Feminist perspectives on gender development: Contributions to theory and practice

Abstract

Gender development has been a core concern of psychological science since its inception. The second wave of the feminist movement spurred new theoretical perspectives on gender development and, across the ensuing decades, these new perspectives led to myriad empirical insights into gender development, including the formation, function, and consequences of children’s gender-related cognitions, affect, and behavior. In this paper, we review five cutting edge areas of feminist-grounded research that are important, both because they provide new theoretical insights into the processes involved in gender development and carry important implications for contemporary policy and practice around the treatment of gender. Specifically, we review developmental science concerning (1) gendered language, (2) gender atypicality, (3) gender discrimination and sexual harassment, (4) sexualization of girls, and (5) single-sex schooling.