Nature/Nurture Debate

Nature versus nurture is a colloquial phrase for the scientific debate over the degree of influence of biological and environmental factors on human behavior. With respect to gender, the debate centers on the relative importance of genetics, anatomy, and physiology (nature) as compared with physical environment, socialization, and social structure (nurture) in producing gender difference (or the appearance of gender difference). As with other areas of the larger debate, these questions as they relate to gender are often framed in absolutes (e.g., biology produces gender; environment produces gender), at least in popular discourse. Such polarization is implicit in the phrase.

Most researchers in the behavioral sciences resist this polarization and argue that neither nature nor nurture is solely responsible for gendered phenomena. Still, certain theoretical perspectives typically favor one “side” of the debate as the starting point for investigations. Biological determinists in all disciplines, along with evolutionary psychologists and sociobiolo-gists, begin with nature. Many sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists begin with nurture, but their sense of nurture varies. Some scholars, following traditions like psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, and sex role theory, limit the scope of what they consider environmental influence (nurture) to observable agents of socialization, such as parents, television, and peers. Others, including construction-ists, many feminists, and critical and interpretive sociologists, take a broader or more postmodern view that defines nurture to include large-scale social structures, language, and definitional practices, or both. Thus, when examining the nature-versus-nurture debate with respect to gender, it can be useful to distinguish three perspectives: nature, narrow nurture (socialization), and broad nurture (social structure and language). The controversies that arise from these varying commitments to biological and social explanations are notable throughout the field of gender studies, as exemplified in the debates regarding gender identity, gendered behavior and temperament, and gender roles.

In discussions of gender identity, the nature/nurture debate is shaped by three interrelated questions: How is gender identity acquired, when is it acquired, and how malleable is it? For nature advocates, gender identity is not malleable because it is determined in utero by genes and hormones. As such, it is linked inextricably to biological sex. The assumption is that a person's gender identity (and subsequent masculine or feminine behavior) will match their genetic sex (XY for males, XX for females). Indications of a “mismatch” are interpreted as pathology. The relevance of gender socialization is minimal because a person's “true” gender identity will resist any alternative socialization. At the same time, gender socialization consistent with genetic sex is necessary to successfully complete a biologically mandated developmental process. In short, socialization is a means to an end but cannot alter one's biological destiny.

Clinical psychologists and reproductive biologists assert the innateness of gender identity by pointing to cases in which genetic abnormalities or accidents at an early age disrupt the presumed natural agreement between genetic sex, genital sex, and behavior. They note, for instance, studies of XY males with a genetic deficiency of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). These infants have external genitals that most closely resemble a female's (e.g., a clitoris-sized penis or a scrotal structure that resembles a labia), and they are raised from infancy as females. The rise of testosterone levels at puberty that is associated with most males, however, causes the penis to enlarge and testes to descend. According to these scholars, most of these individuals then successfully adopt a male gender identity and behaviors and roles defined as masculine. Thus, physiological development overcomes both the genetic defect and “contradictory” socialization and orchestrates a match between genital sex (XY male) and gender identity.

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