Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 Gender 
is the perception of being male or female. Although there is a good deal 
of overlap between the concepts of sex and gender, they are not the same: Sex typi-
cally refers to sexual anatomy and sexual behavior, whereas gender refers to the sense 
of maleness or femaleness related to our membership in a given society.
Gender Roles: Society’s 
Expectations for Women 
and Men
Our conclusions about what is or is not “appropriate” behavior for others and our-
selves are based on
 gender roles. 
Gender roles are the set of expectations, defi ned by 
a particular society, that indicate what is appropriate behavior for men and women.
If men’s and women’s gender roles were equivalent, they would have only a minor 
impact on our lives. However, expectations about men and women differ signifi cantly, 
and these beliefs may result in favoritism toward members of one of the sexes. Gender 
roles also may produce stereotyping, judgments about individual members of a group on 
the basis of their membership in that group. Stereotypes about 
gender roles are refl ected in
 sexism, 
negative attitudes and 
behavior toward a person that are based on that person’s gender.
People in Western societies like ours generally hold well-
defi ned stereotypes about men and women, which prevail 
regardless of age, economic status, and social and educational 
background. Men are more apt to be viewed as having traits 
involving competence, such as independence, objectivity, and 
competitiveness. In contrast, women tend to be seen as hav-
ing traits involving warmth and expressiveness, such as gen-
tleness and awareness of others’ feelings. Because Western 
society traditionally values competence more than warmth 
and expressiveness, the perceived differences between men 
and women are biased in favor of men (Eagly, Beall, & Stern-
berg, 2005; Hyde, Mezulis, & Abramson, 2008; Kiefer, 2006). 
In addition, cross-cultural research fi nds remarkable simi-
larity in the content of gender stereotypes in different societies. 
For example, a 25-nation study identifi ed a core set of descrip-
tors that were consistently used to describe men and women