Understanding gender
To work effectively on gender issues, understanding the most common gender
theories is useful. These theories, or frameworks, are
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Understanding
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examines three theories of gender and their usefulness for schools.
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This explanation of gender is based on the belief that all differences between
men and women result from biology - the 'anatomy is destiny' argument. Biological
determinism is often used to support generalisations about men and women,
such as 'men are naturally more able in maths and technology' or 'women are
naturally suited to domestic duties'.
These views are based on investigations of genetic differences between men
and women, often searching for differences in brain function. However, even
by the early 1990s, it was clear that the constant finding of psychological
research is that 'sex differences are small, their origins unclear, and the
variation within each sex far outweighs any differences between the sexes'
(Segal 1990:63 as reproduced in Gilbert & Gilbert,
1998:44).
Biological determinism asserts that certain behaviours are justified and
unchangeable because 'boys will be boys' (or 'girls will be girls'). There
is little consideration of the wide variety of behaviours among members of
each sex or how masculinity and femininity relate to each other in different
settings. For these reasons, biological determinism has the potential to undermine
school behaviour management programs.
Clark, in her early study of gender in primary schools The Great Divide
(1989:12), notes that
'effort to change the stereotypical behaviour of children, particularly boys,
is often seen by other members of staff as either an unnatural or impossible
thing to do.'
However, this view of 'natural' difference is difficult to support when notions
of appropriate gender behaviour are not static, but differ over time, between
ethnic and cultural groups, and even between and within families.
Sex role socialisation
Sex role socialisation asserts that gender behaviour is not innate, but socially
conditioned - that boys and girls learn to be masculine and feminine through
the different social expectations imposed on them by family and peers.
This theory became popular in the 1960s and 70s, but is limited because it
is a deficit model - difference is seen as deviance. The theory is weakened
by its reliance on role modelling to provide 'messages' about gender behaviour
which are passively 'soaked up' by boys and girls. It fails to address the
influences of gender, race and class or that people practise their masculinity
and femininity differently depending on where they are and who they are with.
Similarly there is no acknowledgment of inequality or the role of institutions
such as legal and educational systems in valuing masculinity and femininity
differently.
The theory of sex role socialisation links with the theory of biological
determinism because, by focusing on sex roles, it reinforces difference based
on biology. Neither theory can provide an adequate explanation for the wide
range of behaviours amongst women and amongst men and why these vary so markedly
around the world.
The construction of gender
This theory acknowledges that men and women are actively involved in constructing
their own gendered identities.
… we, as individuals and as groups, are not passively shaped by the
larger societal forces such as schools or the media, but are active in selecting,
adapting and rejecting the dimensions we choose to incorporate, or not, into
our version of gender.
(Allard, Cooper, Hildebrand,
Wealands 1995:24)
We adopt different masculinity and femininity practices depending on our
situations and beliefs. Our understandings of gender are dynamic, changing
over time with maturity, experience and reflection.
Thus we are active in constructing our own gender identities, but the options
available to us are not unlimited. We are influenced by the collective practices
of institutions such as school, church, media and family, which construct
and reinforce particular forms of masculinity and femininity.
These widely accepted, dominant notions of gender often construct masculinity
and femininity as opposites, ignoring a vast array of shared human characteristics,
and traditionally valuing masculinity as more powerful. Such ideas may be
accepted, challenged, modified or rejected as individuals develop and shape
their gender identities:
In their lives in family and community, and before they come to school, children
learn socially approved ways of interacting as female or male. As a consequence,
many girls and boys develop narrow and limited concepts of masculinity and
femininity - concepts which impoverish their existence.
(National Action Plan for the Education of Girls 1993-1997:7)
The construction of different ways of being feminine or masculine is a dynamic
process in which we all play a part. Students need the critical skills to
understand and assess narrow messages about the way they can live their lives.
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