Gender And Gender Differences In Personality

Rosie the Riveter was an iconic symbol of the American homefront in WWII and a departure from gender roles due to wartime necessity.WomanFactory1940s by Howard R. Hollem – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsac.1a34951. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Annotated Links

Androgynous Leaders Mean Increased Innovation. Science Daily, from November 7, 2008, summarizes research by Anne Grethe Solberg, researcher at BI Norwegian Scool of Management, which finds that leaders with both masculine and feminine traits, are the ones who best succeed at creating a good climate for innovation

Are Male and female brains wired differently? According to research by Madhura Ingalhalikar and colleagues and summarized here Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains. Evidence suggests that men’s brains have more connectivity within each hemisphere; women have more connectivity between the hemispheres. From The Guardian, December 2, 2013. However, Christian Jarrett in Getting in a Tangle Over Men’s and Women’s Brain Wiring for Brain Watch takes a critical view of the research and the interpretation of the evidence suggesting that men’s and women’s brains are wired differently. Posted December 4, 2013.

APA Answers Answers to common questions about transgender individuals and gender identity from the American Psychological Association.

Are the men of the African Aka tribe the best fathers in the world? Describes the fascinating Aka tribe in Africa in which males and females have set roles which are virtually interchangeable: women hunt while men take care of children. From The Guardian, June 15, 2005.

About Gender This extensive web site discusses everything about gender roles, gender variance, and gender identity, including cognitive development, psychoanalysis, genetics and hormones.

At What Age Do Girls Prefer Pink? According to research by Vannessa LoBue and Judy DeLoache, children’s color preferences — and aversions — emerge between the ages of 2 and 3 just as they are beginning to be aware of gender. Their research was published in the Journal of Developmental Psychology, September 2011, and is summarized here in The British Psychological Society Research Digest, September 5, 2011.

Color Survey Randall Munroe, the creator of the xkcd comic put together an online survey of color names for a friend. With the help of over 222,000 users some five million colors were named. One of the most striking results is how men and women differ in their color naming, with women, for the most part, using more precise discriminations. Scroll down for a nice graphic illustrating this gender difference.

Culture, Gender and Math. Research by Luigi Guiso, Ferdinando Monte, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales in Science, 320(5880), pp. 1164-1165 suggest that gender gap in mathematics virtually disappears in societies where boys and girls have similar access to resources and opportunities. Click on the link above to download the special online supplement which includes an overview, description of data collection, graphs, and tables.

Culture, Not Biology, Underpins Math Gender Gap. In an analysis of contemporary data published June 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison report that the primary cause for the gender disparity in math performance at all levels is culture, not biology. This summary from ScienceDaily, June 2, 2009.

Darwin Was Wrong About Dating New research is beginning to question the long-accepted evolutionary explanation for various mating behaviors. Read about some of the alternative explanations and new data on sex differences in mating strategies, selectiveness, and desire for casual sex. From The New York Times, January 12, 2013.

Digging Into The Roots of Gender Differences New research published in Animal Behaviour and summarized by Barbara J. King for NPR suggest that [D]ata on wild chimpanzees from , Tanzania, indicate that human sex differences in childhood are primarily the result of biological, evolutionary mechanisms. Published March 21, 2014.

Do Men Have More Varied Personalities Than Women? A huge study involving over 12,000 participants across 51 cultures […] has concluded that men tend to have more varied personalities than women. […] men’s personalities showed more variation for four of the Big Five traits: extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The exception was neuroticism, which tended to vary more widely in women according to research published in the Journal of Research in Personality and summarized here in BPS Research Digest, March 25, 2013.

Few Gender Differences in Math Abilities, Worldwide Study Finds From the website: “Girls around the world are not worse at math than boys, even though boys are more confident in their math abilities, and girls from countries where gender equity is more prevalent are more likely to perform better on mathematics assessment tests, according to a new analysis of international research in a meta-analysis by Nicole Else-Quest, summarized here, and published in the January 2010 edition of the “Psychological Bulletin. From `ScienceDaily, January 6, 2010.

Flawed Logic of Segregating Boys and Girls for Education Purposes Based on Alleged Brain Differences According to research by Lise Eliot and colleagues, There is no scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately. Her review reveals fundamental flaws in the arguments put forward by proponents of single-sex schools to justify the need of teaching teach boys and girls separately. Eliot shows that neuroscience has identified few reliable differences between boys’ and girls’ brains relevant to learning or education. This research was published in Sex Roles and is summarized here in Science Daily, August 18, 2001.

Gender is Dead! Long Live Gender! In this blog from NPR, Alva Noe draws on research on gender and gender differences which illustrates the power of social categories, identity, and stereotype threat in causing gender differences in personality. As real as these differences are in people’s everyday lives, Noe explains, they suggest that personality differences between the sexes are not innate and biological.

Girls Equal Boys in Math An analysis of performance on math tests finds that girls match boys. And no gender difference can be found among top performers either, according to research by Janet Shibley Hyde and colleagues as reported in Science, July 25, 2008. Click here for a summary and online supplemental material, or listen to a summary from 60-second science here.

Google, Tell Me. Is My Son A Genius? MORE than a decade into the 21st century, we would like to think that American parents have similar standards and similar dreams for their sons and daughters. But my study of anonymous, aggregate data from Google searches suggests that contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny so says commentator Seth Stephens-Davidowitz and he has the graphics and explanation to support this statement.

Husbands, Rate Your Wives. A psychologist’s attempt to improve marriages provides an interesting glimpse into the social norms of the 1930s—and into one of the first scientific matchmaking services. From Time Capsule by Nick Joyce and David B. Baker, APA Monitor on Psychology, May 2008.

I’m An Engineer, Not A Cheerleader. When 17-year old Sara Sakowitz and her all-girl robotics team were mistaken for cheerleaders instead of competitors, she described her frustration and dismay at one more micro aggression against smart non gender-conforming girls in this astute and moving opinion piece for ‘’The Washington Post’’, February 26, 2014.

Is Culture Behind Men’s Better Spatial Reasoning? New research by Moshe Hoffman, Uri Gneezy and John List suggests that the gender gap in spatial skills maybe be partially due to culture according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and summarized here in Discover Magazine online, 2011.

It’s Ok to Be Neither: Teaching That Supports Gender-Variant Children Melissa Bollow Tempel discusses her realization that just as gender training begins early, teaching about gender expectations and breaking down gender stereotypes should begin early as well. In this article Tempel describes how she changed her classroom to be more supportive of gender variance.

Lagging at School, the Butt of Cruel Jokes: Are Males the New Second Sex? According to Elizabeth Day, writing for The Observer, They work longer hours, face economic insecurity and suffer worse health. Now their feckless ways are lampooned in the media. A controversial new book argues that men increasingly face a prejudice that dare not speak its name. Published May 12, 2012.

Lego Unveils First Female Lego Scientist The toy company Lego just announced a new line of miniature figures including, for the first time, a woman in a non-traditional career. The scientist Professor C. Bodin comes complete with two Erlenmeyer flasks. The hope is that by providing a character girls can relate to, young girls can more easily imagine themselves as succeeding in the sciences. From ABC News, September 4, 2013.

Lego To Launch Female Scientists Series After Online Campaign According to this news report,Women in science are taking one tiny, plastic step forward after Lego announced on Tuesday it will launch a series of female scientists and their lab tools. The science-themed project was selected as the latest Lego Ideas winner, and is set to hit shelves in August 2014. The series – notably devoid of pink – includes an astronomer with a telescope, a paleontologist with a dinosaur skeleton and a chemist in a lab. The project idea was submitted by Dr Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist in Stockholm. In her project proposal, Kooijman wrote: The motto of these [s]cientists is clear: explore the world and beyond!. From The Guardian, June 4, 2014.

Males Have More Personality? Males have more pronounced personalities than females across a range of species — from humans to house sparrows — according to new research. [I]n most species males show more consistent, predictable behaviours, particularly in relation to parental care, aggression and risk-taking. Females, on the other hand, are more likely to vary their behaviour. This summary, from ScienceDaily, November 19, 2009.

Men and Women More Similar Men and women found more similar than portrayed in popular media, according to research on gender differences, according to this summary of the work by Janet Hyde (see The Gender Similarity Hypothesis under electronic texts below), in Science Daily, September 19, 2005.

Men and Women Process Emotion Differently Women rate emotional images as more emotionally stimulating than men do and are more likely to remember them. However, there are no gender-related differences in emotional appraisal as far as neutral images are concerned. These were the findings of a large-scale study that focused on determining the gender-dependent relationship between emotions, memory performance and brain activity according to research published in January 2015 in the Journal of Neuroscience and summarized here by Science Daily.

Men Are Now From Venus, Women From Mars According to a new survey finds that single men want babies and commitment and women want independence in their relationships. What people are looking for in love relationships, the percent of people who want to may, and where people look for love has changed over time as well. Read about the findings in this article from LiveScience, February 4, 2011.

Men Are From Earth, Women Are From Earth From empathy and sexuality to science inclination and extroversion, statistical analysis of 122 different characteristics involving 13,301 individuals shows that men and women, by and large, do not fall into different groups according to research by Bobbi Carothers and Harry Reis (2013) published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Includes a graphic comparing distributions of men and women on physical strength and masculinity-assertiveness; and a video of Harry Reis explaining their work and what it means (runs 3 minutes, 24 seconds).

In Mental Illness, Women Internalize and Men Externalize According to recent research, Women are Women are more likely to develop anxiety and mood disorders such as depression, while men’s mental health issues are more likely to involve antisocial personality and substance abuse disorders. Read about the findings in this article from LiveScience, August 19, 2011.

Gender-based Math Gap Missing in Some Countries Summarizes a study publish in the May 20, 2008 Science which found that: Boys outperform girls on a math test given to children worldwide, but the gender gap is less pronounced in countries where women and men have similar rights and opportunities…In more gender-neutral societies, girls are as good as boys in mathematics. Note: While the article itself is available online only to subscribers, you can download a summary, tables and background information here (Opens in PDF format).

Men and Women: No Big Difference Studies show that one’s sex has little or no bearing on personality, cognition and leadership, Psychology Matters: Gender Issues, American Psychological Association.

Mental Rotation: The Situation of Ability In this article by Scott Barry Kaufman from the Huffington Post (1/9/2012) he takes a look at the standard mental rotation task and considers the role of spatial ability, expectations, confidence, and stereotype threat on gender differences in this ability.

Multicultural Pavilion Paul Gorski at the University of Virginia Diversity designed, facilitates and maintains this site which features links on a wide range of topics including sexual orientation, religious diversity, gender, and ethnicity, e-mail forums, and online networking.

Pink is For Boys and Blue is For Girls? In response to an article published in Current Biology claiming that there is evolutionary support for why girls prefer pink (Hurlbert & Link, 2007), Writter Ben Goldacre wrote this column for The Guardian (August 25, 2007) to de-bunk both the myth that “blue is for boys and pink is for girls” and this piece of “bad science” in his words. He uses cross-cultural differences in color preference and cultural changes within the U.S. to question the “Biological components of sex differences in color preference” (the title of the original article). See the whole article by Goldacre including graphs and charts at his Bad Science website.

Relative Length of Adults’ Fingers Indicator of Verbal Aggression: Prenatal Exposure to Testosterone Linked A new study links verbal aggression to prenatal testosterone exposure, using the 2D:4D finger ratio measure to predict verbal aggression. This study is the first to use this method to examine prenatal testosterone exposure as a determinant of a communication trait according to the study published in the Journal of Communicationand summarized here in ScienceDaily, November 29, 2012.

Review Highlights Flawed Logic of Segregating Boys and Girls for Education Purposes, Based on Alleged Brain Differences. When it comes to learning and education, neuroscience has identified few reliable differences between boys’ and girls’ brains. There is no scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately according to a review by Lise Eliot published this month in Sex Roles and summarized here in Science Daily, August 18, 2011.

Sex Differences in Mental Illness Women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, while men tend toward substance abuse or antisocial disorders, according to a new study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and summarized here in Science Daily, August 18, 2011.

Sex Differences Extend into the Brain Science Daily, March 3, 2008, reports that neuroscience research is coming closer to confirming sex differences in brain structures and function.

Sexualization of Girls According to the Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, products and media that sexualize girls and girlhood saturate the environment in which girls develop and grow today. Girls who internalize these messages are more likely to experience low self-esteem, shame about their bodies, and depression and eating disorders, to take up smoking, and to have unprotected sex. They may be less able to focus on math and logic problems. The report discusses positive alternatives and includes recommendations for research, practice, education and training, public policy, and public awareness. Includes full text of the report, an Executive Summary, tips on What Parents Can Do, and media literacy resources.

Think It’s Easy to Be Macho? Psychologists Show How ‘Precarious’ Manhood Is Manhood is a “precarious” status — difficult to earn and easy to lose. And when it’s threatened, men see aggression as a good way to hold onto it according to research by Jennifer K. Bosson and Joseph A. Vandello, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, and summarized here in Science Daily, May 3, 2011.

The Truth About Gender and Math From the website: Math ability, in some societies, is gendered. That is, many people believe that boys and men are better at math than girls and women and, further, that this difference is biological (hormonal, neurological, or somehow encoded on the Y chromosome).. But actual data about gender differences in math ability tell a very different story. Natalie Angier and Kenneth Chang reviewed these differences in the New York Times.

When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? According to Smithsonian.com writer Jeanne Maglaty, every generation brings a new definition of masculinity and femininity that manifests itself in children’s dress. Read about the vicissitudes of gender-appropriate clothing and color and check out the fascinating slide show of examples. Originally posted April 8, 2011.

Where women of India rule the roost and men demand gender equality: The Khasi people of north-eastern India are a matrilineal society and some men aren’t happy. In this ethnic minority community in a remote part of India, children take their mother’s surname, the youngest daughter inherits, and once married, men live in their mother-in-law’s home following her orders. Read about this matrilineal system, how anthropologists believe it started, and the freedoms women here have compared to their sisters elsewhere in India.

Which is the Chattier Gender? New research by Matthias Mehl at the University of Arizona challenges the notion – frequently communicated in major publications, broadcast media and popular entertainment – that women talk significantly more than men.

Women’s Testosterone Levels Rise Even When They Just Act Like They Have Power According to new research by Sari M. van Anders, Jeffrey Steiger, and Katherine L. Goldey and published this month in PNAS suggests that women who play-acted scenarios that gave them power over someone else showed an increase in testosterone production. From Slate.com, October 26, 2015.

Assignments, Exercises, and Activities

Activities Guide: Teaching Ethics in the Introduction to Psychology Course The Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology (OTRP) is pleased to announce this new resource for teachers by Ana Ruiz and Judith Warchal of Alvernia University. This 23-page guide presents 17 activities related to ethics for each chapter in a typical Introduction to Psychology text as it integrates the APA Learning Goals and Outcomes for ethics into that course. For each chapter, the activity lists the student learning outcome, instructions for conducting the activity, materials needed, approximate time required, and a method of assessment. Activities most relevant to the personality class include APA Ethics code Jeopardy, Research Methods, Personality Testing, and Debating controversial topics. (Opens in PDF format).

Assessing Assumptions About Gender This exercise by Amy Taylor, won Honorable Mention for the 2009 Social Psychology Network Action Teaching Award. In this activity, students read a dialog between a man and a women and report their impressions of the characters. Half the class have the genders of the characters switched. According to Taylor, the objectives of this activity are to: (1) illustrate how subtle gender biases can influence social perceptions, (2) help students recognize their own implicit assumptions about gender, and (3) explore the implications these biases may have for gender equality.

The Bechdel Test For Media Bias According to the Feminist Frequency website by media critic Anita Sarkeesian, The Bechdel Test is a simple way to gauge the active presence of female characters in Hollywood films and just how well rounded and complete those roles are. It was created by Allison Bechdel in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985. The test is: (1) Does the film have at least two [named or otherwise central character] women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something besides a man? (runs 2 minutes, 3 seconds). You and your students can use this test to see how popular movies, especially those winning Oscars or other top awards, fares. Click here for a discussion of similar tests for other types of bias in the media.

Class Activity on Gender Stereotypes: According to Jim. These days, I find that my students are a little reticent to talk about gender stereotypes, especially since my classes are often very much skewed in one direction. To help the discussion along, I like to show the episode Jim Almighty from the ABC television show According to Jim, staring Jim Belushi. In this episode Jim thinks that he can design women better than the creator did. In the course of the show, many gender stereotypes are depicted and reinforced (and some are even abandoned). I instruct my students to keep track and write down all of the stereotypes for men and for women that are mentioned in the show. I put them on the blackboard and classify them into physical, sexual, personality, social, and emotional and discuss if they are accurate, inaccurate, or an exaggeration of a true difference. I may even have the class vote on what they think the distributions look like (e.g. normal curves with a lot of overlap, a little overlap or something in between). This is a good way to set up a discussion of gender similarities and differences in personality using Hyde’s work on meta-analysis. Note that the episode, while a family situation comedy which originally aired during prime time, does make scatological and sexual references and features the actor Lee Majors playing The Almighty (stereotyped as a Texan). I offer students who think they may be offended by the set-up an alternative activity, although nobody has taken this option. In discussions with the class, even religious students find the depiction of The Almighty funny and not at all offensive, but you should review this episode before showing your class in case your students are different from mine. This episode originally aired in January of 2008, season 7 episode 1, (S07E01) and is available on You Tube in here (21:19). Note: If the video has been removed from You Tube, try searching for it. If you are still unable to find it, it is available for streaming from Amazon.com for $1.99 if you have an Amazon Prime Account.

Sex and the Brain From the BBC sponsored website: Find out more about “brain sex” differences by taking the Sex ID test, a series of visual challenges and questions used by psychologists in the BBC One television seriesSecrets of the Sexes. Get a brain sex profile and find out if you think like a man or a woman, see if you can gaze into someone’s eyes and know what they’re thinking, find out why scientists are interested in the length of your fingers, see how your results relate to theories about brain sex.

Should the World of Toys Be Gender Free? Peggy Orenstein evaluates the pros and cons of gender targeted toys and marketing campaigns in this op ed article from the New York Times, December 29, 2011. Also see Riley on Marketing, a vintage Leo ad and an article about the social media backlash to these gendered Legos (described below under Audio and Visual Resources).

Twenty Statements Test The TST is a long-standing psychological and social psychological “test” for use in regards to one’s sense of self. In particular, it helps identify those self-designations which may be due more to our roles than who we really are or could be. It’s very simple to administer…just ask someone to write the question, Who am I? at the top of a page and then have them answer it 20 times. [Includes] guidelines to help assess the answers given. Includes guided instructions to explore your own sex-role socialization.

Electronic Texts

The Mismeasure of Women The August 3rd, 2006 issue of The Economist has an excellent summary of the current research on gender differences in mathematics, verbal ability, aggression, and personality. Particularly valuable, are the links to supplemental information, including links to the psychological research cited, most of which are available in electronic format.

Overview of Theories Chapter 8: Psychology of Women and Gender by Janet Shibley Hyde and Amanda Durik, University of Wisconsin. The online book The Many Faces of Psychological Research in the 21st Centuryedited by Jane S. Halonen & Stephen F. Davis and Published by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (2001) provides a broad overview of what research agenda and approaches this new century calls for across many of psychology’s subdisciplines.

Examples and Illustrations

Gender Inequity in Whoville? NPR commentator Peter Sagal and his daughters discover that sexism is alive and well in the just-released movie Horton Hears a Who — sexism that was not in the original 1954 book.

Gender Neutral Advertising in the Toys “R” Us Catalog in Sweden Scandinavian toy retailer Top-Toy, a licensee of the Toys “R” Us brand, has made a bold move in its Swedish catalog this year, working to do away with the guns-for-boys, dolls-for-girls gender system that is a mainstay of the industry. Instead, its catalog is trying to be gender-neutral, reflecting Sweden’s national focus on equality in the workplace and in society. Check out some of these new images posted by the Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2012.

Girls’ Versions of Classic Non-Gendered Board Games Scrabble, LIFE, and Monopoly in pink? That’s right, Toys-R-Us are selling girl versions of these classic toys. Is this a stroke of marketing genius or an example of gender over-schematization or just plain old sexism? We’ll let you and your students be the judge.

Men and Women Are the Same Species! Similarities between the sexes can be as important as differences according to this summary of areas of differences and similarity between the sexes by Agustín Fuentes forPsychology Today, May 24, 2012.

Men Are From Earth, Women Are From Earth From empathy and sexuality to science inclination and extroversion, statistical analysis of 122 different characteristics involving 13,301 individuals shows that men and women, by and large, do not fall into different groups according to research by Bobbi Carothers and Harry Reis (2013) published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and summarized here inScienceDaily, February 4, 2013 . Includes a graphic comparing distributions of men and women on physical strength and masculinity-assertiveness.

The Most Pointlessly Gendered Products Plenty has been said on how gendered advertising is harmful by reinforcing ender stereotypes. But according to the ‘’Feministing’’ website, gendered advertising has reached a new low. There are not tissues, bread, and eggs marketed to men and even pet shampoo marketed to the owners of male and female dogs. Is using gender to sell gender-irrelevant products taking things too far? These images ought to spark a lively discussion of stereotypes vs. true gender differences in personality. Published March 26, 2014.

Sexism-Free Easy Bake Oven On the Way Due to the protests started by 13-year old McKenna Pope (see the second link) and backed by big-name chefs including Bobby Flay, and the general public, Hasbro, the makers of the class Easy-Bake, oven will launch a new line of gender-neutral ovens that will feature gender-neutral colors and more boys in their advertisements.

Lecture Notes

Psychosexual Differentiation The Department of Psychology at the University of Plymouth provides study and learning materials online for some of their course. This page, by Paul Kenyon for a course on Psychosexual Differentiation, discusses all aspects of gender development and gender differences.

Slide Presentations

Tests, Measures, and Scales

Bem Sex Role Inventory According to the site: The Bem Sex Role Inventory was developed in 1971 by Dr. Sandra Lipsitz Bem. It characterizes your personality as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. The BSRI is based on gender stereotypes, so what it’s actually measuring is how well you fit into your traditional sex role. Thus, your score may say as much about how our cultural expectations have changed over the last 35 years as it does about your personality. You can take the original 60-item scale and receive your scores automatically online here.

Personal Attributes Questionnaire Characterizes gender in terms of agency (masculinity) and communion (femininity). From Spence, J.T., & Helmreich, R.L. (1978). Masculinity and femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Personal Attributes Questionnaire Ron Okada, at York University, Toronto maintains this collection of tests that students can use in research including the Authoritarianism-Rebellion Scale, Survey of Recent Life Experiences, The Body Esteem Scale, The Body Awareness Scale, Personal Attribute Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Current Thoughts Scale, Trust Scale and much, much more.

Multimedia Resources

Barbie says: Math class is tough This video presents the original 1992 Teen Talk Barbie saying the controversial phrase Math class is tough. The company later dropped the phrase and apologized after criticism from the American Association of University Women in its report on how schools shortchange girls. Click here for the original story in The New York Times, October 21, 1992.

Discovering Psychology: Sex and Gender (Program 17) The complete updated series hosted by Philip Zimbardo is available online for streaming in the classroom or for outside of class viewing as well as in DVD format. From the website: This program explores the ways in which males and females are similar and different, and how gender roles reflect social values and psychological knowledge. With Dr. Michael Meaney of McGillUniversity and Dr. Eleanor Maccoby of Stanford University. 30 minutes.

Gender and Race Equity in Math, Science, and Technology Patricia B. Campbell, of Campbell-Kibler Associates, does research and evaluation to increase gender and race equity in math, science, and technology education. She has turned her findings into user-friendly reports, brochures, and pamphlets available on their site to view, download, print, and share with parents, educators, and children. Topics include Myths, Stereotypes, and Gender Differences; No Virginia, There is No Math Gene; Making It Happen: Pizza Parties, Chemistry Goddesses and Other Strategies that Work for Girls and Others; and much, much more.

Girls! Be a Scientist! You Too Can Dance In the Lab In High Heels! The European Commission released a teaser video to recruit young women into science by making it appear sexier and more fun (e.g. images of make up to illustrate chemistry and materials science and very attractive women scientists). The video was quickly pulled due to sharp criticism. Knight Science Journalism Tracker writer Deborah Blum comments on the buzz the video created along with a link of the original 53-second video. This video and the surrounding controversy would be a good way to introduce the idea of gender stereotyping, gender expectations, and gender differences in personality to your students or for a possible debate on the pros and cons of presenting science and scientists in this manner. Posted June 22, 2012.

How Do You Learn to Act Like a Man/Woman? Gender Identity and Gender Scripts. How do we learn to act in what are called “gender appropriate” ways? How did you learn to act like a girl and then a woman? Or like a boy and then like a man? Did you experience either penis envy or womb envy? Did this happen as a result of what Freud would call an oedipal complex or perhaps does our tendency to behave in stereotypical masculine and feminine ways come about more simply as a result of watching other males and females in your family, among your friends and on TV? In this episode of former psychology professor Michael Brit’s, podcast about psychology called The Psych Files [Episode 94, May 18, 2009] he looks at the interesting and complex issue of gender identity.

“Give it to Your Woman” Pants’ Care Instructions A certain brand of men’s trousers, sold by a British clothier, carries the washing instructions “Machine wash . . . or give it to your woman, it’s her job”. This statement caused an outcry on Twitter when first discovered by British technology writer Emma Barnett. Is the label a joke or an insult to women? Let your students be the judge.

Myth Busters: You Throw Like a Girl The Myth Busters team from the Discovery Channel bring out the evidence and take on the insult You throw like a girl. See how they debunk this myth of gender differences in this video (runs 3 minutes 39 seconds). Published June 5, 2013.

Powerful Ad Shows What A Little Girl Hears When You Tell Her She’s Pretty According to the National Science Foundation, 66% of 4th grades girls say they like math and science, yet women make up only 18% of engineering majors in college. This Verizon commercial illustrates the social cues which may discourage girls from math and science during their early childhood. Posted July 2014. Runs 1 minute and 3 seconds.

Prenatal Testosterone and Finger Ratio Can you predict the winner of an athletic contest by looking at finger ratios? John Manning explains how finger length ratio reflect prenatal hormone exposure which is also related to athletic ability in this short video from the BBC program Secret of the Sexes (runs 6 minutes, 8 seconds).

Psychological Differences Between the Sexes: A time capsule from 1964 This 1964 film claims that innate psychological and emotional differences between the sexes leads to problems relationship and strives to educate young people to avoid these problems. But according to psychological research in the 50 years or more since this film was produced are these truly sex differences or merely stereotypes? This obviously dated film is sure to spark discussion on these and related issues.

Riley on Gendered Marketing Riley Maida, age 4, has had enough of pink princesses being marketed to girls and super heroes being marketed to boys. She speaks out for the cessation of gendered toy marketing and the elimination of gendered stereotypes. See also this link to an ABC News profile on Riley.

Sex and Gender: Who Was David Reimer? In 1967, an anonymous baby boy was turned into a girl by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. For 25 years, the case of John/Joan was called a medical triumph — proof that a child’s gender identity could be changed — and thousands of “sex reassignments” were performed based on this example. But the case was a failure, the truth never reported. Now the man who grew up as a girl tells the story of his life, and a medical controversy erupts. See also a transcript of the NOVA program Sex: Unknown from October 30, 2001 and the article Being Brenda, and a story about David’s suicide.

Sexist Vintage Ads The Huffington Post presents this slide show of 18 cringe-worthy vintage ads targeting married couples. A good way to start out a discussion of gender differences by getting students to think about what people once believed men and women to be like and discussing the evidence (or lack thereof) for some of these out-dated images.

SPARROW: Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women This website preserves and shares oral history, photograph images, videos, and more about the lives of women in India.

Vintage Lego Ad and article on Social Media Backlash against the new Legos.

What it feels like for a girl? The men from the hit TV series Glee sing this very moving rendition of the Madonna hit describing the pressures that girls feel to be a little less. Check out the lyrics here (runs 4 minutes, 36 seconds).

When I was A Boy. Folk Singer Dar Williams sings her original composition When I Was a Boy, a moving reflection on childhood when kids can climb trees, pick flowers, cry, and run with Peter Pan without worrying about what society says a grown-up woman — or grown-up man — can and can’t do. (4 minutes, 48 seconds). Check out the lyrics here.

Women’s Voices Good stories have always been the most powerful way to engage, inspire, and, over time, shape public dialogue around the values we believe in. That’s why Creative Counsel and The Fledgling Fund are co-presenting the 1000 Voices Archive – a curated, national collection of video stories created by filmmakers and communities across the country. Women’s video comments on a range of social issues can be used to start discussion or introduce gender issues.

Philip Zimbardo: The Demise of Guys? In this TED talk Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, “Why are boys struggling?” He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons, and challenges the TED community to think about solutions. (Posted August 2011. Duration: 4:47)