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Does science put an end to gender roles?

Men cannot multitask. Women cannot parallel park. Nonsense, according to science. The different domains – biology, neurology and psychology – continuously show that traditional ideas about gender roles are outdated.

By Ans Hekkenberg

If you study gender roles scientifically, clear definitions will help – the main ones being gender and sex. These terms are not synonymous. Your sex is what the midwife proclaims when you are born:

‘Congratulations, it is a ...!’ In contrast, your gender refers to your identity. What gender do you identify with from a social and a societal perspective? In 2015, researchers from Ghent University reported that 0.6 to 0.7 percent of the population state that their gender is not the same as their sex assigned at birth. Furthermore, there are people who do not identify with a binary gender.

Gender is a spectrum: man/woman/other.

Many scientists are studying the differences between these categories. Are male and female characteristics hidden in our genes? That is, is there a biological cause for the gender roles that we recognize in our society?

A brain matter

When scientists want to know why people are the way they are, they look at the brain. Is there such a thing as a ‘male’ and a ‘female’ brain? To answer that question, scientists at Tel Aviv University studied the brain scans of 1,400 individuals. When they compiled the data, they noticed that – on average – the sizes of different brain regions differed between men and women. However, when they subsequently studied the brain scans of individuals, they had to conclude that an individual brain is almost never typically male or female. Only a few people, 0 to 8 percent, have brains demonstrating the typical characteristics that you would expect based on their sex. ‘It was a pioneering study,’ says Professor of Gender Studies Anelis Kaiser from the University of Freiburg. ‘We have known for some time that the brain is a type of mosaic of different parts that can each be designated female or male. But what the Tel Aviv study demonstrated was that the sum of the parts is hardly ever male or female.’

Cordelia Fine, psychologist at the University of Melbourne, puts the findings in perspective: ‘The probability of two people of a different sex having the same brain type is approximately equal to the probability of two people of the same sex having the same brain type.’

Typical

But if there is no male or female brain, how can there be typically male and female characteristics? Take empathy: women are generally more empathic than men, aren’t

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they? ‘The answer is both yes and no,’ says Kaiser. ‘Women are generally better at thinking empathically. But that does not mean that is how we were born. We did not start out with a brain pre-programmed for empathy. Instead, we were raised in a society that has clear gender roles. We learn to behave typically masculine or feminine because that is deeply rooted in our society. Over the course of our lives, our brains shape themselves according to our experiences. It is therefore plausible that the ‘female brain’ becomes more empathic with time. But if you ask: does biology make women more empathic, is it in their genes? Then the answer is: no. This is how we are shaped, not born.’

Research at Brown University confirms this. Scientists wondered why, on average, women have more affinity with languages than men. In their study, they discovered that parents chatted more to daughters than to sons. Or, due to existing prejudices about what boys and girls are like, girls receive a more linguistic upbringing.

‘The social context affects who you are, how you think and what you do. And your thoughts, attitudes and behaviours in turn

An individual brain is hardly ever typically female or male

become part of the social context,’ Fine wrote in her book Delusions of Gender. In other words, gender roles cause expectations that we wish to fulfil, and that subsequently uphold gender roles.

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The fact that biology plays a limited role is also shown by the complexity of our behaviour, Fine believes. She points out that characteristics that we label as typically male or female can be present to various extents, depending on the time, place and context. Furthermore, someone can be typically male in one aspect, but typically female in other aspects. ‘This shows that such characteristics result from many small causes, instead of a strong all-determining factor, such as biological sex,’ says Fine. It is a constant interaction between brain, genes and environment.

Double-blind

Nonetheless, there is also criticism from scientists who are convinced that biology is the deciding factor. For example, researchers from Cambridge University reported in 2000 that newborn girls preferred

Evolution

People often point to evolution as the cause of man/woman differences in our society. Women are better at caring because they used to look after children, while men were whacking mammoths, for example. Or men are more aggressive than women, because aggressive men won the battles for a female and were therefore able to reproduce. To what extent are such assertions true?

Both Professor of Gender Studies Anelis Kaiser and Australian psychologist Cordelia Fine are reticent to explain our current behaviour based on evolution. ‘It is impossible to analyse our ancestors’ behaviour. There is nothing left of it. That is why so many of the assertions about our ancestors are a matter of projection,’ says Kaiser. She thinks that we paint the historical picture based on our current stereotypes. Furthermore, there is no scientific evidence for some of the things we take to be true, such as the assumption that an aggressive man has a higher probability of reproducing. This is not true for humans or other primates.

Fine thinks that we are overlooking a significant part of evolution. ‘Where it concerns differences in behaviour between men and women, ‘evolved’ is not always the same as genetically inherited. There is also a cultural inheritance.’ Children learn from their parents what ‘normal’ gender roles are and, in turn, pass them on to their children. This is how gender roles persist for generations without an underlying genetic reason.

‘When the environment emphasizes gender, it affects the mind’

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looking at faces (a sign of social talent), while newborn boys preferred to look at a hanging mobile (proof of a gift for technique). There is a biological difference in the interests of boys and girls, announced research leader Simon Baron-Cohen.

Within the scientific community, this study is as notorious as it is famous. ‘There has been much criticism of the research methods and the interpretation of the findings,’ says Fine. A significant criticism was that it was not a double-blind test. The researcher showing the face or the hanging mobile knew whether the child in the cot was a boy or a girl. That could influence the researcher’s behaviour, and therefore the child’s behaviour.

In 2013, researchers at Western Sydney University tried to rigorously repeat the study. Their results showed that there was no difference: they concluded that both boys and girls preferred seeing a face over a hanging mobile.

I think, therefore I can

If our brains show few differences, you would expect men and women to perform various tasks equally well. However, many people would argue that men are better at parallel parking than women. How is that possible? Stereotypes appear to play a crucial role in this too. Social-psychological studies show that an individual’s talent often depends on what they expect they can do. Or, turned around: if you constantly hear that you cannot do something, you start to believe that and then you really cannot do it anymore.

‘We also observe ourselves through the lens of a stereotype,’ wrote Fine in Delusions of Gender. The effect of this was described as early as 1974 by Jan Morris in her autobiography Conundrum. Morris, who is transgender, described how she experienced her transition. ‘The more I was treated as a woman, the more I became a woman. When people assumed that I was unable to reverse a car or open bottles, I – strangely enough – truly became unable to do these things.’

‘Everyone feels pressure to behave as the gender stereotype expects them to behave,’ explains Kaiser. ‘If test subjects must perform tasks in which they – in line with stereotypes – will not be successful because of their gender, that prediction is likely to come true. When you are confronted with gender stereotypes, brain regions involved in memory inhibition and anxiety become active. This means that the confrontation with the stereotype places an additional burden on the brain, which negatively affects performance.’ In other words, if women are confronted with the fact that they are women before solving maths questions, they perform less well than if their gender were ignored.

Breaking stereotypes

‘When the environment emphasizes gender, it affects the mind,’ wrote Fine. ‘This can change someone’s self-image and interests, and even weaken or strengthen someone’s skills. So, if we really want to achieve equality, emphasizes Fine, it is not biology that is the obstacle. It is the images that we have of men and women, and the image that we consequently have of ourselves.

Breaking stereotypes is not easy. Even nowadays, many people look surprised when a man bakes a cake and a woman tinkers with cars. ‘We are very used to thinking in two gender stereotypes,’ says Kaiser. ‘But science has taught us that that image is incorrect. There is no woman who is the essence of womanhood, and there is no man who is the typical man. It is time that we disregarded that image.’