Three approaches to gender differences

Abstract

Author presents three broad approaches explaining gender differences: essentialistic, constructivistic and social learning theory. Does the fact of hormones, brain lateralization, or evolutionary imperatives actually shape the different behavior of members of different sexes, or does culture, or learning gender roles? The differences explained by biology can be interpreted in another way, but such approaches are given criticized for several reasons. The most acceptable theories for sociologists are constructivistic, and theories of learning gender roles, including differentiating the terms sex and gender, that leads us to the cultural and social establishment of gender differences.