1.
Gender
Identity &
Differences
Casandra Corona and
Sarah Jane Calub

2.
Biological Differences

3.
Anatomical Differences
• Doctors establish
gender at birth
• Sex is the bodily-
based classification
of people into male
or female

4.
Brain Structures
• Male brain contains less
commissural fibers
between hemispheres than
female brain
• May explain the male’s inability
to express emotions because
info flows less easily from the R
side of the brain to the L side
(verbal side)
• Females have 4 times as many
Corpus Callosum
brain cells than males (better
memory)

5.
Male Advantages
Visual-Spatial Abilities & Math Reasoning/Logic

6.
Female Advantages
Verbal/Social Skills & Empathy

7.
MALE FEMALE
greater size & strength lesser size & strength
greater capacity for short-term
greater capacity for endurance
energy output
TEMPERAMENT TEMPERAMENT
Inclined toward submission,
Inclined towards dominance,
defensive aggression,
competition, independence,
attachment and nurturance,
sensation-seeking
anxiety, security-seeking

8.
The Role of Hormones
• Males have higher baseline of testosterone
• Testosterone rises in response to
competition and threat
• High testosterone common
in persons working in high-
stress/high-attitude
environments

9.
Which came first?

10.
Cultural Influences

11.
Gender Stereotypes
Aggressive
Nurturing

12.
Resisting Gender Roles
in Everyday Life
• Women’s traditional role
as mothers/housewives
• Men’s role as “bread
winners”
• Gender-appropriate toys
and behavior for young
children
“Gender makes us the kind of human
”
beings that others understand.

13.
How Women’s Roles
Have Changed
• Large improvements since
1960s
• Equal pay for equal work and
equal educational
opportunity are now assumed
• Feminism
• Discrimination in the
workplace
• Education is key

14.
How Men’s Roles
Have Changed
• Social invisibility of male
gender perpetuates
patriarchy
• Baby Boomer fathers
• Lack of fatherly role-models

15.
Gender
Relationships
• Family life before 20th
century
• Single motherhood
• Increased female
employment
• Same-sex partnerships

16.
References
Blum, D. (1999, July). What's the difference between boys and girls?.
Life, 22.
Egendorf, L. K. (2000). Male/female roles: opposing viewpoints. San
Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press.
Holmes, M. (2009). Gender and everyday life. London: Routledge.