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Gender, as most would argue, is primarily a social construct that evolves with the society in which we live. What is deemed appropriate for one gender the corresponding gender tends to adopt, resulting in a variety of behaviours and stereotypes. If the environment a person grows up in labels a certain activity as a ‘boy thing’ or a ‘girl thing’, does that affect the development of their gender identity?
Kohlberg’s cognitive developmental theory of gender attempts to tackle the idea of gender development.
Icon depicting male and female gender balancing on a scale, Flaticon
Kohlberg’s 1966 theory focuses on how children develop cognitive structures to conceptualise and understand their gender and the gender of people around them.
The stages of gender development, according to Kohlberg, are as follows:
Kohlberg’s stages of gender development line up with Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, in particular the idea of conservation within the concrete operational stage, which ties in with gender consistency.
Conservation is a child’s cognitive ability to understand that even when the appearances of a person or object change, the basic properties do not change.
If you take two equal glasses of water and pour one into a taller, thinner glass and ask the child which glass has more water, a child who has acquired the skill of conservation could understand that both glasses still hold an equal amount of water.
Concerning the child’s gender development, their conservation skill allows them to understand that a person’s gender does not change based on external properties, such as the activities they participate in or the way they dress. Kohlberg and Piaget found that this conservation skill became present around ages six to seven. Both of these researchers agree on the same age in which conservation develops adds validity to the theory.
We must analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Kohlberg’s argument.
Kohlberg’s theory is criticised for its lack of explanation of how and why these gender stages occur. Although it can be argued Piaget’s idea of conservation can help explain the consistency stage, the descriptions of the other two stages do not include how they come about and why they occur at all. This criticism suggests further research is required to understand this.
Let’s consider the strengths of this theory.
In this study, researchers tested a group of children aged two and three on their ability to identify their gender and the gender of others correctly. Thompson found that the older children could correctly identify genders more often than the younger children, suggesting that this skill develops between these two age groups. This finding supports the gender labelling stage Kohlberg describes in his theory.
In this study, researchers tested children aged two to five on their level of gender development. They found that children with higher levels of gender consistency were more likely to seek out same-sex role models. This study supports Kohlberg’s stages as he also states older children will show higher gender stability and consistency.
In this study, the researchers found children across multiple cultures showed signs of progressing through the stages Kohlberg described, which supports the theory and suggest the theory to be universal.
And finally, let’s consider the weaknesses of this theory.
In this study, the researchers found that children as young as 4 showed signs of gender consistency, which challenges the order in which Kohlberg has described his cognitive stages of gender development.
In this study, researchers found that children choose gender-specific toys below the age of six, suggesting gender role behaviours are present before achieving gender consistency. This finding contradicts Kohlberg’s theory.
Gender labelling, gender stability, and gender consistency.
He believed cognitive development, much like moral reasoning, develops in stages.
Constancy is the child’s ability to adapt and take on their gender identity as a permanent aspect of themselves. It occurs in three stages: gender labelling, gender stability, and gender consistency.
An example of Kohlberg’s theory is his gender development theory, where he suggests gender development stages. Children develop cognitive structures to conceptualise their gender and the gender of others around them.
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