ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explores how stereotypes and social images of gender influence definitions of self. In addition to considering how varying views of men and women as sexual objects, providers, and/or concerned with home and family influence our sense of who we are, the roles we should perform, and how we should enact those roles, it also distinguishes among biological, psychological, social, cultural, and nonbinary theories of gender and identity. More specifically, among the approaches explored are identification theory, social-learning theory, social-role theory, cognitive-development theory, and theories critical of gender dualities. Also considered is how society instructs us in what it means to be gendered, including how gendered conceptions influence attributes considered self-descriptive and responsibilities claimed as our own.
