans at the population level: many unstable, war-torn countries e.
Given that higher reproductive rates induced by extrinsic risks might more than compensate for the population losses caused by extrinsic risks, harsh and unpredictable environments can also have high population density. Resource scarcity or uneven resource distribution in such environments, in turn, might intensify societal competition.
Meanwhile, in stable and safe societies with a low disparity in wealth, high population density does not necessarily lead to high societal competition. Thus, a life history model of gender relations should take into account interactions between extrinsic risks and societal competition.
Societal competition, when coupled with extrinsic risks, might not produce egalitarian gender relations for several reasons. First, offspring competitiveness gained from increased parental investment has diminished returns in the face of extrinsic threats Quinlan, When facing frequent famines, disease outbreaks, or warfare, both sexes are likely to prioritize survival and present-oriented reproductive goals over future development, thus reinforcing traditional gender roles.
Secondly, such a combination of environmental forces would ratchet up male-male competition for present-oriented reproductive goals.
Male-male competition often involves physical contests and even violence in the human evolutionary history Archer, ; Puts, Reproductive competition among men has been one of the most fundamental incentives for fighting in pre-agricultural societies Gat, Until the establishment of monogamy and anti-violence social institutions in larger-scale societies, the possibility of acquiring many wives through sheer force channeled societal competition toward a dominance contest favoring formidable and combative men.
The resulting vicious circle of retaliation and revenges often leads to unpredictability of resource availability, which, in turn, reinforces agonistic competition even in resource-rich areas Gat, Meanwhile, in such environments, men also face increased threats of paternity uncertainty from same-sex competitors who pursue present-oriented reproductive goals via extra-pair mating. The diminished return from parental investment and intensified male-male competition are not the only consequences of extrinsic risks, they also affect the expression of societal competition and the resulting social structure.
The essential feature of power in human society is the ability to provide or withhold valued resources Anderson and Berdahl, , including access to mates. There are two routes to high status in human societies. Such prestige-based societal competition depends on 1 the uniquely human cultural capacity and 2 future-oriented life history strategies to allocate more energy and resources to skill-building, knowledge-accumulation, and altruistic sharing.
As a result, prestige competition and the resulting prestige hierarchy are fragile in the face of extrinsic risks, which would prompt individuals to pursue short-term goals of reproduction and mate monopoly, often through violence and domineering tactics Daly and Wilson, In other words, humans are able to engage in societal competition on the prestige level and conform to prestige hierarchies in environments with low extrinsic risks to undermine the value of cultural transmission.
However, they would resort to the similar kind of dominance competition observed in other species in harsh and unpredictable environments, which lead to dominance hierarchies enforced through violence and coercion Henrich and Gil-White, Dominance hierarchies shaped by agonistic forms of competition are more likely to favor men. Sex dimorphism in terms of physical strength, aggressiveness, and psychological competitiveness all favors men in combat or posing threats.
Indeed, research has found that females show increased sexual attraction to males displaying dominant behavior Sadalla et al. Ethnographic evidence also shows that polygynous mating systems are more prevalent in societies with a more uneven distribution of wealth and higher variations in male status compared with other societies Marlowe, Data on reproductive success show that in contemporary traditional societies hunter-gatherers and herder-gardeners and ancient agricultural societies, men but not women show even larger variance and range of reproductive opportunities and mating success in more stratified societies Betzig, In ancient agricultural societies, individuals with the highest status e.
Thus, to the degree that dominance competition is prevalent in pre-modern societies, gender inequality should increase in these societies when they become more stratified. Societal competition expressed as non-agonistic contests based on skills and altruism can also benefit high-prestige individuals reproductively Henrich and Gil-White, One research showed that women preferred high prestige, low dominance men in long-term relationships, but a high dominance men was preferred in short-term relationships Snyder et al.
This seems to apply to traditional societies as well. More importantly, to the degree that prestige competition requires social skills more than physical prowess, men are not at advantage in such competition, since women generally score higher than men on altruism, agreeableness, and social skills MacDonald, ; Petrides and Furnham, When combined with socially-imposed monogamy, contraceptive technologies, and increased economic niches that depend less on physical strength, prestige competition is likely to transform traditional sex-typed social roles into sex-flexible ones and foster a gender egalitarian social structure.
The above analyses lead us to a series of predictions regarding gender roles and gender inequality see Table 1 for a summary of theoretical predictions in environments varying in these two dimensions. Specifically, in societies that are dangerous and unstable but without intense competition, a traditional sex-typed division of labor would be prevalent. However, women in such societies would enjoy a similar social status as men. By contrast, societies that are safe, stable, and competitive would foster modernized gender roles and gender egalitarian values.
When extrinsic risks are combined with societal competition, however, present-oriented reproductive goals would be prioritized, contributing to traditional gender roles. In addition, male-male competition in harsh and unpredictable environments would promote male monopoly over resources and dominance-based social hierarchies that favors male, ultimately perpetuating gender inequality.
Finally, in societies that are stable and safe, but non-competitive, men would attempt to realize their reproductive potential with present-oriented reproductive goals, while women would prefer lower reproductive costs with future-oriented reproductive goals.
A compromise would probably result in moderate gender role segregation. Meanwhile, the absent of male-dominated social hierarchy would allow some degree of gender equality.
Table 1. Summary of theoretical predictions of reproductive strategies, social structures, and gender relation outcomes in various environmental conditions. Two general implications can be deduced from the preceding analysis. The first and most crucial one is that the social and behavioral biases that result in gender roles and gender inequality are evolved but not fixed.
Rapid changes in gender relations can occur due to cultural evolution Newson and Richerson, and more nuanced environmental changes within a society. Notably, this might explain numerous findings regarding sex differences in mate preferences e. Second, the interaction between extrinsic risks and societal competition underlies parts of the variations in gender roles and gender inequality.
This enables us to interpret in novel ways historical and cross-cultural variations in marital systems, parental investment, and cultural practices e. Sex differences in mate preferences might elucidate the prevailing gender roles in society. Previous research did demonstrate such sex differences in mate selection standards Buss, , ; Buss and Schmitt, In general, women have been reported to prioritize financial prospects and social status, whereas men have been revealed to prioritize youthfulness and physical appearance Shackelford et al.
These well-documented mate preferences are considered as strategies derived from sex-specific adaptations to sexual selection pressures Buss and Schmitt, However, this does not mean that the magnitude of sex differences in mate preferences is necessarily universal or fixed. In fact, several cross-sectional studies tracing mate preferences in major economies over the past few decades have shown steady decreases in sex differences in United States — Buss et al. In all these studies, financial prospect was increasingly valued by both sexes, particularly men which might reflect increasing societal competition , whereas men attached lower importance to domestic skills and virginity.
This, to some extent, reflects the prevalence of future-oriented life histories and a gradual modernization of gender roles in these societies, which coincides with long periods of peaceful and stable economic growth after World War II in increasingly competitive societies.
In addition, mate preferences also vary across societies and appear to be contingent on extrinsic risks e. Research has shown that in such dangerous environments, women prefer men with indicators of good genes e.
Similarly, in a country cross-cultural study, pathogen prevalence was associated with greater perceived importance of attractiveness for both sexes and lower perceived importance of paternal investment for women Gangestad and Buss, These findings challenged an over-simplified view of sexual selection that overlooks environment-induced variations in the sex differences in mate preferences, which help to shape gender roles in different societies.
Similarly, Lu et al. Finally, experimental studies found that men identified as present-oriented in life history strategy expressed greater preference for fertility and good-gene-related mate qualities, and were more sensitive to neoteny female faces representing fertility.
Conversely, future-oriented reproductive strategies supported by gender-equal competition foster modernized mate preferences and gender roles.
As discussed earlier, population-level sociosexuality aggregating between sexes may not reflect present-oriented reproductive goals or gender relations e. Nevertheless, from the life history perspective, we predict sex differences in sociosexuality should be a function of the prevalence of present-oriented reproductive goals. In support of this prediction, Schmitt found that the magnitude of sex differences in sociosexuality did differ across countries.
Similarly, a more recent survey found that in the United States, women, but not men, reported lower desire for uncommitted sex in states with more demanding environments e. Sexism is often regarded as a justification of traditional gender roles and the patriarchal system Barreto and Ellemers, However, it also reflects psychological adaptations of both sexes to advance their reproductive interests in the face of extrinsic risks and societal competition.
Previous studies generally revealed that men score higher than women on both hostile and benevolent sexism e. This is understandable from the evolutionary perspective, as men benefit more from justifying traditional gender roles that facilitate present-oriented reproductive goals because of their higher reproductive rates.
In addition, in societies with greater between-sex conflicts over parental investment which reflects present-oriented reproductive goals , men should exhibit higher hostile sexism whereas women should reject such hostile sexism.
Consistent with this prediction, Glick et al. Moreover, using the World Values Survey data, Newson and Richerson showed that countries with earlier decline in fertility reflecting cultural endorsement of future-oriented reproductive goals exhibited higher gender empowerment attitudes opposite to sexist attitudes than those with later decline in fertility. These findings, although preliminary, suggest life history strategies might affect attitudes and beliefs about gender relations.
In summary, multiple lines of evidence suggest that sex-differentiated mate preferences, which support traditional gender roles, likely represent present-oriented reproductive strategies adapted to extrinsic risks. Similarly, sex differences in sociosexuality and sexism are also better conceived as evolutionary products of flexible life history strategies than fixed aspects of human nature or purely sociohistorical artifacts.
However, further research is needed to support detailed hypotheses. The current life history account goes beyond acknowledging environmental influences on gender relations through life history strategies. We also seek to predict nuanced patterns of cross-society and within-society variations in gender relations by examining distal environmental effects, which also operate in the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness EEA. In particular, the interaction between extrinsic risks and societal competition might shed light on an array of cultural phenomena mostly documented in ethnographic studies relevant to gender roles and gender inequality.
Small-scale, nonagricultural societies, some of which probably resemble those inhabiting the human EEA Volk and Atkinson, , generally face high extrinsic risks. A study on contemporary hunter—gatherers and historical data estimated that the infant mortality and child mortality rates in the human EEA are 27 and Higher reproductive efforts to offset elevated juvenile and adult mortality rates might lead to present-oriented life history strategies and more imbalanced parental investment between the sexes, which would contribute to the perpetuation of traditional gender roles in nonagricultural societies.
Among nonagricultural societies including hunter-gatherer, horticulturalist, and pastoralist societies , the degree of polygyny was positively linked to social stratification Marlowe, ; Betzig, , which reflects the variations of male social status. Given people in these societies also face high degree of extrinsic risks, intense societal competition is more likely leads to violent conflicts and dominance hierarchies, rather than skill contests and prestige hierarchies. In other words, in societies facing high extrinsic risks, less intense societal competition shown as lower levels of social stratification might actually prevent the emergence of extreme power asymmetry favoring men.
This seemed to be the case for most hunter-gatherer societies, whose subsistence style cannot support a dense population necessary for more complex social structures compared with horticulturalists and pastoralists, hunter-gatherers are the lowest in social stratification; Marlowe, , and the degree of polygyny is typically low e.
Therefore, consistent with our theoretical prediction, an absence of dominance hierarchies might explain why some hunter—gatherers are less susceptible to gender inequality in marital system, even though they do adopt traditional gender roles Marlowe, , Polygyny is also rare in agricultural societies, but this might be due to socially imposed monogamy, rather than indicating equal power between sexes in such societies Alesina et al.
In societies that practice intensive agricultural labor, women usually have a far lower status than do men Alesina et al. Ethnographic research demonstrated that agricultural societies had a lower degree of female affairs than did any type of nonagricultural societies Marlowe, This includes the foot-binding practice in feudal China Carroll, and the fashion of corset and tightlacing in 19th century Europe Steele, Both practices are sexually appealing to men but concurrently limit female mobility: for example, foot-binding causes difficulty in walking among women without the support of their shoes Bossen, A common feature of these two cultural practices is that they emerge in highly stratified societies with male-dominated hierarchies before the demographic transition Lee, This is compatible with our postulation that a combination of intensive male-male competition for dominance status and high reproductive efforts contributes to gender inequality.
Two interrelated reasons might account for this cultural practice and cultural value transition. First, increased concentration of population in urban areas and in industrial jobs leads to large-scale cooperative societies comprising mostly strangers, instead of kin-groups Henrich et al. From the perspective of cultural evolution, cultural transmission from relatives which usually encourages present-oriented reproductive goals declined in such modern environments, allowing future-oriented reproductive goals to prevail in these competitive societies Newson and Richerson, Meanwhile, third-party punishment and policing against violence are vital for the stability and order in such large-scale societies Henrich et al.
Together with future-oriented reproductive strategy, this shift toward prestige competition might render male-dominance cultural practices and relevant gender inequality values obsolete. Overall, these analyses show that cultural practices and values related to gender relations are not merely arbitrary, sociohistorical constructions. Rather, they might embody life history strategies and cultural adaptations that are sensitive to extrinsic risks and societal competition. Our life history account complement existing theories about gender relations by: 1 emphasizing the fact that the evolutionary processes, including sexual selection, that shape traditional gender roles and gender inequality are flexible rather than fixed, and 2 providing specific predictions regarding how these processes are contingent on the interaction between extrinsic risks and societal competition.
Future research is needed to improve the evidentiary status of environmental influences on gender relations, and it faces several challenges. First, identifying the sources of extrinsic risks in modern environments while ruling out confounding genetic effects can be difficult. Previous research has examined familial resource insecurity e. None of these measures reflects pure environmental influences, though, as behavioral genetics studies has shown that environmental risks in shared family environment e.
However, extrinsic risks assessed in the form of uncontrollable life events e. Thus, to test our aforementioned hypotheses, it is important to use assessments with smaller genetic variance or heritability, and to interpret the results with caution when such assessments likely involve controllable aspects of environment.
Secondly, further theoretical and empirical works are needed to elaborate different evolutionary pressures for and different social developmental consequences of dominance versus prestige competition in a life history framework.
As two forms of societal competition or status-seeking strategies, dominance and prestige are conceptually separable Henrich and Gil-White, However, it is entirely possible that any status hierarchy conveys both dominance status and prestige status to various degrees, and they may lead to or end up being mixed with each other in most cases Henrich and Gil-White, Dominance and prestige as different means to status are also not tied to certain type of societies or subsistence style.
On the one hand, traditional societies are not all structured as dominance hierarchies derived from belligerent competition. Prestige-based competition can be an important way to achieve greater reproductive success without wealth accumulation in some hunter-gatherer societies e.
In other hunter-gatherer groups, such as the Hadza in northern Tanzania, there is no clear dominance or prestige hierarchies Marlowe, , although the altruistic sharing of meat by good hunters can be seen as instances of prestige-based competition Hawkes et al.
In these groups, monogamy is the norm with fairly high divorce rate and women typically have a say in important decisions indicating some level of gender equality; Marlowe, In industrialized societies, on the other hand, although dominance hierarchies are largely suppressed, dominance competition still exists in some areas and continues to affect at least short-term mating preferences e.
We propose that the relative importance of dominance and prestige in societal competition might have more to do with life history tradeoffs in the face of extrinsic risks. Specifically, dominance competition might prevail in high-risk environments, as present-oriented reproductive goals prompt male—male competition and agonistic confrontations over resources Gat, Prestige competition, by contrast, might be more prevalent when extrinsic risks are low, as skill development and altruism both require future-oriented somatic efforts in relatively stable environments.
Individual differences in dominance-based or prestige-based status-seeking strategies might also depend on individual life history strategies accelerated life history might prompt individuals to rely more on dominance. In this way, life history strategies manifesting at the culture level might affect the nature of status hierarchies, which, in turn, influences gender relations. Thus, more theoretical and empirical works are needed to extend the life history framework to the potential tradeoff between dominance and prestige in status dynamics and social structures.
A third challenge lies in recognizing individual differences in susceptibility to environmental influences at different levels Belsky, For instance, experimental evidence shows that situational cues of extrinsic risks might induce more present-oriented reproductive planning in individuals with childhood or chronic exposure to resource insecurity than in those who did not experience resource insecurity Griskevicius et al.
Similarly, a recent study revealed that individuals facing chronic resource disadvantages reduced their prosocial behaviors when exposed to competitive scenarios, whereas the opposite was true for advantaged individuals Zhu et al. Moreover, although the current account focus on only two overarching environmental forces, it does not rule out other environmental factors with more proximate influences on gender relations, such as socially-imposed marital systems, the availability of contraception and alloparents, cooperative breeding, and advances in education, legislation, and technology.
These more proximate factors complement trait plasticity shaped by life history trade-offs influenced by chronic experiences of extrinsic risks and societal competition. Taking these into consideration provides additional directions for future research on individual-level and society-level variations in gender relations. A fourth challenge is to distinguish gender inequality from gender roles—although they are occasionally intricately related to each other see Eagly and Wood, —and to avoid the pitfall of taking all gender roles as embodying gender inequality.
As evidenced by ethnographic studies, gendered division of labor e. This also cautions against the assessment of gender inequality by using a single indicator, because gender inequality might take various forms and even be concealed in ostensibly benevolent social arrangements. Finally, our position should not be mistaken as yet another version of gender essentialism. The development of gender identity : The formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family.
Fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as sports. Gender-schema theory was formally introduced by Sandra Bem in as a cognitive theory to explain how individuals become gendered in society. It describes how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture. According to gender-schema theory, gender-associated information is predominantly transmitted through society by way of schemata , or networks that allow for some types of information to be more easily assimilated than others.
Bem argues that there are individual differences in the degree to which people hold these gender schemata. These differences are manifested via the degree to which individuals are sex-typed. Bem refers to four categories into which an individual may fall:. According to proponents of queer theory, gender identity is not a rigid or static identity but can continue to evolve and change over time.
Queer theory developed in response to the perceived limitations of the way in which identities are thought to become consolidated or stabilized for instance, gay or straight , and theorists constructed queerness in an attempt to resist this. In this way, the theory attempts to maintain a critique rather than define a specific identity.
Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Gender and Sexuality. Search for:. Gender and Sociology From birth, children are assigned a gender and are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex.
Key Takeaways Key Points Gender roles are based on norms , or standards, created by society. In the U. Gender socialization begins at birth and occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Repeated socialization over time leads men and women into a false sense that they are acting naturally, rather than following a socially constructed role.
The attitudes and expectations surrounding gender roles are typically based not on any inherent or natural gender differences, but on stereotypes about the attitudes, traits, or behavior patterns of women or men.
Gender stereotypes form the basis of sexism , or the prejudiced beliefs that value males over females. Key Terms gender roles : A social and behavioral norm that is generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social setting or interpersonal relationship. Gender as a Spectrum and Transgender Identities Viewing gender as a spectrum allows us to perceive the rich diversity of genders, from trans- and cisgender to genderqueer and agender. Learning Objectives Describe the gender spectrum, the gender binary, and transgender identities.
Key Takeaways Key Points Most Western societies operate on the idea that gender is a binary —that there are essentially only two genders men and women based on two sexes male and female , and that everyone must fit one or the other. The gender continuum or matrix is a multidimensional extension of the gender spectrum that includes additional gender identities outside of the spectrum.
Individuals who identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex for example, they are assigned male at birth but feel inwardly that they are a girl or a gender other than a boy are called transgender.
The transgender identity umbrella includes many different and sometimes-overlapping categories, including transsexual, genderqueer, androgyne, bigender, agender, third gender, and two-spirit, among others.
Key Terms binary : A state in which there are only two conditions, which are perceived to be mutually exclusive, such as on or off, true or false, male or female, black or white. Learning Objectives Apply social-learning theory and gender-schema theory to the context of gender identity development and the gender spectrum. Key Takeaways Key Points Gender identity is the extent to which one identifies as being a man, a woman, or another gender, and is often shaped early in life.
Those that identify with the gender that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth are called cisgender. Individuals who identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex are called transgender. Although the formation of gender identity is not completely understood, many factors have been suggested as influencing its development, including biological factors, social factors, language, and social and economic power.
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