What Are The Biological Influences Related To Gender Identity And Development?

Gender identity can be defined as the fundamental sense of being male or female. It is independent of whether the person conforms to the social and cultural rules of gender. With gender identity comes gender typing. This is the process by which children learn the abilities, interests, and behaviors associated with being masculine or feminine in their culture. A person can have a strong gender identity, but not be gender typed. For example, a man can be confident in his masculinity/maleness but do things that may be considered “un-masculine” or feminine, such as doing hair or makeup. The same goes for women, a female may be confident in her femininity but do things that may be considered masculine, such as construction work. There are three influences to gender identity and development: biological influences, cognitive influences, and learning influences. The biological approach suggests that there is no distinction between sex and gender. This means that biological sex is gendered behavior. Hormones and chromosomes are two factors that gender is determined by. Hormones are chemical substances that are
secreted by the glands and carried throughout the blood stream. Males and females have the same sex hormones, but in different amounts. These hormones have different effects on different areas of the body. In preschool years, children tend to play with other children of their own sex, as well as toys that pertain to their sex, for example boys playing with toy trucks and girl playing with dolls. Biological scientists suggest that these play and toy preferences have to deal with prenatal androgens, which are male sex hormones like testosterone. Girls who are exposed to higher levels of androgens in the womb are more likely to play with toys that are considered to be for boys. Testosterone, which is a male sex hormone, affects development/behavior before and after birth. It can typically cause male behaviors, such as aggression and competitiveness. Little boys are more likely to play roughly, display aggressive behaviors, and take more risks due to their levels of testosterone. There are also cognitive influences to gender identity and development. This suggests that children’s thinking is central to their gender development. Basically, it is based on what a child believes he or she is. A little before a child turns two, they can label themselves and others as a boy or girl. Once they can do this, they are able to change their behavior to fit themselves in the category that they belong to. They tend to prefer playmates of the same sex and toys that are related to their sex, as mentioned above. They start to become more gender typed than children who can’t consistently label boys or girls in many ways, such as aggressiveness, verbal skills, and toy play. Cognitive development is also how a boy might decide he is “really” a boy and vice versa. One might say that he wants to be a girl because he doesn’t like to scrape his knee, and girls don’t scrape their knees. You also have learning influences to gender development and identity.
The main influence is the environment. Gender is influenced by what a child learns and is taught. Children may be taught that a girl can’t or shouldn’t play around and get muddy/dirty like little boys can. Young children observe the people around them, and they pick up on certain actions. Some of these actions may relate to gender. For example, a little girl might notice her mother sitting with her legs crossed, and she may start to imitate this action. Boys can also be taught that there are things that he shouldn’t do because “boys don’t do things like that”. For example, a little boy might have older sisters who like to try on dresses and play in make-up. His father may not say anything to his sisters, but he may scold the little boy because wearing dresses is something that boys don’t
do. I feel as if being transgender is simply based on what a child believes they are at heart. In my opinion, it starts at a very young age, maybe around the time children start to communicate better. Boys may like the color pink, and asking their parents to buy them dolls to play with rather than toys that little boys should be playing with (trucks, cars, action figures, etc.) I don’t believe it has anything to do with something that they’ve seen on TV or outside of their house, due to the fact that they’re so young and simply can’t fully comprehend something of that matter. Basically, it is based on the child’s mental and how they feel personally.