Gender Intensification

Considering the period of adolescence, Hill and Lynch (1983) argued that, with the onset of puberty, boys and girls experience an intensification of gender-related expectations. This gender intensification hypothesis posits that behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological differences between adolescent boys and girls increase with age and are the result of increased socialization pressures to conform to gender roles that are traditionally masculine (characteristics considered most appropriate for males) and feminine (characteristics considered most appropriate for females). Hill and Lynch (1983) proposed that puberty plays a part in the differentiation of masculine and feminine characteristics by serving as a signal to socializing others (parents, teachers, peers) that the adolescent is beginning the approach to adulthood and should begin to act accordingly, that is, in ways that resemble the stereotypical male or female adult.

Galambos, Almeida, and Petersen (1990) suggested that empirical support for gender intensification is provided if a pattern of increasing differentiation between boys and girls is shown on characteristics that already exhibited gender differences prior to early [Page 506]adolescence, and this intensification is greatest for adolescents who have entered puberty. To test the gender intensification hypothesis, Galambos et al. (1990) examined data on adolescents followed from the 6th through the 8th grades. They observed patterns of change in self-reported masculine personality traits (e.g., self-reliant), feminine personality traits (e.g., yielding), and gender role attitudes (i.e., extent to which they believed that roles for males and females should differ). The results indicated that initial gender differences on masculinity (with boys higher than girls) and on gender role attitudes (with girls exhibiting more egalitarian attitudes than boys) increased from 6th to 8th grade, thereby providing some support for gender intensification. Pubertal timing, however, was unrelated to this gender divergence, calling into question the role that puberty plays in gender intensification.

One way in which girls and boys might be pressured to behave differently is in the freedom to express oneself emotionally. Indeed, in a cross-sectional study, gender differences in self-reported emotional expression (the extent to which one outwardly displays emotion) were nonexistent in Grade 5, significant in Grade 8, and even larger in Grade 12. Whereas older girls reported higher levels of emotional expressiveness, older boys were more restricted emotionally, results that are congruent with the gender intensification hypothesis (Polce-Lynch, Myers, Kliewer, & Kilmartin, 2001).

Crouter, Manke, and McHale (1995) examined whether there was evidence for gender intensification in adolescents' completion of household chores at two points across a 1-year period in early adolescence, and whether the family context (parents' division of labor, sex of younger sibling) seemed to influence adolescents' chores. The results showed that adolescent girls in families with a traditional parental division of labor (i.e., the mother performed most household chores) and with a younger brother maintained a high level of participation in feminine household tasks, whereas participation of the rest of the sample in feminine tasks declined. Boys in families with a traditional parental division of labor increased their performance of masculine household tasks compared to other adolescents. Thus, the results provided some support for gender intensification in adolescents' household work, but this pattern was dependent on selected aspects of the family context.

...