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Gender roles as developmental pathways
Author(s) -
Archer John
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1984.tb00635.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , life span , consistency (knowledge bases) , adult development , social psychology , gerontology , medicine , geometry , mathematics
Male and female gender roles are discussed as developmental pathways in terms of four related descriptive dimensions: the first three, rigidity, complexity and consistency, are all concerned with processes operating at particular stages of development; the fourth, continuity, is concerned with the overall developmental pathway. The limited evidence available indicates the following: there is a more rigid male role in childhood, but the evidence for adults is less clear; there is some evidence of greater complexity and inconsistency in the male role during childhood; developmentally, the female role becomes less flexible at adolescence whereas the male role becomes more flexible and varied; the female role shows more change across the adult life‐span, particularly at the birth of the first child. The wider societal and historical implications of these conclusions, and their relation to role‐related difficulties, are discussed.