Gender: Awareness, Identity, and Stereotyping

In the early stages of life, children form rudimentary distinctions between the traditional gender categories (female and male). Awareness, knowledge, and understanding of these gender categories advance from infancy to middle childhood. Knowledge of and identification with gender can profoundly affect children's behaviors (e.g., play and appearance), peer relationships (e.g., gender segregation), and attitudes. While various theoretical perspectives aim to elucidate the precipitating factors and processes that influence gender knowledge development, we primarily focus on cognitive theories of gender development in this chapter.