Introduction 17The Sex Difference Debate
People who believe the two sexes are funda-
mentally the same are known as themini-
malists. The minimalists believe there are
very few differences between women and
men, and if the context was held constant,
differences would vanish. That is, any differ-
ences in behavior observed between men and
women might be due to the roles they hold or
the situations in which they find themselves.
By contrast, themaximalistsbelieve
there are fundamental differences between
men and women. However, they argue that
“difference” does not mean “deficit.” Theorists
such as Carol Gilligan and Nancy Chodorow
point out that women’s views of the world and
ways of relating to the world are different from
but not inferior to those of men. In 1982, Gil-
ligan publishedInaDifferentVoice,inwhich
she claimed that women and men have funda-
mentally different ways of viewing morality,
but that women’s view of morality is equally
valuable to the view held by men. Maximalists
argue there are two very different and equally
valuable ways of relating to the world.
Whether someone is a minimalist or a
maximalist also has implications for whether
gender is worth studying. A maximalist would
certainly find gender worth studying, whereas
not all minimalists would agree. In a literature
review that summarized research on sex dif-
ferences in 46 domains, Hyde (2005a) con-
cluded that women and men are similar on
most psychological variables. She raised the
concern that our focus on differences ends up
reifying stereotypes that have implications for
men’s and women’s behavior and how people
respond to their behavior. For example, as
shown in Chapter 6, parents have different ex-
pectations about females’ and males’ abilities,
which then influence the actual abilities of
girls and boys. What is the source of parental
expectations—our focus on differences!TAKE HOME POINTS
■ Not all cultures have only two genders. Third genders
are distinct from male and female, can be afforded
high status, and are not tied to homosexuality—
despite Westerners’ beliefs to the contrary.
■ Throughout the world, men have a higher status than
women, but the status differential varies by country.
Sex-selective abortion in China is a strong indication
that men are regarded more favorably than women.
Other indicators of status throughout the world are the
number of women in powerful positions in industry and
government and the education of women.
■ Although great strides have been made by women
in the Western world, parity has not been achieved.
Women do not hold leadership positions to the extent
that men do, people show some desire for male over
female infants, and people view more advantages to
being male than female.Philosophical and Political Issues Surrounding Gender
The last important issue to address in this in-
troductory chapter is the philosophical and
political debates that have taken place with
respect to gender. The study of gender, in
particular the study of sex differences, is a po-
litically charged topic. With gender, scientists
are often in one of two camps: those who be-
lieve there are important differences between
the sexes and those who believe the two sexes
are fundamentally the same. There are also
investigators who believe we should or should
not compare women and men. I address each
of these debates and then turn to the politi-
cal movements that have influenced the study
of gender: the women’s movements and the
men’s movements. Finally, I conclude with a
note about nonsexist language.M01_HELG0185_04_SE_C01.indd 17 6/21/11 12:18 PM